(A.D. 1734.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority:--His Life by the P. Diodati, published
at Naples, in 1794. He was inscribed by Pius VI. among the number of
the Beatified on May 15th, 1789; and he was canonized by Gregory XVI.
on May 26th, 1839.]
S. John-Joseph of the Cross, who must not be confounded with S. John
of the Cross (Nov. 16th), was born in the island of Ischia, on the
Feast of the Assumption, in the year 1654, of respectable parents,
Joseph Calosirto and Laura Garguito, and was baptized under the name
of Charles Cajetan, The family must have been one of singular piety,
for five of his brothers entered religion. The subject of our memoir,
as a child, exhibited a precocious piety. He chose as his room a small
chamber in the most retired portion of the house, where he erected a
little altar to Our Lady, on whose great festival he had been born, and
towards whom, through life, he manifested a filial devotion. From the
earliest age also he manifested a great repugnance from sin. His pure
childish soul shivered and shrank from the breath of evil, as a young
spring flower from a frozen blast.
The knowledge of evil without bringing guilt to the soul, unless
voluntarily received and harboured with delight, leaves on it a
mark, so that the soul knowing evil cannot have the freshness of a
guiltless and ignorant soul. The little saintly boy, taught of God,
seems unconsciously to have felt this, and he manifested none of that
curiosity after evil which is one of the tokens of our fallen nature,
and which leads the young mind first to the knowledge of evil, and
then, it may be, to the perpetration of it.
Feeling a great desire for the religious life, he entered the order
of S. Francis, as reformed by S. Peter of Alcantara, in Naples, and
assumed the habit at the age of sixteen, taking at the same time the
name of John-Joseph of the Cross. This was in 1671. His noviciate
lasted three years; and at the age of nineteen, his superior found him
sufficiently perfect to be entrusted with the direction of the building
of a convent at Piedimonte di Agila, and the organizing of discipline
therein.
On arriving at the proper age, he was ordained priest, and soon after
retired into a forest, where he built himself a cell, and resided as
a hermit. Soon five little hermitages clustered around his cell, and
a church was built for the accommodation of the anchorites. But his
superiors recalled him to the monastery to undertake the charge of the
novices, and somewhat later he was appointed superior of the house at
Piedimonte di Agila, which had risen under his care. He suffered about
this time from extreme dryness. It was to him as though the face of God
were turned away from him, and he felt agonies of fear, thinking that
through want of judgment or unbecoming example, he might have retarded
the advance, and perhaps lost some, of the souls of the novices who had
been entrusted to his care. But one of the brethren who had lately died
appeared to him in a vision, and comforted him, assuring him that his
novices were all leading an edifying life.
He was afterwards appointed Superior of the convent, an office in which
he displayed great judgment, but which withdrew him too much from
spiritual meditation and reading to be congenial with his tastes.
At his request he was relieved of the office of Superior, and was again
made director of the novices, and fulfilled the duties of this office
for four years.
He died on March 5th, 1734, in the convent of S. Lucia, at Naples.
[Illustration: MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. After a bas-relief by Orcagna.]
March 6.
S. MARCIAN, _B.M. at Tortona_, _circ._ A.D. 120.
SS. VICTOR, VICTORINUS, CLAUDIAN AND BASSA, _MM. at Nicemedia and
Apamea_, _3rd cent._
S. QUIRIACUS, _P.C. at Treves_, _4th cent._
S. EVAGRIUS, _Patr. of Constantinople_, _end of 4th cent._
S. SEZIN, _Ab. in Brittany_, _6th cent._
S. FRIDOLIN, _Ab. of Sickingen_, _end of 7th cent._
SS. KYNEBURGA, KYNESWITHA AND TIBBA, _VV. at Peterborough_, _end of
7th cent._
SS. BALTHER AND BILFRED, _HH. at Lindisfarne_, _circ._ A.D. 756.
S. CHRODEGANG, _B. of Metz_, A.D. 766.
SS. FORTY-TWO MARTYRS, _under the Saracens, in Syria_, _circ._ A.D. 841
S. CADROE, _Ab. at Metz_, A.D. 988.
B. OLDEGAR, _B. of Barcelona, and Archb. of Tarragona_, A.D. 1137.
S. COLETTE, _V. at Ghent_, A.D. 1447.