Many saints, despite illness, weak health, or many other obstacles, achieve their goals. Frequently, the amount of work they accomplish seems humanly impossible, and it is. Flooded with abundant graces because they opened their minds and hearts to God’s Will, they could move mountains. Such is the case with Joseph.
He was born the 4th of 5 children in 1851 in Asti of Northwestern Italy. His father died of anthrax when he was just 3 years old leaving his mother to raise them by herself.
Two other saints also came from that village about the same time; his uncle, St Joseph Cafasso and St John Bosco.
Saint John Bosco was one of his spiritual directors as he studied at the Salesian Oratory. His brothers had tried to convince him to finish high school first but Joseph told him that God was calling him now, and may not later, so he entered the seminary.
His health was a burden for most of his life but he still persevered in his studies. His classmates remarked on his great virtue and intellect, “He was the one closest to the heart of Jesus…none of us would have dared to compare with him.”
After being ordained in 1873, he served as spiritual director of the Turin seminary and as Rector of the Consolata Shrine which he remodeled and turned into a source for spiritual renewal and retreat. He was zealous in saving souls and took on more and more projects and responsibilities, but in all humility, he rejected any praise for his work.
Under the Archbishop’s direction, he founded the Consolata Missionary Priests and Brothers with the first missionaries reaching Kenya a year later. He worked in it’s formation and success for 22 years until it was phased out. The disappointment did not discourage his hopes as with the support of Pope Pius X, he listened to his superiors, and founded the Institute of the Consolata Missionary Sisters which grew quickly. They were sent to Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Somalia, and Mozambique and are now working in Africa, Asia, America and Europe.
He died of natural causes in 1926 at the Consolata Shrine and was beatified in 1990.
Recently, 5 blessed and venerable missionaries were announced, who gave their lives to help the poor in Kenya, including Sister Maria Carola Cecchin.
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