Timothy Patrick Dore (Fray Teo): The Feast of St. Joseph Cupertino

Today, September 18th, is normally celebrated as the Feast of St. Joseph Cupertino, OFM Conv., the Patron of our the friary in which I currently reside (SJC Friary, 12290 Folly Quarter Road, Howard County, Maryland)! This year (2022), the feast is superseded by the 25th Sunday in Ordinary time.

Joseph of Cupertino, OFM Conv., (1603 – 1663) was a Conventual Franciscan Friar born in the town of Cupertino, Apulia, the Kingdom of Naples (now part of Italy) in 1603.

The saint is honored as a mystic and very simple and holy friar. Although thought to have had limited intellectual ability, he was known for his great piety and ecstatic visions. He is said to have levitated while in the state of spiritual ecstasy. The Franciscan Friars at first reluctantly accepted him for ordination to the priesthood, but/and after difficult years of study, he was ordained in 1628. Renowned for his holiness, he died on September 18, 1663, and was canonized by Pope Clement XIII in 1767.

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Although the saint was thought to have had limited intellectual talent, but was blessed with miraculous ability to pass examinations while a seminary student, the saint is now known as the "Patron Saint of Students and Test Takers." For this reason, the saint is often invoked by students prior to examinations.

── The Prayer to St. Joseph of Cupertino for Success in Examinations:

O Great Saint Joseph of Cupertino, who while on earth did obtain from God the grace of knowledge during examinations, obtain for me a like favor in the examinations for which I am now preparing. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us. Amen.

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This portrait of the saint (pictured above) is displayed prominently in the friary “glass room,” a large and very beautiful conference-style room located on the first floor of the friary (and now mostly used for meetings and workshops by groups coming to the Shrine of St. Anthony).

The painting (acrylic on canvas) was done by celebrated Polish-American artist Jan Henryk de Rosen (1891 – 1982). Jan de Rosen notably also created the great “Christ in Majesty” mosaic prominently featured above the main altar in the upper church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The de Rosen St. Joseph Cupertino painting was presented to the friary and blessed in 1979, the year of its creation by the artist.

In the de Rosen painting at St. Joseph Cupertino Friary, the saint is depicted wearing very heavy shoes. Legend says his confreres obliged him to wear such shoes in an effort to keep him from levitating while celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! (It didn't work!).

Jan de Rosen was a friend of the renowned Friar Cornelian Dende, OFM Conv., (d. 1996), who commissioned the artist to do the painting for our friary.

The friary also holds additional works by de Rosa, including a painting of of St. Francis of Assisi extending his blessing upon a friar, and two prints, one of St. Francis receiving the Sacred Stigmata, and another of St. Bonaventure (these are also on display in the “glass room.”).