If you’re a lay person who would appreciate some pointers on how to be holy while “in the world,” don’t miss this brand new Italian film about the life of St. Giuseppe Moscati, aka “the holy physician of Naples.” EWTN will air Part 1 at 8 p.m. ET on Nov. 14, and Part II at 8 p.m. ET on Nov. 21.

St. Giuseppe was born into a wealthy family, the seventh of nine children, and was actually expected to follow in the footsteps of his famous father, who was a prominent and holy judge. However, when his older brother, a lieutenant in the artily, sustained an incurable head injury after falling from a horse, young Giuseppe decided to become a physician.

He could have made his fortune as a physician, professor and administrator – all of which he was. Instead, he gave all his money to the poor and homeless, whom he often served free of charge.

In a letter to a former student, he once wrote: "Remember that you must treat not only bodies, but also souls, with counsel that appeals to their minds and hearts rather than with cold prescriptions to be sent in to the pharmacist."

He was known to pray before attempting to diagnose a patient, something at which he excelled. He used a holistic approach which included the then-new science of biochemistry.

St. Giuseppe was quite heroic during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius as well as during the cholera epidemic of World War I, when he personally treated over 3,000 patients – and these are just a few of his virtues.

“Only one science is unshakeable and unshaken, the one revealed by God, the science of the hereafter!” he once wrote. “In all your works, look to heaven, to the eternity of life and of the soul, and orient yourself then much differently from the way that merely human considerations might suggest, and your activity will be inspired for the good.”

St. Giuseppe died in 1927, at the age of 46. Even today, more than 80 years after his death, he continues to heal, performing miracles by God’s grace.
 

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