Dr. Moscati was a poor doctor. It sounds contradictory to speak of poverty when dealing of a man who, with all his qualifications, fame and social standing, could have all the wealth he wanted. And yet it is quite true! Moscati was poor. All those who have known him can testify to it. He was not attached to money and he gave to the poor what he had. He was modestly dressed. Nina, his sister, looked after his clothes. Moscati was a frugal eater and avoided every refinement. Unlike his colleagues he never owned a chariot or a car.

Dr. Domenico Galdi, who studied medicine in the years 1925-27, used to meet Dr. Moscati very often in the Lettieri Clinic where many clinic directors, such as Castellino, Boeri, D’Amato, Bossa, De Carli, Brutti, used to attend their private patients. He says: “All the young students asked Dr. Moscati why he did not have a car unlike his colleagues (in fact, he used to come on foot). He always showed annoyance and replied: I am a poor man. I cannot afford, with all my work, such expenses. Please, believe me!” Dr. Galdi goes on: “All his fees were set aside for the poor; besides, he gave them free medical attention such as medicines and whatever they needed for their upkeep.”

Two hundred lire for four consultations! Dr.Francesco Brancaccio relates that once Dr. Moscati had been urgently sent to Portici: a young man had an attack of appendicitis and was ready for the operation. The Professor firmly ruled out any surgical treatment: he ordered to place an ice bag on the abdomen of the patient. Dr. Moscati paid four visits in two weeks till the young man recovered fully. At the end - Dr. Brancaccio goes on – he received an envelope containing his fee. Then, Moscati was assailed by doubts and opened the envelope exclaiming: “God knows how much they have put in!” There was a one thousand lire note! He quickly retraced his steps. The family was astonished to see him again. Prof. Moscati went straight to the father of the boy and growled: “Are you mad or do you think I am a thief?” They were taken aback and thought the fee was insufficient. So, the father pulled out another thousand lire note and offered it the Professor: he pushed it aside, pulled out 800 lire from his purse, left them on the table and ran down the flight of the steps out of the house. So, the famous specialist had been paid the handsome sum of 200 lire for four consultations!

Fifty lire for three consultations and three patients Dr.Mario Mazzeorelates: “One day, a doctor friend of mine sent to Moscati three patients from Montorsi (Benevento). At the end of the third examination, the man who had led the group left two notes on the desk, one of 100 lire and the other of 50 lire, because he was not very sure of the correct fee. As a rule, Dr. Moscati did not look at what people left behind: this time he looked and was astonished. Returning the 100 lire note, he said: fifty lire is quite enough for three of you; go in peace and give my best wishes to the doctor who sent you!”

Dr. Moscati was the doctor of the poor!
"Once – Dr. Brancaccio witnesses – I sent Dr. Moscati a young woman affected by tuberculosis bringing a note showing the economic conditions of the poor patient. Dr. Moscati visited her, prescribed her a therapy, didn’t get paid and let her go; the woman, with a great surprise, found a L.50 banknote put by him in the diagnosis sheet without saying anything. When I thanked him for his generosity, he said: ”For God’s sake, don’t mention it!”

The Jesuit F.Antonio de Pergola says that while coming back from Vico Equense with Dr.Moscati, they stopped in Castellammare di Stabia and they went to the "poor and miserable house of a railwayman, who Dr. Moscati had been asked to visit by the patient’s colleagues in the train."

Moscati started his visit and the Priest, seeing that the railwaymen were collecting money to pay the Doctor, started to dissuade them. Moscati noticed it and then "he came nearer and with an eloquent simplicity said these few words: 'As you, deducting part of your hard work, are helping your sick friend, I join in your humanitarian sense and I contribute to the subscription with my part so that the patient could have the necessary means to cure his illness', and gave them three L.10 banknotes."

The bookcase in Dr. Moscati’s consultation room.

Dr.Ponsiglione relates: “Once, a distinguished gentleman of the high aristocracy of Naples went to his surgery. He was very worried and asked him to examine immediately his sick mother. Dr. Moscati said he was sorry but he could not. “Why?” asked the man. “I’ll tell you the reason straight away. - replied Dr. Moscati- You see, you are well-off, and so you can have any other specialist. But just now I am going to visit a poor priest in San Giovanni a Teduccio.” The gentleman was taken aback and said: “If I take you to San Giovanni, would you come to my house on our way back?” “Certainly”- Moscati replied- “It’s very kind of you. So you’ll share in a work of mercy.” And this is what they did.”

A Sister of the Sacred Hearth said that Moscati, called by a patient, gave her a prescription, but coming back a second time saw that she hadn’t been cured. He, realizing that she was very poor, "found the way of helping her without been admired; and started to reproach the family saying that when one calls the doctor, his prescription must be followed, then he went out. The family was afflicted; but after a while, removing the patient pillows, they found a L.500 banknote. Dr. Moscati, to avoid the admiration for his charity, pretended a reproach and harshness."

