John Joseph of the Cross

The Patron saint of the island of Ischia and joint Patron saint of Naples. He was born with the name of Carlo Gaetano Calorsito in the hamlet of Ischia Ponte on 15^th of August 1654. He was the son of a noble family living on the Castle. He pursued classical studies with the Augustinians.

At the age of sixteen, he decided to join the Franciscans of Saint Peter of Alcantara and he moved to Naples, in the convent of Santa Lucia al Monte. There, he completed his novitiate and he changed his first name, adopting the one of John Joseph of the Cross. In 1671, he was sent with other friars to Piedimonte of Alife, in Caserta, in the sanctuary of Santa Maria Occorrevole on the Monte Muto, in the Matese massif. There, Giovan Giuseppe, who was the youngest of the friars, did everything in order to build a convent annexed to the sanctuary. On the 18^th of September 1677 he was ordained a priest in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Piedimonte. Then, when he became guardian of the small community, in the tranquillity of the forest, he created a small convent, the Solitude, where he was often going to pray and which is nowadays a place for pilgrimages. In the meantime, he also led the novitiate in Naples and he took care of the construction of the new convent of the Granatello close do Portici. More and more seen as a reference for the brothers, John Joseph played an important role in managing the difficult phase of separation in the alcantarino world between the Italian friars and the Spanish. The Ischitan friar, who was practising a life of absolute poverty and didn’t force his body to little sacrifices never stopped to encourage the friars to be more in accordance with the Franciscan Rule. He was called to manage the monasteries of Naples and of the diocese of Aversa. In his extraordinary humility he was the spiritual director of high-profiled personalities in the city and of future saints such as Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori, Mary Frances of the Five Wounds and Francesco De Geronimo. Several miracles were attributed to him, still alive and the gifts of bilocation, prophecy and levitation were recognised. He also had visions of the Virgin and Jesus.

In 1722, the Pope proclaimed the reunification of the alcantarini. Therefore, for the Italians the doors of the Neapolitan convent of Santa Lucia al Monte were reopened, where John Joseph went back too. The friar spent there the last twelve years of his life, already considered in the odour of sanctity by his contemporaries for the rigour with which practised the example of San Francis. Loved throughout Naples, he was noted for his worn habit, which he never changed. He died in Santa Lucia al Monte on the 5^th of March (his anniversary) 1734. Venerated by the Neapolitans who named him as a joint patron saint in 1790, he was beatified by Pope Pius VI on 24^th of May 1789 and canonised on 26^th of May 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI. His body, kept in the convent of Santa Lucia al Monte, were transferred in September 2003 in his native island, where he rests in the Church of Sant’Antonio alla Mandra. The Sanctuary dedicated to him is in the Church of Spirito Santo in the hamlet of Ischia Ponte.