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Giuseppe (Joseph) Cafasso was born on January 15, 1811, in Castelnuovo d’Asti, Asti, Kingdom of Sardinia. He was the third of four children in his peasant family. He was born with a deformed spine and always short and frail.
Even as a young child, Joseph was known to be a paragon of virtue, and in his childhood, he felt God wanted him to become a priest.
When he was old enough, he studied for the priesthood in Turin and the Turin town of Chieri. It was during that time that Joseph became friends with 14-year-old Giovanni (John) Bosco, founder of the Salesian order. Little did the two know that one day, Joseph would become John Bosco’s spiritual director for twenty-five years, and that John would be Joseph’s first biographer.
On September 21, 1833, Joseph was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Turin and sent for a few more months of theological studies at Turin College, now the University of Turin. At that time, the college focused its efforts on providing higher education to diocesan priests who were recovering from the government’s purge of Catholic institutions.
During his time at the Turin College, Joseph met Luigi Guala, co-founder of the Institute of Saint Francis of Assisi. Father Joseph was connected to the college for the rest of his life, serving as lecturer, chaplain, and being appointed rector in 1848. He also became a member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
As a lecturer of moral theology, Fr. Joseph emphasized the loving, pastoral approach to the spiritual life of Saints Alphonsus Liguori and Francis de Sales, while opposing the Jansenism theology that focused on hellfire and damnation and prevented people from receiving Holy Communion when they went to Eucharist because they thought they were too unworthy.
In his priesthood, Father Joseph was very frugal and minimalist. He never complained of toothaches and headaches, for example, never drank anything except water, and did not eat in between meals. In his spiritual life, he celebrated Mass each day at 4:30 a.m. and spent long hours celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Father Joseph was also a spiritual director to many persons, including St. John Bosco, Blessed Clemente Marchisio, Blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno, and others.
Father Joseph became famous for his devotion to the local prisons and was especially kind to those condemned to death. It was his devotion to the condemned that led him to become known as “The Priest of the Gallows.” Because many of the men were hanged immediately after celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation with him, he referred to them as “hanged saints,” for they entered eternity with a clean slate.
Father Joseph was one of a group of people known as the “Social Saints.” These were Catholic figures from Turin in the nineteenth century who devoted their lives to serving the poor and marginalized. Some of the Social Saints, in addition to Father Joseph Cafasso, include: St. John Bosco, devoted to young people; St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, devoted to care of the sick, disabled, and abandoned; St. Leonardo Murialdo, who focused on vocational training and social assistance for young workers; St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, who worked with the poor; Blessed Joseph Allamano, founder of the Consolata Missionaries; Giulia and Manfredi Di Barolo, a couple who worked with women prisoners; and others. Interestingly, Joseph Cafasso’s sister Marianna was the mother of Saint Joseph Allamano.
Father Joseph Cafasso died on June 23, 1860, and Pope Pius XII canonized him on June 22, 1947. Saint Joseph Cafasso’s feast day is June 23, and he is patron saint of Italian prisons, prison chaplains, prisoners, and those condemned to death.
