GIUSEPPE DELLO SPIRITO SANTO. - Portuguese mystical theologian, Discalced Carmelite, b. GIUSEPPE Barroso on Dec. 26, 1609, at Braga; called Lusitanus; d. at Madrid, Jan. 27, 1676.
He took the habit of the Discalced Carmelites in 1632 at Lisbon. An excellent preacher, he converted many sinners, guided many souls along the path of perfection, and was endowed with supernatural charisms. In 1654 he founded a convent of his Order at Braga, and later several others in other Portuguese cities; he declined the episcopal see offered him by the King.
Works: Cadena mystica carmelitana de los autores carmelitas descalzos... (Madrid 1678); Enucleatio mysticae theologiae s. Dionysii Areopagitae... (Cologne 1684, Rome 1927; critical ed. by Anastasio di S. Paolo); and many others.
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GIUSEPPE DELLO SPIRITO SANTO - GIUSEPPE CAFASSO
With the help of the widow Marianna Nasi, he founded the Daughters of St. Vincent—known as the Cottolenghine—for the care of the sick, including home visits. In 1832, after a brief interruption due to hostile intrigues, the Piccola Casa reopened at a place called Valdocco, where, within a decade, it rapidly expanded both in the growth of its departments for the insane, epileptics, deaf-mutes, foundlings, at-risk girls, rachitic children, and repentant women, and in the multiplication of religious families within it, both active and contemplative, with which the Saint endowed his institution.