Feast Day of St. Joseph Pignatelli
Jesuit confessor and one of the restorers of the Society of Jesus after its suppression in 1773. He was born in Saragossa, Spain, and became a Jesuit at the age of fifteen. When the Jesuits were suppressed at the command of the pope and under intense pressure from the European monarchs, he resided in Bologna, Italy, for two decades. In 1799, he opened a new semiofficial novitiate for the Jesuits, laying the foundation for the eventual restoration of the Society of Jesus by Pope Pius VII in 1814. Pope Pius XI described him as a priest of “manly and vigorous holiness,” and Pius XII termed him the “restorer of the Jesuits.” Joseph was canonized in 1954.