JOSEPH
521
JOSEPH'S
beatified by Benedict XIV in 1753, and canonized 16
July 1767 by Clement XIII; Clement XIV extended
his office to the entire Church. His life was written
by Robert Nuti (Palermo, 1678). Angelo Pastro-
vicchi wrote another in 1773, and this is used by the
Bollandist " Acta SS.", V, Sept., 992.
BuTLEB, Lives of the Saints; Stadleb in Heiligenleiicon; Kirchenlex.; Das tugend-und wundervoUe Leben des hi. Joseph von Cupertino (Aachen, 1843) ; GoBRES, Mystik (1879), I, 316; II, 41.
Francis Mershman.
Joseph of Exeter (Josephus Iscanus), a twelfth- century Latin poet; b. at Exeter, England. About 1180 he went to study at Gueldres, where he began his lifelong intimacy with Guibert, afterwards Abbot of Florennes. Portions of their correspondence have been preserved. In the succeeding years he wrote his most celebrated poem "De bello Trojano" in six books. Much of this must have been written before 1183, as he refers to the young "King Henry" (who predeceased his father Henry II in that year) as still living. But the work must have been completed after 1184 as it is dedicated to his friend Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, who did not succeed to the primacy till that year. When the archbishop set out on the crusade to the Holy Land he induced Joseph to accompany him, but on Baldwin's death in 1190 the poet returned home, commemorating the crusade in verse in his " Antiocheis", a work of which only fragments have been preserved (see Camden's "Re- maines", 338-39). The poem on the Trojan war was printed in a very corrupt and mutilated form under the name of "Cornelius Nepos" (Basle, 1558; 1583; Antwerp, 1608; Milan, 1669), and in a some- what more critical edition by Samuel Dresemius (Frankfort, 1620; 1623). English editions were pub- lished in London in 1675 (by J. More) and in 1825. Some other poems now lost have been attributed to him, though on no valid authority. Nothing further is knowm of his life or death.
JussEBAND, De Josepho Exoniensi vel Iscano Thesis (Paris, 1877); Sabbadtn, De Josepho Iscano, belli Trojani, XII" post Christum sac. poela (Versailles, 1878) ; Habdt, Descriptive Cata- logue, II (London, 1865), 559-60; Kingsfobd in Diet. Nat. Biog., 3. v.; see Chevalieb, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age (Paris, 1905) for list of earlier sources.
Edwin Burton.
Joseph of Leonessa, Saint, in the world named Eufranio Desiderio, b. in 1556 at Leonessa in Um- bria; d. 4 Feb., 1612. From his infancy he showed a remarkably religious bent of mind; he used to erect little altars and spend much time in prayer before them, and often he would gather his companions and induce them to pray with him. Whilst yet a boy he used to take the discipline on Fridays in company with the confraternity of St. Saviour. He was educated by his uncle, who had planned a suitable marriage for him, but in his sixteenth year he fell sick of a fever, and on his recovery, without consulting his relatives, he joined the Capuchin reform of the Franciscan Order. He made his novitiate in the convent of the Carcerelle near Assisi. As a religious he was remarkable for his great abstinence. " Brother Ass ", he would say to his body, " there is no need to feed thee as a noble horse would be fed: thou must be content to be a poor ass." In 1599, the year before the Jubilee year, he fasted the whole year by way of preparation for gaining the in- dulgence. In 1587 he was sent by the Superior Gen- eral of his order to Constantinople to minister to the Cliristians held captive there. Arrived there he and his companions lodged in a derelict house of Benedic- tine monks. The poverty in which the friars lived attracted the attention of the Turks, who went in numbers to see the new missionaries. He was very so- licitous in ministering to the captive Christians in the galleys. Every day he went into the city to preach, and he was at length thrown into prison and only re- leased at the intervention of the Venetian agent.
Urged on by zeal he at last sought to enter the palace
to preach before the Sultan, but he was seized and con-
demned to death. For tliree days he hung on the gal-
lows, held up by two hooks driven through Ids right
hand and right foot; then he was miraculously released
by an angel. Returning to Italy, he took with him a
Greek archbishop who had apostatized, and who was
reconciled to the Church on their arrival in Rome.
Joseph now took up the work of home missions in his
native province, sometimes preaching six or seven
times a day. In the Jubilee year of 1000 he preached
the Lent at Orticoli, a town through which crowds of
pilgrims passed on their way to Rome. Many of them
being very poor, Joseph supplied them with food; he
also washed their clothes and cut their hair. At Todi
he cultivated with his own hands a garden, the pro-
duce of which was for the poor. His feast is kept on
4 Feb. throughout the whole Franciscan Order. He
was canonized by Benedict XIV.
BovERiDs, Annal. Ord. Min. Cappucc.y II., ad an. 1612; d'Abembergh, Flores Seraphici, II.; da Belmonte, Vita di San Giuseppe da Leonessa (1896); Manzini. Historia delta Vita di F. Giuseppe da Leonessa (Bologna, 1647); Daniel, Vie du P. Joseph de Leonissa (Paris, 1738).
F. Cuthbert.
Joseph's, Saint, Society for Coloured Missions, began its labours in 1871, when four young priests from Mill Hill were put in charge of St. Francis Xa\aer's church, with a large congregation of coloured Catholics, in Baltimore. Other negro missions were soon begun at Louis\dlle, Charleston, Wasliington, Richmond, Norfolk, and other places in the South. The society in the United States increased so rapidly and its missions were so successful that in 1892 it was made independent of Mill Hill and established its headquarters at Baltimore. At present it has 49 priests who have charge of 35 missions in the Arch- dioceses of Baltimore and New Orleans and in the Dioceses of Covington, Dallas, Galveston, Little Rock, Mobile, Nashville, Natchez, Richmond, Wilmington, and San Antonio. The society moreover conducts four educational institutions, viz., St. Joseph's Semi- nary in Baltimore, where missionaries for the coloured missions are trained; Epiphany Apostolic College, Walbrook, Baltimore, which is a preparatory school for St. Joseph's Seminary; St. Joseph's Catechetical College near Montgomery, Alabama, where young coloured men are trained to become catecliists and teachers among their people; and St. Joseph's Indus- trial School at Clayton, Delaware, which is an agricul- tural and trade school for coloured boys.
The Colored Harvest, quarterly organ of the society fn the United tStates (Baltimore, 1886—) ; The Josephite, quarterly or- gan of St. Joseph's College for negro catechists (Montgomery, Alabama, 189—).
Michael Ott.
Joseph's, Saint, Societt for Foreign Missions, (Mill Hill, London, N. W.), a society of priests and laymen whose object is to labour for the conversion of heathens in foreign countries. It owes its origin to Cardinal Vaughan (d. 1903) who, when still but a priest, founded in 1866 St. Joseph's Missionary College in a villa near Mill Hill, about ten miles north of Lon- don. It was the purpose of this college to train mis- sionaries to propagate the Gospel among unevangel- ized races beyond Europe, especially the negroes of Africa and the United States of America. On 1 March, 1871, the college was transferred to a larger building erected for the purpose at Mill Hill, and in 1884 St. Peter's School was founded at Freshfield near Liver- pool, to serve as a preparatory school to the college at Mill Hill. There are two other branch colleges: St. Joseph's Missiehuis, at Rozendaal, Holland, erected in 1890; and St. Josefs Missionshaus, at Brixen, TjtoI, erected in 1891. St. Joseph's Society, Mill Hill, is under the direction of the superior general. Very Rev. Francis Henry, and comprises at present about 200
