IFTTT Autopost 
Joseph Henry Cappel was born on November 16. 1908 in Covington, Kentucky to Joseph and Eleanora Farsing Cappel. One of his six brothers, Charles, became a Maryknoll Missionary priest as did Joseph.
Joseph grew up in Norwood, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, and went to St. Matthew Elementary School there. He graduated from St. Mary High School in Cincinnati in 1927.
After attending the University of Dayton for two years, he joined St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati to study to be a diocesan priest. However, during his studies, he met some Maryknoll missionaries who lived nearby, and Joseph decided he would love to be a foreign missionary. Therefore, he entered Maryknoll in September of 1931 and was ordained on June 16, 1935, by Maryknoll co-founder, Servant of God Bishop James Anthony Walsh.
Father Joseph’s first assignment as a Maryknoll missionary was to North Korea that in 1935 was under Japanese control. During World War II, Fr. Joseph and nine other American missionary priests were sent to internment camps but freed in an exchange for civilian prisoners.
After his first missionary assignment was over, Fr. Joseph was sent to Chillán, Chile in 1943 and was appointed superior of for the Ñuble region. In 1945, he became pastor of San Vicente parish in Chillán.
Except for a time in 1947 when he served as a spiritual director at the Maryknoll Seminary at Maryknoll, New York, Father Joseph would spend the rest of his life as a missionary in Chile.
After his brief stay in Maryknoll, New York, Fr. Joseph was assigned as Cooperating Vicar of the parish in Temuco. One year later, in 1949, he was sent to the parish of Nuestra Señora Del Rosario in Curepto in the Diocese of Talca. This was where Fr. Joseph, known as Padre José to one and all, would spend the rest of his life serving the people as their priest until his death in 2004.
Padre José not only loved being a priest and a missionary, but he also loved the people and served them with all his heart. One of his most famous projects was a nursing home he founded. Initially it was called the Father José Cappel Nursing Home, but Padre José insisted the name be changed to the San Vicente de Paul Home.
Padre José also founded a school, helped with the restoration of the Curepto cemetery, established various ministries to serve abandoned boys and girls, and devoted much time and energy serving the elderly poor. Noted as a man of prayer as well as a cheerful man, Padre José formed various prayer groups and developed 13 chapels. The bishop of Talca, who was a friend of Padre José, secretly appointed him as the diocesan exorcist, for he knew how deep the spiritual life of Padre José was.
Probably the most identifying feature of Padre José’s missionary life was his use of a bicycle to serve his congregation. In fact, Padre José and his bicycle became an identifying symbol of Curepto, so much so, in fact, that the people built a memorial to Padre José. The memorial shows Padre José sitting on his bicycle.
Padre José died in Curepto on May 31, 2004. Forty priests concelebrated his funeral Mass with 3,500 people attending. Today, Padre José is known as Servant of God.
