San José de Cupertino, 18 de septiembre

The Church honors St. Joseph of Cupertino on September 18. Giuseppe Desa was a Franciscan who referred to himself as fray asno.

His early life involved extreme poverty and a lack of academic preparation, which led the Franciscan conventuals to close their doors to him. He also suffered from a severe cancerous tumor that kept him bedridden for six years. After a failed surgical intervention, his mother, Franceschina, took him to the sanctuary of Galàtone to be anointed with oil from a lamp dedicated to the Virgen de las Gracias, after which he was able to return home using a cane.