Giuseppina Catanea (Blessed Mary Josephine of Jesus Crucified) was born in Naples on February 18, 1896. After commercial studies, in 1918 she entered the monastery of Sts Teresa and Joseph of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, built on the hill of the Ponti Rossi, where her sister Antonietta had already entered.
Of delicate health, in 1912 she was struck by tuberculosis, paresis and spinal meningism, but ten years later she recovered, by touching a relic of St. Francis Xavier. It was the beginning of an apostolate that the «holy nun», as she was called, carried out throughout her life, welcoming sick people and people in search of spiritual comfort to the monastery.
Her self-denial continued uninterruptedly even when, at the age of fifty, she was confined to a wheelchair. In September 1945, she was elected prioress, holding that office until her death on March 14, 1948.
She was beatified in the Cathedral of Naples on June 1st, 2008, during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI.