Saint Joseph Cafasso

Image: Saint Joseph Cafasso (1895)

The 23rd of June is the feast day of Saint Joseph Cafasso (15 January 1811 – 23 June 1860). In Italian his name is Giuseppe Cafasso. He is the patron saint of Italian prisons, prison chaplain, prisoners and those condemned to death.

Saint Joseph Cafasso lived between 1811 to 1860 and was born in Castelnuovo d’Asti, Italy to a family of peasants. He had a physical deformity of the spine which meant he was stunted and crippled. He entered the seminary in Turin where he met Saint John Bosco. Saint Joseph taught Saint John Bosco and encouraged his mission to minister to the town’s street youth. Saint Joseph became a professor of moral theology and was a famed preacher and confessor. He did his job well and was known as the “Priest’s Priest.” Entire days were spent preaching in prisons, hearing the prisoner’s confessions and he advocated for improvement to the poor conditions of the prisons. He then earned the name of “Priest of the Gallows.”