At the end of my last column, I asked If someday someone was to examine my life, what would they conclude? Do I love God back?
A Man of Science
Since then, I have been reading about Saint Giuseppe Moscati. As a man of science, he is known for research leading to the use of insulin for diabetes. His mother died of it, inspiring him to find a cure. According to Giuseppi Moscati: A Man, A Physician, and a Scientist, “Moscati was the first to introduce insulin therapy in Italy and can therefore be considered a pioneer of modern diabetology and endocrinology.”
Moscati became involved in other scientific endeavors as well. He was a brilliant man. In a world where it is fashionable to say you cannot believe in science and God, St. Moscatti is another example to the contrary.
Yet there is so much more to his story than his ability to see that science and Catholicism are complementary.
Some people we revere as saints only grew in holiness later in life. St. Moscati was not that kind of person. At almost any stage of his life, if someone were to examine it, they would conclude that indeed, he did love God back.
Giuseppe’s Family Loved God
According to Saint Guiseppe Moscoti: Doctor of the Poor, by Antonio Tripodoro, SJ, Moscati’s parents provided a good example of loving God. His brother testified:
Our parents…were very fervent practicing Christians, and proof of this is their scrupulosity in educating us in the bosom of the Catholic religion by their regular attendance to their Christian duties and by the daily recitation in common of the Holy Rosary of Our Lady.
Guiseppe’s father was a magistrate judge. When on vacation, he attended daily Mass and often served at the altar. Tripodoro tells us the family moved to Ancona when Giuseppi was a year old. During their time here, they found Freemasonry prevailing.
Public officials, in order to keep their post and advance their career, were often compelled to join the sect and stop performing their religious duties. Presiding Judge Francesco, however, held firm and never submitted to the moral extortion coming from various parties…For him faith in God was greater than external pressures and fear that merely human considerations could strike in him.
Guiseppe grew up to be like his father. In other words, he never gave up his principles.
He could have followed in his father’s footsteps and worked in law. Instead, Giuseppe decided to study medicine. His older brother, Albert, influenced him in this decision. Albert was a lieutenant in the artillery. One day he fell off his horse and sustained damage that lasted the rest of his life. According to Michael J Miller:
For years Giuseppe helped care for his injured brother at home, and as he matured he reflected on the limited effectiveness of human remedies and the consoling power of religion.
St. Moscatti was an excellent student. He received his medical degree in August 1903. Given the days we live in, with all the strife and disunity, this from Tripodoro’s book especially struck me:
Guiseppe kept his distance from all extremism and, understanding that his main occupation was to study, he avoided everything that might distract him. Moreover, he knew very well that serious, deep study requires tranquility and serenity of spirit. How could he have applied himself to his work if he had followed so many of his companions who were creating disturbances and shouting in the public squares?
Serve and Love God
I think he was on to something in avoiding extremism and distraction. Our work is to love and serve God, and lead others to Him. How can we hear God if we are too distracted or too involved in creating disturbances? For example, spending time on Facebook posts berating those who vote differently from you does not bring us or others nearer to God. It clearly does not further our work.
In 1906 Mt. Vesuvius erupted. A nearby town contained a hospital with residents unable to leave on their own. In an example of heroic virtue, Dr. Moscati risked his life to show up at the hospital and help evacuate it. The ash was so thick that the roof caved in just after the last resident left.
Dr. Moscati was also a professor and a coroner. A former assistant relates an incident where students were invited to go to the autopsy room. Tripodoro tells us the invitation surprised them because there were no autopsies on the schedule that day. However, the doctor had something else in mind.
The assistant says that as they arrived, they noticed a crucifix on the wall. Students were looking intently at it. She concludes, “We have been invited to pay homage to Christ, the Life who was returning to that place of death after too long an absence.”
The Sick are the Faces of Christ
St. Giuseppe had a habit of treating poor patients for free and giving them money for their prescriptions. After his death, a piece of paper was found in one of his books where he had written:
The sick are the faces of Jesus Christ. Many unfortunate wretches, delinquents, and blasphemers come to be admitted to a hospital by an arrangement of the mercy of God, who wants them to be saved! In the hospitals, the missions of the nuns, the doctors, and the nurses is to collaborate with this infinite mercy by their help, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.
Reading this helps me to understand his generosity with the poor. He is seeing the face of Jesus and trying to be an instrument of God’s mercy.
St. Moscati lived a life of love and service to God. His upbringing certainly played a role. His devotion to Eucharist (which he received daily) and his well-known love of Mary helped him continue to grow closer to God. He prayed the rosary daily and spoke of Mary often. He is proof that to love Mary is not a distraction from God. Mary always leads us to God.
Saints Who Are Scientists
I frequently write about saints who were scientists. To me, this is an important topic. Science done well helps us to know and love God better. And in the words of St. John Paul II, in his Encyclical Fides et Ratio:
Faith and reason are like the two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.
St. Moscati, in a letter written to a former student, expressed it beautifully:
Only one science is unshakable and unshaken, the one revealed by God, the science of the hereafter!
In all your works, look to Heaven, and to the eternity of life and of the soul, and then you will have a very different orientation from the one that merely human considerations would suggest to you, and your work will be inspired for the better.
On April 12, 1927, the world lost this holy man. He died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 46, after living a life where nobody doubted he loved God back. When my time comes, I hope the same can be said about me.
