The "Holy Doctor" - Feast: November 16th
St. Giuseppe Moscati was born on July 25, 1880, in Benevento, Italy. His parents were descended from noble lineages, and his father was a successful and well-respected judge in the region; Giuseppe was the seventh child (of 9) born to the large Moscati family.
Inheriting his father's intelligence, the young Giuseppe developed an interest in medicine after an older brother named Alberto fell from a horse in 1892, during a military exercise, and developed epilepsy. He helped to care for this sibling and it apparently inspired him to further assist those who suffered from illness.
"The sick are the faces of Jesus Christ."
- St. Giuseppe Moscati
After graduating from secondary education in 1897, the Saint pursued his goal of becoming a doctor, which was further fueled by the sudden death of his father from a cerebral hemorrhage that same year. Giuseppe successfully completed med-school with honors in August 1903.
Deeply pious - a trait he also got from his father - the young doctor viewed his job not as a lucrative profession, but moreover as a vocation to sanctify himself and as a way of leading souls to the Lord. Through the grace of God, he managed to seamlessly blend his training in science and medicine with his profound faith; exercised an active spiritual life of daily Mass attendance and Rosary Prayer despite having a demanding schedule ... and he consciously perceived the person of Christ Crucified in the sick he treated. In fact, he often waived his fees for the poor and freely dispensed medication to them; sometimes asking his patients to go to confession as an alternative form of payment ... not to mention that he frequently and discretely slipped envelopes of money into the hands of the less fortunate or at their hospital bed-sides.
By the time he hit his mid-30s, Giuseppe was an in-demand and much-loved doctor and professor who enjoyed tremendous success in the city of Naples (and beyond) for his medical research and private practice. He impressed many with his uncanny ability to quickly and precisely diagnose illnesses, no matter how difficult. Witnesses at his Canonization tribunal testified as to how he sometimes closed his eyes as if in an otherworldly state before suddenly "knowing" exactly what was wrong with a patient and what the best course of treatment would be. Impossible cures sometimes resulted, which it's speculated was due to Giuseppe being mystically gifted because of his virtuous living.
Other examples of the doctor's heroic virtue include his exceptional charity and courage during an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in April 1906. He volunteered to oversee the evacuation of incapacitated patients from a hospital and, despite the danger to himself, he personally helped to carry many of the sick out of the facility; the building collapsed not long after the last patient was transported out!
"Let us never forget to offer every day,
nay, every moment, our actions to God,
doing all things for love."
- St. Giuseppe Moscati
When a cholera epidemic hit Naples in 1911, Dr. Giuseppe was front and center in treating the afflicted; working fearlessly and with an aura of peace that calmed those around him. His research into the spread of cholera and its treatment are credited with directly stemming the spread of the contagion.
... and lastly, being highly devoted to the Blessed Virgin, he was prompted to imitate her purity by making a private vow of celibacy and chastity. This also allowed him a total and unhindered dedication to his personal ministry. He particularly loved the miraculous image of Our Lady of Pompeii of the Holy Rosary and was a friend of Bl. Bartolo Longo (d. 1926), the founder of the Pompeiian Sanctuary and a modern Apostle of the Rosary. Another friend and advisor was St. Caterina Volpicelli (d. 1894), a stigmatized mystic and foundress of the Servants of the Sacred Heart. Without a doubt, birds of a feather flock together!
ABOVE: The Saint's tomb in the church of
Nuovo Gesu, Naples.
BELOW: A relic of fabric and thread from
the Saint's clothing in this author's custody.
Dr. Giuseppe Moscati - the "Holy Doctor", as he came to be nicknamed - died unexpectedly on April 12, 1927. After assisting at Mass that morning then tending to patients, he was suddenly overcome with fatigue at around 3pm so sat in an armchair to rest. He passed away not long after from a heart attack (other accounts say it was a stroke) at just 46-years-old.
Not surprisingly, the good doctor's funeral was well-attended and there was a spontaneous devotion to him that arose amongst his former peers and patients. Pope St. John Paul II was the Pontiff who declared Dr. Giuseppe Moscati a Saint during a Canonization Ceremony in October 1987. His relics are today conserved and venerated in a side-chapel in the Neopolitan church of Gesu Nuovo.
St. Giuseppe Moscati, pray for us!
