Joseph Cafasso

The work of Joseph Cafasso unfolded on two complementary fronts. At the Convitto Ecclesiastico of Saint Francis of Assisi, he taught moral theology for over two decades and became its rector, training generations of priests, including several future bishops and cardinals. Don Bosco summarized the spirit of the institution with the now-famous phrase: "at the Convitto, one learned to be a priest." Cafasso advocated for a balanced morality, neither lax nor rigorist, attentive both to the mercy of God and the consciousness of sin. At the same time, for over twenty years, he exercised a ministry among the inmates of Turin's prisons, which were then marked by inhumane conditions, providing them with material and spiritual aid. Above all, he accompanied those condemned to death: according to consistent sources, he assisted fifty-seven condemned men, preparing them for confession and the Eucharist and remaining by their side until the foot of the scaffold, which earned him the nickname "priest of the gallows." A highly sought-after confessor and spiritual director, he also guided laypeople, founders, and politicians.

The holiness of Joseph Cafasso is characterized by the union of a deep interior life and tireless pastoral zeal. His spiritual doctrine, heir to Saint Charles Borromeo and Saint Francis de Sales, and nourished by the Ignatian spirituality practiced at the Convitto, is summarized in a phrase he liked to repeat: "All the holiness, perfection, and profit of a person consist in doing the will of God perfectly." He taught less through abstraction than through the lived experience of the confessional, recommending calm, discernment, and prudence to his priests. A witness to divine mercy among prisoners as well as the most ordinary penitents, he himself lived in great austerity, genuine humility, and quiet charity. His reputation for holiness, already solid during his lifetime, was confirmed immediately after his death. Pope Benedict XVI, in his catechesis of June 30, 2010, presented him as a model of priestly life, a "true pastor" faithful to prayer, preaching, catechesis, the Eucharist, and confession.

The process for the canonization of Joseph Cafasso opened after his death. The official introduction of the cause was signed by Pope Pius X on May 23, 1906, and the recognition of the heroic nature of his virtues allowed Pope Benedict XV to declare him venerable. After the approval of the required miracles, Pope Pius XI proceeded with his beatification on May 3, 1925, in St. Peter's Basilica. Two new miracles having been recognized, Pope Pius XII canonized him on June 22, 1947, during a ceremony in the Vatican Basilica where John de Britto and Bernardino Realino were also proclaimed saints. The day after this canonization, Pius XII addressed the many pilgrims who had come to Rome. The liturgical feast of Saint Joseph Cafasso is set for June 23, the anniversary of his death. On April 9, 1948, at the unanimous request of the first national congress of Italian prison chaplains held in November 1947, Pius XII proclaimed him the patron saint of Italian prisons.

The legacy of Joseph Cafasso is inseparable from that of Saint John Bosco, who was born like him in Castelnuovo and whom he knew from childhood. For about twenty-five years, until his own death, Cafasso was the spiritual director and advisor to Don Bosco, guiding him toward his true vocation: the service of the poor and abandoned youth of Turin rather than distant missions. Don Bosco held him as a "model of priestly life." Through the Convitto, Cafasso left a lasting mark on the 19th-century Piedmontese clergy and contributed to the proliferation of charitable foundations that characterized Turin at that time. His figure remains linked to the prison world: he is honored as the patron of Italian prisons, prison chaplains, prisoners, and those condemned to death. Several parishes and institutions bear his name, and his remains are venerated in Turin. His life is regularly proposed as a model of concrete charity toward inmates and of demanding priestly formation.