As nowadays, even at Moscati’s times a pseudoscientific conception took away many people from God and from Church, as if the real science was incompatible with the supernatural, and the technique could satisfy the aspiration of the Human hearth.

As a student, a doctor and a teacher, Giuseppe Moscati didn’t shut himself into the narrow circle of human studies, but he knew how to raise himself to upper considerations, convinced as he was that human truth and divine truth have the same source: God endless truth.

Entrance of the Palace at 10, Via Cisterna dell’Olio where Moscati lived from 1902 to his death.

The numerous letters Moscati wrote on this matter are significant, as the one written to Dr.Agostino Consoli di Lagonegro (Potenza), of 22nd July 1922:

"Although far away, you won’t stop cultivating and rechecking every day your knowledge. Progress is a continuous critic of what we have known. An only science stands firm, and that is the one revealed by God, the science of the hereafter! In all your works, tend to the Heavens, and to the eternity of life and soul, and you will orientate in a very different way as if you will follow the human considerations suggestions, and your activity will be inspired by the good."

Another consideration about this theme of the relationship between science and faith is contained in a letter to Dr. Antonio Guerricchio, from Matera:

"How many youngs I remembered, promising, full of spirit of self-sacrifice and of virtue, pervaded with the right enthousiasm, who had to arrive lost, overwhelmed by nepotism, by indifference, by the priest of science’s egoism! […]
Not science, but charity changed the world, during certain periods; and only very few men are remembered because of science; but all will be everlasting, as a symbolof life eternity, where the death is nothing but a step, a metamorphosis towards an upper place, if they will dedicate themselves to good.
I keep always alive in my hearth the sorrow of knowing you so far; and my only consolation is that you keep in you something mine; not for its value, which is very poor, but for that spiritual content I tried to keep and to spread around me: sublime task, but so difficult with my poor strenght. I remember you, be sure…"

Whence did Moscati draw all that spiritual vitality, all that love for the poor and all that balance between science and religion in the exercise of his profession? He himself gave an answer to this question. Miss Emilia Pavese, a hospital employee, an eyewitness of his daily heavy work, one day asked him from where he drew all that strength.

He answered with Saint Paul’s words: “I can do everything thanks to the One who strengthens me” (Phil. 4,13). He joined God from early morning by looking at the apse of the Church of Gesù Nuovo as he could see that from the window of his room. So, he turned his eyes to Jesus and worshipped him in the Blessed Sacrament. Speaking of his devotion to the Holy Eucharist, Dr. Enrico Sica recalls: “I know he received the Holy Communion every day with all due preparation and thanksgiving.”

And Nicola Castelloni, a lawyer: “In all his religious exercises (Mass, Holy Communion, visits to the Blessed Sacrament) he gave many signs of devotion and recollection, radiating his great love for God very clearly!”

Moscati has loved Our Lady since he was little. The Virgin Mary was always in his thoughts, he frequently spoke of her, he kept his beads in the pocket of his waistcoat and he took and kissed them very often. When the bells sounded the Hail Mary, he made the sign of the cross and begged the people in the hospital to say the Angelus. It is still kept a marble statue of the Madonna that he worshipped at home. On the table in his bedroom, he had a small bronze statue representing the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus sleeping on her knees. Mary makes a sign of silence with her finger on the mouth. At the bottom, there is the title: "Vierge au silence" (The Virgin of Silence).

The future saint knew very well the liturgical calendar of Mary and he used to prepare himself devoutly to celebrate every feast by fasting on the eve. Besides, he abstained from eating meat on Saturday. Moscati had a great devotion to Our Lady of Pompeii, the Immaculate and Our Lady of Good Counsel who he dedicated his vow of chastity in the church of Sacramentine Sisters.

In the boxes of the churches where Moscati was used to coming, there were often considerable offerings for the cult of the Virgin. His generosity is showed by the fact that, after his death, these notable offerings were not found anymore. He was also devoted to the Virgin Mary in the church of Gesù Nuovo and he showed to be fond of the Immaculate in the church of Saint Nicola from Tolentino, near the central funicular railway. Besides, Bartolo Longo helped Moscati to increase his devotion to Our Lady of Pompei.

Bronze statue of the Virgin of the Silence belonged St.Joseph Moscati

Very famous is one of his writings about the Virgin, that is: “How I say the Hail Mary.” He associates every versicles of Hail Mary with a different image of the Virgin. So, he sees Our Lady of Graces, Pompeii, of the Good Counsel, of Assisi’s Porziuncola, Lourdes and Carmine, “protectress of his family.”

