St. Joseph Moscati

Welcome to INSPIRING LIVES, a series on lives of Saints in the catholic church from around the world. In this series we bring you those saints who are canonized by Pope John Paul II. Saints are holy people who lived ordinary lives in extraordinary ways. Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts. These saints are examples of great holiness and virtue, and they invite us to follow their paths to holiness. Their unique stories inspire us to be rooted in our faith. God calls each one of us to be a saint.
Today we shall listen to the heroic life of St. Joseph Moscati (1880-1927). He was an Italian doctor, scientific researcher, and university professor noted both for his pioneering work in biochemistry and for his piety. Moscati was canonized on 25^th October 1987 at St. Peters Basilica in Rome. Moscati was the first modern doctor to be canonized and his feast day is November 16.
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Joseph Moscati was born to a noble family on 25^th July 1880 in Benevento, Italy. He was the seventh among the nine children of the magistrate Francesco Moscati and Luca De Rosa, the Marquis of Roseto. He was baptized six days later, on 31st July 1880.
In 1881 the family of Moscati moved to Ancona and then to Naples, where Joseph had his first communion on the Feast of the Immaculate in 1888 at the age of 8. During that time, Joseph would see his father serve at the altar in the chapel of the Poor Clares when they attended Mass.
Joseph completed his secondary school between 1889 and 1894. He passed the baccalaureate in 1897 with brilliant marks, at the age of just 17. A few months later, he began his graduate studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Naples.
It is possible that his decision to choose the medical profession has been somewhat influenced by the fact that Joseph, as a teenager, witnessed personally the trauma of human suffering. In 1893, his brother Albert, a lieutenant in the artillery, was brought home after suffering an incurable trauma following a fall from his horse. For years Joseph took care of his brother he loved so much. He had to experience the relative powerlessness of human remedies, but he also felt the effectiveness of the consolations of religion, which he thought to be lasting.
From an early age, Joseph Moscati showed an acute sensitivity to the physical sufferings of others. He wanted to heal the wounds of the body, but he was also deeply convinced that soul and body are closely related. So he offered his brother’s suffering in the salvific work of the Divine Physician.
Joseph Moscati received his doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Naples on 4^th August 1903. It was the worthy crowning of the ‘curriculum’ of his university studies.
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Immediately upon receiving his degree, in 1904 Moscati joined the staff of the Hospital for Incurables in Naples, eventually becoming an administrator. During this time he continued to study, conducting medical research when not performing his duties at the hospital. Already recognized for his commitment to his duties, Joseph won further recognition for his actions in the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 8^th April 1906. One of the hospitals for which Moscati was responsible, at Torre del Greco, was located a few miles from the volcano's crater. Many of its patients were elderly, and many were paralytics. Moscati oversaw the evacuation of the building, getting them all out just before the roof collapsed due to the weight of volcanic ash. Soon after he sent a letter to the general director of the Neapolitan hospital service, insisting on thanking those who had helped in the evacuation, yet not mentioning his own name.
When cholera broke out in Naples in 1911, Moscati was charged by the civic government with performing public health inspections, and with researching both the origins of the disease and the best ways to eradicate it. This he did quickly, presenting his suggestions to city officials. To his satisfaction, most of these ideas were put into practice by the time of his death. Also in 1911, Moscati became a member of the Royal Academy of Surgical Medicine, and received his doctorate in physiological chemistry.
Besides his work as a researcher and as a doctor, Moscati was responsible for overseeing the directions of the local Institute of Anatomical Pathology. In the institute's autopsy room, he placed a crucifix inscribed with Chapter 13, verse 14 of the Book of Hosea, O death, I will be thy death. Joseph’s mother died of diabetes in 1914; consequently Moscati became one of the first Neopolitan doctors to experiment with insulin in the treatment of diabetes.
During World War I, Moscati tried to enroll in the armed forces, but was rejected; military authorities felt that he could better serve the country by treating the wounded. His hospital was taken over by the military, and he himself visited close to 3,000 soldiers. In 1919, he was made director of one of the local men's schools while he continued to teach. In 1922 Moscati was given a professorship in clinical medicine, which allowed him to teach at institutes of higher education.
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Famous and sought after in Naples when he is still very young, Professor Moscati soon wins national and international reputation for his original research, the results of which are published by him in various Italian and foreign scientific journals. These pioneering studies, which focus especially on glycogen and related topics, ensured Moscati a place of honor among medical researchers in the first half of this century.
As the years progress, the fire of love seems to devour Joseph Moscati. In spite of his increasing external activities, he extends his hours of prayer and gradually internalizes his encounters with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
All of a sudden, at the age of 46, Moscati left for his heavenly abode in the afternoon of 12 April 1927. He had attended Mass that morning, receiving Communion as he always did, and spent the remainder of the morning at the hospital. Upon returning home he busied himself with patients until around three, after which, feeling tired, he sat down in an armchair in his office and breathed his last. When he news of his death is announced, it spread from mouth to mouth with the words ‘The holy doctor died.’
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More than anything else is his own personality that leaves a deep impression on those who meet him - his life steeped in faith and his works filled with charity towards men. Moscati was a first-rate scientist, but for him there is no conflict between faith and science. As a researcher, he was at the service of truth and realized that the truth does not contradict with itself, much less with what the eternal truth revealed to us. For him, faith is the source of all his life. Moscati saw in his patients the suffering Christ, he loved him and served him in them. This outburst of generous love pushed him to strive unceasingly for those who suffer, not to wait until the sick go to him, but look for them in the poorest neighborhoods and the city. And everyone, especially the poor admired the divine force that animated their benefactor. So Moscati became an apostle of Jesus without preaching, announcing his charity through the medical work.
It was claimed even before his death that Moscati was a miracle-worker. Some said that he could accurately diagnose and prescribe for any patient merely by hearing his symptoms, and that he was responsible for impossible cures. Reports of his good works continued well after his death, with further reports that he interceded in impossible cases. Consequently, he was beatified by Pope Paul VI on 16^th November 1975. His canonization miracle involved the case of a young ironworker dying of leukemia. The young man's mother dreamed of a doctor wearing a white coat, who she identified as Moscati when shown a photograph. Not long after this, her son was cured and returned to work.
Moscati refused to charge the poor for their treatment, and was known to send a patient home with a prescription and a 50-lire note in an envelope. Moscati’s scientific research notwithstanding, he remained true to his faith his entire life, taking a vow of chastity and practicing charity in his daily work. He viewed his work as a way of alleviating suffering, not as a way of making profits, and would retire regularly for prayer to be in communion with God. P.J. Joseph SJ