When he was 47, Dr. Moscati was at the height of his career, highly esteemed and widely consulted. On 12th April 1927, Dr. Moscati, after having participated to the Mass and received the Communion, spent all the morning at the Incurabili Hospital and then he came back home, in Via Cisterna dell’Olio 10. There he had a light meal and later he examined his patients, as usual. But at about three o' clock pm he didn't feel well, he sat down in his armchair and died quietly. He was 46 years and 8 months old.

The news of his death spread immediately, and everybody's sorrow was unanimous. Especially poor people cried for him sincerely, because they had lost their benefactor. His body was buried in the Cemetery of Poggioreale.

Among the first witnesses after his death, significant is the one given by the Cardinal of Naples, Alessio Ascalesi. After a prayer at Moscati's corpse, talking to his relatives, he said: "Dr. Moscati didn't belong to you but to the Church, those whose souls he saved went and met him up above, people whose bodies he saved didn't".In the signatures register, at the entrance of the house, among the others, there was this sentence: "You didn't want flowers or tears: but we cry, as the world has lost a Saint, Naples an example of virtue, the poor patients have lost all they had!"

November 16, 1930: Translation of the body of Prof.Moscati into Gesù Nuovo church

But three years later, on 16th November 1930, after the pressures of many among clerical and lay personalities, the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Alessio Ascalesi, allowed the removal of the body from the Cemetery of Poggioreale to the Church of the Gesù Nuovo.

In that occasion, the happiest of all was Nina Moscati, Moscati's sister, who, after having been next to him during his life, helping him in his charity, after his death she gave to the Church of Gesù Nuovo his brother's clothes, furniture and personal belongings. Moscati’s remains were laid in a hall behind the altar of St.Francis Xavier, and the memorial tablet on the right still remembers the event. The translation was a success as photos show. Nowadays we can admire in Gesù Nuovo the reconstruction of Moscati’s surgery and bedroom. In 1977, two years after the Beatification there was the canonical recognition of the body: his bones were recomposed and put in a bronze urn, made by Prof. Amedeo Garufi, under the Visitation altar.

On 10th May 1973 the Congregation for the Saints Cases, in Rome, issued the Decree on the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Joseph Moscati. In the meanwhile the proceedings to enquire into two miracles were prepared for the trial: they were about two sudden recoveries attributed to Moscati. On 16th November 1975, Pope Paul VI declared Blessed Joseph Moscati, during a celebration in St. Peter's Square. That day it rained many times but the people who crowded the square followed with emotion the celebration till the end by sheltering from the rain under many umbrellas.

Instantaneous healing of a warrant officer of the prison guards, Costantino Nazzaro, born in Avellino on 22-05-1902. Mr Nazzaro was in perfect health till 1933 when he had got over the first symptoms of a mortal disease. He was suffering from the Addison disease. The prognosis was inauspicious because there were not cases of recovery and all the treatments were useful just for prolonging the resistance of the patient. In fact, in spite of treatments, Mr Nazzaro didn’t get better and doctors didn't give him any hope. But he knew the Servant of God Joseph Moscati in the Church of Gesù Nuovo and started to invoke him with his family. He went to Joseph Moscati fortnightly. One night he saw in his dreams Moscati operating him and when he woke up he had got over his illness.

Beatification of Joseph Moscati. Paul VI with the jesuits Molinari, Marranzini and Tripodoro Photo: Osservatore Romano

Raffaele Perrotta, born in Calvi Risorta (Caserta) in 1928, recovered instantaneously from cerebrospinal meningococcical meningitis between 7th and 8th February 1941. His relatives had already prepared his white suit to be buried with but after many prayers to the Servant of God Moscati, he suddenly and definitely recovered.

After long exams, finally in the consistory of the 28th April 1987, Pope John Paul II fixed the date of the canonization for 25th October of the same year. From 1st to 30th October the VII general assembly of the Bishops Synod was taking place in Rome. It dealt with "The lay vocation and mission in the Church and in the world at 20 years from the Second Vatican Council". It was the best coincidence: Joseph Moscati was a lay, who worked within the Church and in the world. His canonization was auspicious by scholars, doctors and university students, who remembered his figure of scientist and of religious man busy in curing the suffering people and in bringing them to Christ.

At 10 am of 25th October 1987, in St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II, before about 100.000 people, declared Saint Joseph Moscati, 60 years after his death. At the Mass for Canonization Giuseppe Montefusco, aged 29, took part with his mother, and offered to the Pope an image of the Christ in forged iron, made by himself in his workshop in Somma Vesuviana (Naples) where he still practises his job (he is a blacksmith).

