Josef di Michele Coen

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Josef di Michele Coen was born in 1854 into a poor Jewish family in Italy. In 1864, at about ten years old, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. While delivering shoes to a priest, he was seized and brought to the Casa dei Neofiti and kept for baptism. The papal authorities refused to surrender him despite protests from his father and the Jewish community. The case caused a European controversy, especially in France, where the ambassador complained to the government. The papal authorities said the boy had chosen to convert to Christianity of his own free will, and that the pope should not interfere with such a decision. Reportedly, the pope asked Coen if he embraced Christianity of his own accord; Coen replied that he preferred a religion that offered him fine clothes, good food, and toys over living with his poor family and as a shoemaker. As a result, on Sept. 29, 1864, Coen was baptized at St. Stanislaus Chapel, with Cardinal Caggiano officiating and Count De Maistre as godfather. He received the name Stanislaus Maria Michael Joseph Pius Eugenio. The actions caused immense suffering for his family: his sister died from the stress, his mother went insane and was taken to relatives, and his father had to leave Rome to escape harassment. The affair also prompted other abuses and persecutions. Coen was not released until 1870, after the fall of the papal government and Italian government measures; he was returned to his mother in Livorno. What happened to him after that is unknown.