THIS saint was born to 1556, at Leonissa a small town near Otricoli, in
the ecclesiastical state, and at eighteen years of age made his
profession among the Capuchin friars, in the place of his birth, taking
the name of Joseph; for before he was called Eufranius. He was always
mild, humble, chaste, patient, charitable, mortified, and obedient to an
heroic degree: with the utmost fervor, and on the most perfect motive of
religion, he endeavored to glorify God in all his actions. Three days in
the week he usually took no other sustenance than bread and water, and
passed several Lents in the year after the same manner. His bed was hard
boards, with the trunk of a vine for his pillow. The love of injuries,
contumelies, and humiliations, made him find in them his greatest joy.
He looked upon himself as the basest of sinners, and said, that indeed
God by his infinite mercy had preserved him from grievous crimes; but
that by his sloth, ingratitude, and infidelity to the divine grace, he
deserved to have been abandoned by God above all creatures. By this
humility and mortification he crucified in himself the _old man with his
deeds_, and prepared his soul for heavenly communications in prayer and
contemplation, which was his assiduous exercise. The sufferings of
Christ were the favorite and most ordinary object of his devotions. He
usually preached with a crucifix in his hands, and the fire of his words
kindled a flame in the hearts of his hearers and penitents. In 1587 he
was sent by his superiors into Turkey, to labor as a missioner among the
Christians at Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, He there encouraged and
served the Christian galley-slaves with wonderful charity and fruit,
especially during a violent pestilence, with which he himself was
seized, but recovered. He converted many apostates, one of whom was a
bashaw. By preaching the faith to the Mahometans he incurred the utmost
severity of the Turkish laws, was twice imprisoned, and the second time
condemned to a cruel death. He was hung on a gibbet by one hand, which
was fastened by a chain, and pierced with a sharp hook at the end of the
chain; and by one foot in the same manner. Having been some time on
{357} the gibbet, he was released,[1] and the sentence of death was
changed by the sultan into banishment. Wherefore, embarking for Italy,
he landed at Venice; and after two years' absence arrived at Leonissa.
He resumed his apostolic labors in his Own country with extraordinary
zeal, and an uncommon benediction from heaven. To complete his
sacrifice, he suffered very much towards the end of his life from a
painful cancer, to extirpate which he underwent two incisions without
the least groan or complaint, only repeating: "Holy Mary, pray for us
miserable afflicted sinners:" and holding all the while a crucifix to
his hand, on which he fixed his eyes. When some said, before the
operation, that he ought to be bound or held, he pointed to the
crucifix, saying: "This is the strongest band: this will hold me unmoved
better than any cords could do." The operation proving unsuccessful, the
saint happily expired, on the 4th day of February, in 1612, being
fifty-eight years old. His name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology on
the 4th of February. See the history of his miracles in the acts of his
beatification, which ceremony was performed by Clement XII. in 1737, and
in those of his canonization by Benedict XIV. in 1746. Acta
Canonizationis 5 Sanctorum, viz. Fidelis a Sigmaringa, M. Camilli de
Lelia, Petri Regalati, Josephi a Leonissa, and Catharinaea de Riccis, a
Benedicto XIV., an. 1746, printed at Rome an. 1749, pp. 11, 85, and the
bull for his canonization, p. 558. Also Bollan. t. 15, p. 127.
Footnotes:
1. Some say he was released by an angel, after hanging three days, but
this circumstance is not mentioned by Benedict XIV., in the decree
for his canonization, p. 559.