Joseph of Cupertino

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an Italian saint. He was said to have been remarkably unclever, but prone to miraculous levitation, and intense ecstasies that left him gaping. In turn, he is recognized as the patron saint of air travelers, aviators, people with a mental handicap, and bad students. He was canonized in 1767.

As a child, Joseph was a remarkably slow witted. He was given the pejorative nickname "the Gaper" due to his habit of staring blankly into space. He is also said to have had a violent temper.

Joseph was also often found wandering in a daze, winding up in different places in the friary unaware of how he got there.

On October 4, 1630, the town of Cupertino held a procession on the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. Legend holds that Joseph was assisting in the procession when he suddenly soared into the sky, where he remained hovering over the crowd. When he descended and realized what had happened, he became so embarrassed that he fled to his mother's house and hid. This was the first of many flights, which soon earned him the nickname "The Flying Saint."

Joseph's life changed dramatically after this incident. His flights continued and came with increasing frequency. His superiors, alarmed at his lack of control, forbade him from community exercises, believing he would cause too great a distraction for the friary. For the fact was, Joseph could not contain himself. On hearing the names of Jesus or Mary, the singing of hymns, during the feast of St. Francis, or while praying at Mass, he would go into dazed state and soar into the air, remaining there until a superior commanded him under obedience to revive.

Joseph's most famous flight allegedly occurred during a papal audience before Pope Urban VIII. When he bent down to kiss the Pope's feet, he was suddenly filled with reverence for Christ's Vicar on earth, and was lifted up into the air. Only when the Minister General of the Order, who was part of the audience, ordered him down was Joseph able to return to the floor.

Joseph could sense that the end was near, so he could be heard mumbling, "The jackass has now begun to climb the mountain!" The 'jackass' was his own body.

Because of his many 'flights', St. Joseph is the patron saint of those traveling by air, and is the patron saint of pilots who fly for the NATO Alliance.
here are numerous saints to whom the ability to fly or levitate in spite of their weight has been attributed. Most of these flying saints are mentioned as such in literature and sources associated with them.

The ability was also attributed to other figures in early Christianity. The apocryphal Acts of Peter gives a legendary tale of Simon Magus' death. Simon is performing magic in the forum, and in order to prove himself to be a god, he flies up into the air. The apostle Peter prays to God to stop his flying, and he stops mid-air and falls, breaking his legs, whereupon the crowd, previously non-hostile, stones him to death.

list of levitating saints:
* Saint Alphonsus Liguori
* Saint Archangela Girlani
* Saint Catherine of Siena
* Saint Christina the Astonishing
* Blessed Christina von Stommeln
* Saint Edmund Rich[5]
* Saint Francis of Paola
* Saint Francis Fasani
* Saint Francis Xavier
* Saint Gemma Galgani
* Saint Gerard Majella
* Saint John Bosco
* Saint John Joseph of the Cross
* Saint Joseph of Cupertino[6]
* Saint Ludgardis of Tongeren
* Saint Luke Thaumaturgus (Luke the Younger)[7]
* Saint Martin de Porres
* Saint Michael Garicoits
* Blessed Miguel Pro
* Saint Paul of the Cross
* Saint Peter Claver
* Saint Peter of Alcantara
* Saint Philip Neri
* Saint Theresa of Avila
* Saint Thomas Aquinas