The Flying Friar: The Life of Saint Joseph of Cupertino

The Flying Friar: The Life of Saint Joseph of Cupertino:

He was mocked as a child, rejected by two religious orders, and dismissed as unfit for ordinary work. Then he began to fly.

Born in a debtor's shed to a poor widow who could barely hide her disappointment in him, Joseph Desa spent his early years as the town outcast — a boy so prone to blank, absent staring that his neighbors nicknamed him Bocca Aperta, "the Gaper." He failed at a trade apprenticeship. He was turned away by the Conventual Franciscans. He was accepted, and then dismissed, by the Capuchins after only eight months. By every measure the world could offer, Joseph seemed destined for nothing.

Then, in 1630, while praying quietly near the altar of a small chapel, he rose into the air.

It was the first of hundreds of recorded levitations that would follow him for the next thirty-five years — witnessed by bishops, cardinals, physicians, and skeptical investigators sent by the Inquisition specifically to disprove him. Dukes traveled from Germany to see him. Crowds fainted at the sight of him. And through it all, Joseph remained the same reluctant, awkward friar who wanted nothing more than to be left alone with his prayers.

The Flying Friar traces the full, remarkable arc of Joseph of Cupertino's life: his difficult childhood, his repeated rejections, the years of hidden faithfulness in a friary stable that finally opened a door for him, the decades of ecstasy and official scrutiny that followed, his long exile under Church supervision, and his eventual canonization as the patron saint of aviators, pilots, astronauts — and of every student who has ever walked into an exam room fearing they are not prepared.

Illustrated throughout and including a nine-day novena and a collection of prayers for exams, travel, and discouragement, this book is both a rigorously told biography and a devotional companion for anyone who has ever been underestimated and wondered whether they were made for more than the world expected of them.

Includes:

The full life story of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, from birth to canonization

10 original illustrations plus cover art

A 9-day novena for exams, travel, and difficult trials

Additional prayers for students, travelers, and the discouraged

A timeline of his life and legacy