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Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism

The terms of the depositions upon which rests the story of St. John Joseph's experience is in Naples Cathedral. A few years before his death (1734),when the old man could only get about with the aid of a stick, he ventured to mingle in the dense crowd which came there to venerate the blood of St. Januarius.

In returning from the altar rails his stick was knocked out of his hand, and without this he was helpless. Accordingly he turned to his dear San Gennaro and begged him to come to his aid. On this he found himself lifted up in the crowd and without touching the ground he was carried right out of the door of the cathedral. There he sat down on the levitation steps, and when a friend of his, the Duke of Lauriano, asked him what was the matter, he replied merrily: "Nothing, only I have lost my steed."

The Duke offered him his carriage, but the old man answered, "No, no; it will come, the stick will come."

Pushing his way into the building the Duke soon after perceived that there was immense excitement among the crowd, who were shouting, Miracolo, miracolo, and looking up he saw the Saint's stick moving through the air a foot and a half above the heads of the people. Then the stick floated out of the church and bumped against its owner, who clutched it and set off home to rescue himself from the over zealous veneration of those who surrounded him.

One would be inclined to dismiss such a tale as pure fable from beginning to end, if it were not that there seems to be good evidence that St. John Joseph was himself on very many occasions seen raised in the air, sometimes a few inches, sometimes five or six feet, and once to the roof of the church, while in 1728 he took part in a procession, making believe to walk, but in fact, we are assured, carried through the air in ecstasy a distance of two miles, half a foot or more above the ground.