Giuseppe Montefusco miraculously healed Giuseppe Montefusco was born in Somma Vesuviana (Naples) on 15th February 1958. At the end of 1978 he started to feel bad: he looked pale, felt tired, experienced vertigo and lack of appetite. As platelets and red corpuscles were falling, he was sent to Cardarelli Hospital on 13-4-1978. The diagnosis was unanimous: acute myeloblastic leukaemia. It was an incurable disease before chemotherapeutics and cytostatics. The medical literature shows that only a little part of patients, suffering from acute leukaemia non-lymphoid, survive over five years but it is necessary to be treated with extra intense chemotherapies. Starting from June 1979, Montefusco suddenly stopped all treatments and went back to his heavy work. His mother, Rosaria Rumieri, one night dreamt a photo of a doctor in a white coat with a number of people bringing him offerings. She also gave an offering of 2.000 lire. She told about his dream to his parish priest, who talked to her about the Blessed doctor Joseph Moscati, whose body was venerated in the Gesù Nuovo. The woman came to the Gesù Nuovo church, and she recognized the face of the photo she had seen in her dream. She also bought a picture of the future saint and paid 2.000 lire. Since then she started to pray Moscati, involving relatives and friends. Her son Giuseppe after a while recovered completely.

The miracle examined After the unexpected cure of Giuseppe Montefusco, in 1979, the case was opened in the Ecclesiastical Court of Naples; all its records were forwarded to the Congregation in charge of the Causes of Saints. A Committee of Doctors on December 3rd 1986 confirmed the diagnosis made adding that: “ the manner and the relative speed at which the permanent cure had taken place could not be explained by the available medical knowledge.” A team of Theologians, on 27th March 1987, acknowledged the validity of the proofs adduced - both juridical and theological. Cardinals in charge of the Process of Canonization expressed their positive opinion. Pope John Paul II fixed on 25th October as the day of the Canonization.

On 16th November 1975, Pope Paul VI declared Blessed Joseph Moscati, during a celebration in St.Peter's Square. That day it rained many times but the people who crowded the square followed with emotion the celebration till the end.

Canonization of Joseph Moscati: October 25, 1987 Photo: Osservatore Romano

In 1977, two years after his Beatification, the canonical recognition of the body started: his bones were recomposed, and his body was put in a bronze urn, made by Prof. Amedeo Garufi, under the Visitation altar.

People's devotion to Moscati was growing more and more. In view of the canonization, the recovery from leukemia or acute myeloblastic myelosis, of the young Giuseppe Montefusco, happened in 1979, was examined.

The doctors said he was done for. His mother, Rosaria Rumieri, discouraged for the fatal diagnosis, one night dreamt a photo of a doctor in a white coat. She told about his dream to his parish priest, who talked to her about the Blessed doctor Joseph Moscati. The woman came to the Gesù Nuovo church, and she recognized the face of the photo she had seen in her dream.

Since then she started to pray Moscati, involving relatives and friends.Her son Giuseppe after a while recovered completely. He didn't need to be cured anymore and started to work again. Later he got married happily, and now he lives with his wife and children.

After long exams, finally in the concistory of the 28th April 1987, Pope John Paul II fixed the date of the canonization for 25th October of the same year.

From 1st to 30th October the VII general assembly of the Bishops Synod was taking place, which dealt with "The lay vocation and mission in the Church and in the world at 20 years from the Second Vatican Council".

It was the best coincidence: Joseph Moscati was a lay, who worked within the Church and in the world. His canonization was auspicious by scholars, doctors and universitary students, who remembered his figure of scientist and of religious man busy in curing the sufferings and in bringing them to Christ.

At 10 am of 25th October 1987, in St.Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II, before about 100.000 people, declared Saint Giuseppe Moscati, 60 years after his death.

At the Mass for Canonization Giuseppe Fusco, aged 29, took part with his mother, who offered to the Pope an image of the Christ in forged iron, made by himself in his smithery in Somma Vesuviana (Naples).

On 16th July 1931 the informative proceedings started at the Naples Diocesan Curia.On 10th May 1973 the Congregation for the Saints cases, in Rome, issued the Decree on the heroical virtues, therefore Joseph Moscati was declared Venerable.

In the meanwhile the proceedings to enquire into two miracles were prepared for the trial: they were about two sudden recoveries attributed to Moscati. A warrant officer of the prison guards, Costantino Nazzaro, from Avellino, had got over his Addison desease.The doctors didn't give him any hope, but he and his family increased in their prayers to Joseph Moscati. One night he saw in his dreams Moscati operating him and when he woke up he had got over his illness.

The second miracle approved by the Congregation for the Saints' cases is the one of Raffaele Perrotta, from Calvi Risorta (Caserta), recovered from cerebrospinal meningococcical meningitis.When his relatives had already prepared his suit to be buried with, between 7th and 8th February 1941 he suddenly and definetly recovered.

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