He was born the son of Felice Desa and Frencesca Panaca in the village of
Cupertino, in the Region of
Apulia, then in the
Kingdom of Naples, now in the Italian
Province of Lecce. His father having died before his birth, however, the family home was seized to settle the large debts he had left, and his mother was forced to give birth to him in a stable. Already as a child, Joseph began to experience
ecstatic visions which were to continue throughout his life, and made him the object of scorn. His life was not helped by his frequent outbursts of anger. He was soon apprenticed by his uncle to a shoemaker. Feeling drawn to religious life, in 1620 he applied to the Conventual Franciscan friars, but was rejected due to his lack of education. He then applied to the
Capuchin friars in Martino, near
Taranto, by whom he was accepted in 1620 as a
lay brother, but he was dismissed as his continued ecstasies made him unfit for the duties required of him. After Joseph returned to the scorn of his family, he pleaded with the Conventual friars near Cupertino to be allowed to serve in their stables. After several years of working there, he had so impressed the friars with the devotion and simplicity of his life that he was admitted to their Order, destined to become a
priest, in 1625. However, he struggled greatly with the required academic studies. He could not comment on any scripture passage except one: "Beatus venter qui Te portavit" (
Blessed be the womb that bore Thee), Luke 11:27. In his exam for ordination to the diaconate, the Bishop giving the exam opened the Gospels at random and requested that Joseph expand upon this only verse that he knew. He was able to expand upon it well and was ordained to the diaconate. Then when he was going to be tested to be ordained a priest, the Bishop questioned several of Joseph's fellow candidates, and when they replied excellently, the Bishop did not question the rest, including Joseph, assuming all the candidates were equally prepared. This allowed Joseph to be
ordained a priest on 28 March 1628. He was then sent to the convent of Santa Maria della Grotella, just outside Cupertino, where he spent the next 15 years. After this point it was claimed that he began to levitate while participating at the
Mass or joining the community for the
Divine Office, thereby gaining a widespread reputation of holiness among the people of the region and beyond. He was deemed disruptive by his religious superiors and church authorities, however, and eventually was confined to a small cell and forbidden to join in any public gathering of the community. As the phenomenon of flying or levitation was widely believed to be connected with
witchcraft, Joseph was denounced to the
Inquisition. At their command, he was transferred from one Franciscan friary in the region to another for observation, first to
Assisi (1639–1653), then briefly to
Pietrarubbia and finally
Fossombrone, where he lived with the Capuchin friars (1653–1657) and under their supervision. He practiced severe
asceticism throughout his life, usually eating solid food only twice a week, and adding bitter powders to his meals. He passed 35 years of his life following this regimen. Finally, on 9 July 1657, Joseph was allowed to return to a Conventual community, being sent to the one in
Osimo, where he died on 18 September 1663. Joseph was
beatified in 1753. On 16 July 1767, he was
canonized by
Pope Clement XIII. ==Reception==