od.
Wherefore he journeyed to Naples, that he might impart to the fathers of
the order his inclination; and they, having prudently considered his
vocation, admitted him to the novitiate. He manifested so much ardor,
that the superiors deemed it fitting to clothe him with the habit before
the usual time had expired. This happy consummation of his wishes took
place before he had completed his sixteenth year. He adopted the name of
John Joseph of the Cross, and on the feast of St. John the Baptist, in
the year of our Lord 1671, he completed his edifying novitiate, and took
the solemn vows of his order; whose holy founder, St. Francis of Asisi,
and St. Peter of Alcantara, he proposed to himself as models.

In obedience to the express desire of his superior, our saint submitted
to receive the dignity of the priesthood, and was appointed to hear
confessions; in which task he displayed a profound theological learning,
which he had acquired solely at the foot of the cross. But, carried
onward by an ardent love of the cross, whose treasures he more and more
discovered as he advanced in the dignity and functions of the sacred
ministry, he resolved to establish in the wood adjoining his convent a
kind of solitude, where, after the manner of the ancient Fathers of the
Desert, he might devote himself entirely to grayer and penitential
austerities, and give to the Church an illustrious and profitable
example of the sacerdotal spirit exercised in a perfect degree. There
was found in the wood a pleasant fountain, whose waters healed the sick;
and hard by he erected a little church, and round about it, at
intervals, five small hermitages, wherein, with his companions, he
renewed the austere and exalted life of the old anchorites, and advanced
greatly in spirituality. And in order that no care or worldly thought
might ruffle the sublime tranquillity of this contemplative life, the
convent had charge of daily supplying the holy solitary with food.

But the superiors, who knew the rich treasure they possessed in our
saint, when he had attained the age of twenty-four, chose him for master
of the novices; in which new office, so far from allowing himself the
smallest dispensation, he was foremost in setting the example of a
scrupulous observance of every rule; assiduous in his attendance in
choir, constant in silence, in prayer, and recollection. He was careful
to instil into the hearts of those under his charge an ardent love of
Our Lord J