Like everyone else, Moscati felt the fascination of beauty and the attraction of the senses, especially in his younger days. An intense spiritual life preserved him from what he calls “the illusions of love”. All his biographers agree on the point that he made the vow of chastity. We have evidence of it thanks to what he wrote about the “Hail Mary”. After the words: “Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus” [“Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus”], Dr. Moscati added: “I feel a tender attraction to Our Lady under the title of “Good Counsel”. She smiles at me just as she is portrayed in the Chapel of the Sacramentine Sisters. It was in that Church and before that image I made the renunciation of all impure worldly affections.”

The daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel of the Sacramentine Sisters is an old tradition. The Eucharist and the devotion to Our Lady inspired Moscati to offer God his chastity but he found also the strength to keep that in the exercise of his profession as in all other duties. Chastity was not a mere sterile selfish escape from responsibilities, but a serious choice of a way of life, a life totally devoted to his neighbour.

Dr. Moscati, personally, had opted for chastity but he was well aware that it had been a special grace God had granted him. In fact, he advised married life and used to say: “I think, celibacy is a privilege of a few.” He encouraged his young students to get married and was always ready to meet those who came for counselling. Prof. Mario Mazzeo writes: “The servant of God did not get married because he was on principle against conjugal life or because he was selfishly attached to the freedom of a bachelor’s life, free of cares and responsibilities of a family life. Besides, he was not a misogynist. Very often he used to counsel his brothers and acquaintances, especially his students, to choose married life. I am one of them: I had the privilege of having him as my best man. The reason he did not marry was his intense love for chastity.”

Moscati had a great devotion to St. Therese of the Child Jesus. There was a great spiritual affinity between them. He knew her life very well and there are many references to her in his writings. Among his souvenirs, in the Moscati Halls, there is a picture of Sainte Therese he kept in his bedroom. On march 7th 1924, writing to one of his friends, Mr. De Magistris, a notary from Lecce who had lost his daughter, he said: “… Your little angel (his daughter) has gone to Heaven while still in her tender years just like her dear friend… Blessed Therese…who will look after you and your wife from on high and always thank you.”

“God has removed from my path all occasions of sin. He has granted me, in his infinite kindness, an extraordinary calm and serenity during the last few months. Reading the story of the Blessed Therese of the Child Jesus, recently, I found an expression, which suits me: “Oh my God, even discouragement is a sin.” Yes, it is a sin of pride, because it leads to believe I can have a high opinion of myself and of things I did whereas I have been just a miserable sinner.” [Extract from his Diary written during his journey to England, July 18th 1923]

Picture of Sainte Therese of the Child Jesus to whom Dr.Moscati had great devotion.

Dr. Moscati, with the heart free of all ill-ordered affections, knew how to cultivate a sense of friendship to the highest degree. All those who have written about him, after his death, remember him as a very dear friend. These are not just formal cold attestations but sad warm-hearted remembrances. His friends were believers, unbelievers, colleagues, students, famous personalities and ordinary people. We recall people like Leonardo Bianchi, Antonio Cardarelli, Giuseppe Caronia, Benedetto Croce, Alfredo De Marsico, and Giustino Fortunato. Moscati kept a regular correspondence with some of them: there are letters full of esteem, sincere appreciations and genuine friendship. Benedetto Croce held Moscati in high esteem and showed him numerous marks of his friendship. The saint made use of them, not to ask for personal favours, but in order to solve some painful situations.

“Father Giovanni Aromatisi, a very good friend of Moscati, testifies as follows: “He was very particular in fulfilling his duties as a friend and visiting sick friends even at the risk of his life. In fact, I remember the period when the Royal Guards was dissolved and replaced by the National Army and there was a heavy exchange of fire in Municipio Square between them. Just then, Dr. Moscati was in a hurry to be at the bedside of a girl, his friend’s daughter, the sister of his godson Francesco Saverio Iaccarino, residing at the Umberto Gallery. Dr. Moscati, disregarding all dangers, was seen several times at the bedside of the sick girl during the day. I was an eyewitness because I took the Viaticum to the dying girl. The way he attended his dying friend Monsignor Antonio Laviano, the General Vicar of the archdiocese of Naples, was truly moving. He stood by him day and night, like an affectionate son. When some of his friends were sick one could make out his deep sorrow simply by looking at his face!”

Previous page

Next page