Joseph Maria Desa was born on 17th June 1603 in Cupertino (Copertino), between Brindisi and Otranto, in the province of Lecce (region Puglia-Italy), in the then "Kingdom of Naples".  His father, Felice, was a poor carpenter who had some debts, and the creditors drove his mother, Francesca Panara, from her home, so Joseph was born in a stable, like Jesus and St.Francis.
During his childhood, he was seriously ill for a long time, and he miraculously recovered from his illness in the Shrine "Madonna delle Grazie" (Our Lady of the Graces) at Galatone, near Lecce.
At the age of eight, Joseph had an ecstatic vision while at school and this was renewed several times; He was also very slow and absent-minded, he wandered around, going nowhere, his mouth gaping open, so the other children nicknamed him "Bocca Aperta", (the Gaper).  He could not tell a story to the end and he often stopped in the middle of a sentence, because he could not find the right words. 

At the same time he was nervous and had an irascible temper, so nobody wanted Joseph...even his mother did not want him!  Since he could make nothing of books, he tried to learn the trade of shoemaking, but failed.  
He had two uncles in the Franciscan Order and, at the age of seventeen, he tried to become Franciscan, but was refused on account of his ignorance.  
In 1620, he was accepted as a novice by the Capuchins at Martina Franca near Taranto, but they sent him away after eight months, because he dropped piles of dishes, kept forgetting to do what he was told and could not seem to do anything right.

His mother was not at all pleased to have him back home again, so she finally got him accepted as a servant at the Franciscan Conventual monastery of "La Grottella" near Cupertino.  While he was there, as an "oblate" and a "lay brother", he gave evidence of great virtues, humility, obedience, and love of penance.
It was decided that he could become a real member of the Order and start studying for the priesthood.  Joseph was able to read, but poorly, and he still had a hard time with studies.
On 20th March 1627, the examiner asked him to explain the only thing he knew well, and Joseph was made a deacon.  
A year later, on 28th March, he was raised to the priesthood:   he was examined with a number of others.   The first candidates were tested, and the bishop, being more than satisfied with what he had heard, cut the examination short.
Joseph was among the fortunate candidates who were asked nothing, and was ordained along with the rest.  That's why he is the patron-saint of students.

He often went into ecstasy and talked with God.
He would stand still, fixed as a statue, insensible as a stone, and nothing could move him.
Everything that in any way had reference to Our Lord would put him into contemplation.  This happened also when he saw a holy picture or he heard the sound of a bell, church music, the name of God, of the Blessed Virgin or of a saint.
His brethren would use pins and burning embers to recall him to his senses, but he couldn't feel anything.  He called these ecstasies "fits of giddiness".
Once a prelate noticed that his hands were covered with sores and Joseph explained:"See, Father, what the brethren have to do to me when the fits of giddiness come on.... They have to burn my hands, they have to cut my fingers, that is what they have to do."  And Joseph laughed, as he so often laughed, but maybe it was laughter keeping back tears.
Frequently he would be raised from his feet and remain suspended in the air: in the church he would fly towards the altar or over it.
Over seventy times, people saw him rise from the ground while saying Mass or praying.
Pope Urban VIII, having seen him in ecstasy, said that should Joseph die first, he himself would give evidence of what he had seen. 

He would kneel down to pray before a statue in the garden, and the friars would see him rise in the air, still in a kneeling position.  In the refectory, he would suddenly rise from the ground with a dish of food in his hands or, when he was out in the country begging, he would fly into a tree.  Once, when some workmen were going to plant a huge stone cross in its socket, Joseph rose above them, took up the cross and placed it in the socket for them.

In 1645, when he lived in the Holy Convent of Assisi, the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, the High Admiral of Castile, spoke with him in his cell and said that his wife too would like to meet him.   Joseph went down to the church, saw a statue of our Lady over the altar and straightway flew above the onlookers to its feet.  After a while, he returned to the floor and then to his cell, having said nothing to the Admiral's wife and their large retinue.

An incessant crowd sought help and advice in Joseph's confessional, and he converted many to a truly Christian life.  At Assisi, the duke of Brunswick and Hanover, after visiting him, abjured Lutheranism and became a Catholic. He wrought a lot of miracles, especially among the poor. He would touch blind eyes and they would see, he would lift up a sick child and it would be cured, he would write out the benediction of St. Francis and it would be passed round a village and work wonders.

When his brethren came to speak to him, he read their thoughts before they spoke, and sometimes he would read there more than they wished him to know.  One morning he entered the church to say Mass, and announced that the Pope had died during the night.  He made the same announcement for the deaths of Urban VIII and Innocent X. 

Unfortunately, there were some among his brethren, who did not believe in these "impossible and incredible" things.  Besides, Joseph was not the kind of person to whom such things would happen... rather, he was generally a trouble in the community. Therefore he was an impostor!  He was reported to the Vicar General, who believed what was said,  Joseph was called to stand his trial before the inquisitors of Naples.
In October 1638, he left the convent "La Grottella" and moved to Naples, to the Franciscan Conventual monastery of "San Lorenzo Maggiore".  It was rumoured that a saint was living there and a huge crowd of Neapolitans gathered around the monastery.  Joseph was afraid to enter the Tribunal of Inquisition, but St.Anthony of Padua appeared to him and encouraged him.   He was interrogated, and he also went into ecstacy, remaining suspended in the air.

The inquisitors were unable to convict him of anything, so they sent him for further examination to the General Minister of the Order in Rome. He saw Joseph's humility, began to doubt whether all was true that was said against him, and took him to see the Holy Father.  In the end, nothing could be proved against Joseph, but the Tribunal of Inquisition decided to keep him in safe custody.  He was was sent from one lonely convent to another, and treated with the strictest rigor. 

Under pain of excommunication he was forbidden to speak to anyone, except the religious around him.  The explanation is not clear. Maybe the Inquisition doubted whether it was safe to allow Joseph, with his mysterious powers and his strange character, to wander as much as he liked.   He lived since 1639 until 1653 in the Holy Convent of Assisi.  In July 1653, he was suddenly moved to the lonely Capuchin Convent of "Pietrarubbia", near Pesaro, and, later, he was trasferred to another "hiding-place", the Monastery of "Fossombrone", near Pesaro.

Joseph did not know, and he never asked, but surely he wondered why he had been taken from his own Conventuals and delivered over to the Capuchins. Nevertheless, he retained his resigned and joyous spirit, submitting confidently to Divine Providence.

He was always kept in strict enclosure and forbidden even to write or receive letters.  For the last ten years of his life he seems to have lived virtually in prison, always being kept away from the crowds who persisted in seeking him.  In spite of all this care, he could not be hidden, and the pilgrims always succeded in discovering his "hiding-places". 

On 10th July 1657, six years before his death,  Joseph was given back to his own Conventuals brethren and sent to a convent in the town of Osimo, in the province of Ancona, in region Marche, near one of the capitai cities of faith in the world: Loreto.  (According to a religious tradition, never confirmed by history, Christ's native home was transported here by some angels).  Joseph practised mortification and fasting to such a degree, that he kept seven Lents of forty days each year and, during many of them, he tasted no food except on Thursdays and Sundays.  

He celebrated the Mass for the last time on 15th August 1663 and died on 18th September.  The people flocked to see him for the last time, to touch him and to cut a piece of his holy habit.  His brethren had to hide his body, to protect it from the crowd   Now it is in the crypt of the Basilica dedicated to him.

Joseph was beatified by Benedict XIV on 24th February 1753, and canonized on 16th July 1767 by Clement XIII.  He is the patron saint of students, air travelers and pilots.  His feast day is on 18th September.