Flying High for Autism

Sister, is there a saint for children with autism spectrum disorders?

No, there isn't.

This is where I come in! I love patron saint matching! I dug around for quite awhile trying to think of who it might be. I had something stuck in my head about a saint who had a really troubled childhood because of his behavior. A saint that started with the letter "J".....

It finally struck me! St. Joseph Cupertino! Everything about his early life was unfortunate. His family was dirt poor and there was just something...not right...about Joseph. He couldn't learn to read or write. He couldn't concentrate long enough to finish a sentence. He became a burden to the family. He was given to fits of temper. In the town of Cupertino, no one wanted to be around him. Even his mother had had enough.

He was apprenticed to a shoe maker, but he never learned to make or fix a shoe.

He was taken in at a Franciscan monastery, but they didn't know what to do with him either, because he would stop whatever he was doing and just stand in a stupor. He couldn't even pass out the bread at dinner time, because he couldn't remember the difference between white and wheat bread.

Poor fellow. He was even kicked out of the monastery. He went back home and his mother kicked him out of there. Nobody wanted him. But God wanted him.

His mother took him back to the monastery and gave them the what for. This time, the friars put Joseph in the stable to care for the monastery mule. And this time, things went very well. He became cheerful. He calmed down. He learned to read with great difficulty.

Here is my favorite part: He couldn't be a priest because he couldn't read well enough to pass the oral examine given by the bishop. He couldn't remember passages from the Bible and all of that. There was only one thing in the Bible that inspired him. The words in Luke "Blessed be the womb that bore Thee".

When he went before the bishop, the bishop's eye fell on those words, randomly selected and he asked Joseph to talk about that passage. Joseph could talk endlessly about that passage and only that passage. He became a priest.

God chooses who He wants.

It turns out that the reason Joseph had these 'stupors' was that he he was ultra sensitive to the world around him and the supernatural that exists in this world.

Ring a bell, those of your who are familiar with the autism spectrum?

As time went on, every little thing sent Joseph into a stupor, and then an ecstasy. The sound of the church bell, the utterance of the word "God", a candle, a lamb.

And then...Joseph would rise off the floor. And then ....Joseph would fly.

Yes, I said fly. He could fly straight up and kiss the cross on the top of the altar. He could fly across the church and hover in front of the Mary statue. He levitated before the Pope.

It wasn't long before he could no longer say Mass because he would float around and fly around, every moment of the Mass sending him into further ecstasy. He could read souls and bilocate.

He was a very special person. Very, very special.

How's that sound for a patron saint for autism? Difficult and misunderstood, with problems controlling temper but a host of special gifts locked inside waiting to be discovered.

A perfect match.