Saint of the day June 23: Saint Joseph Cafasso. Catholic Saints

Every June 23, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Joseph Cafasso, a priest from Piedmont, northern Italy, who was the confessor of Saint John Bosco and many other Salesians. He is the patron saint of Italian prisons and of prisoners sentenced to death, whose reality he knew very closely while serving as a prison chaplain. For many of them, he was the merciful face of Christ in the final moment of existence.

This is perhaps why Don Cafasso is one of those saints capable of enriching the Christian understanding of death and, why not, of life. Shortly before being summoned to the presence of God, Saint Joseph Cafasso wrote: “It will not be death but a sweet dream for you, my soul, if when you die Jesus assists you, and the Virgin Mary receives you.”

‘The little saint’

Saint Joseph Cafasso (Giuseppe María Cafasso) was born in Castelnuovo de Asti, Piedmont (Italy), on January 15, 1811. When he was little, his family and the townspeople already called him ‘the little saint’, for his pious and kind spirit.

His first higher studies were carried out at the seminary and at the University of Turin. Later, he continued at the San Francisco Institute, where he would become a professor of Moral Theology. He was ordained a priest when he was only 21 years old, in 1833, so he had to request a dispensation given his youth.

A few months after his ordination he enrolled in the Ecclesiastical Convictory, an entity dedicated to the improvement of theological studies. Despite suffering from a spinal deformity – which caused him constant discomfort – Joseph did not become demoralized and became an excellent teacher and priest. Upon the death of the Rector of the Convictory, he was appointed to replace him, serving as the highest authority of the premises for twelve years.

Know freedom in prison

Saint Joseph Cafasso carried out a very special, and at the same time very hard, pastoral service: he was chaplain of the Turin prison. There he touched with the mercy of God the hearts of many men who had done terrible things in their lives; just as he also did with those who, being innocent, bore the repudiation and rejection of a society that did not want them.

Father José accompanied many condemned to the gallows in the final moment – about 68 throughout his chaplaincy. In those terrible moments, on the way to the scaffold, Saint Joseph Cafasso tried to make the crucified Christ present; in such a way that, through him, God’s forgiveness reaches those convicted of death. Conversions, peace, repentance, serenity and consolation sprang up in countless souls thanks to Cafasso confessing, blessing and preaching hope in eternal life.

Thanks to this holy priest, many other prisoners – destined to live behind bars until death – transformed their lives and died confessed and in peace, assisted by his paternal presence. Father Cafasso had become a “prisoner” and “in danger of death”, in imitation of Christ who, for love of sinners, became a “prisoner of prisoners”, and a sign of the freedom that God can only grant: the of sin.

Confessor and spiritual director of Don Bosco

Another special note in the life of Saint Joseph Cafasso was his relationship with Saint John Bosco, whom he met when he was a child. Father José helped him so that he could cover his study expenses in the seminary and in the Convictory. While Don Bosco was still a seminarian, it was Father Cafasso who took him to visit the prison for the first time. There Don Bosco had the opportunity to witness the horrors suffered by those who spend their days abandoned, without hope, crushed by their crimes, often full of resentment and bitterness.

Cafasso suffered greatly for those who were very young and who had allowed themselves to be carried away by evil, hurting vulnerable people and wasting their youth; Among them he was moved by those who grew up without guidance, affection, or education. These experiences marked the life of the young Juan Bosco, who since then was left with the concern to do something that contributes to preventing young people from getting lost.

When Don Bosco was once criticized for having launched the youth service work that would make him famous, Saint Joseph Cafasso was his great defender. What’s more, the saint became one of the main benefactors of the nascent Salesian community. All kinds of needy people also came to him, whom he always received with kindness and contagious joy. He also used to instill devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Virgin Mary in students and spiritual disciples.

Love to the Mother of God

“All the holiness, perfection and profit of a person is in doing the will of God perfectly… wanting what God wants, wanting it in the way, in the time and in the circumstances that He wants, and wanting all of this only because God wants it that way,” Father Cafasso used to say. Those beautiful words pronounced in one of her last sermons are also famous: “How beautiful to die on a Saturday, the day of the Virgin, to be taken by Her to heaven.” And, precisely, that’s what happened with him.

On Saturday, June 23, 1860, Father Cafasso was summoned by God to his presence. He was 49 years old. Saint John Bosco, who presided over the funeral rites, remembered his spiritual director and confessor as “teacher of the clergy, a sure counselor, comforter of the dying and a great friend.”

Saint Joseph Cafasso, in addition to being the patron of prisons, is a model of priests committed to confession and spiritual direction.

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