Feast Day: July 30

Long after Justin’s death, Cardinal Massaia, who had ordained him, stated:

After 35 years I can still, to a large extent, recall the sermons which I listened to in those days, so great was the impression which he made on me, and also on others… To see this man, serious and pleasant at the same time, frugal in the matter of food, simple, modest and unobtrusive in his way of dressing, courteous and charitable in behavior, always ready to say a comforting word, never separated from his disciples whom he treated with the gentle authority of a father and the affectionate familiarity of a brother, always with them in whatever they were doing, at work, at meals, at prayer; to watch him as he celebrated Mass like someone in ecstasy, to see him present at prayer in common, recollected and angel-like, in a word, to see him living a life which combined the isolation of a hermit and the zeal of an apostle, all this was, for us, a living sermon.

(Kevin Mahoney, The Ebullient Phoenix, Vol. I, pp. 585-586)