Joseph (Spanish José, Italian Giuseppe) Pignatelli was born on December 27, 1737 at Zaragoza to the noble Neapolitan Pignatelli family. In 1753, at the age of 15, Joseph entered the Society of Jesus at Tarragona.
In 1767, King Charles III of Spain expelled the Society of Jesus from all Spanish territories — the Spanish Jesuit expulsion that preceded the 1773 papal suppression. Joseph and the Spanish Jesuits sailed for the Papal States (Corsica and Ferrara) in exile.
In 1773, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the entire Society of Jesus by the bull *Dominus ac Redemptor* — the Jesuit suppression of 1773. Joseph and the surviving Jesuits undertook the vocation of the preservation-in-exile of the Jesuit charism.
In 1793, Joseph led the restored Society of Jesus in the Duchy of Parma — the first restored Jesuit province. Joseph served as Provincial of the restored Italian Jesuits from 1799 until his death in 1811.
Joseph undertook the systematic diplomatic effort to restore the entire Society of Jesus — with Pope Pius VII. Although Joseph died in 1811 — three years before the 1814 formal papal restoration of the Society of Jesus by Pope Pius VII (bull *Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclesiarum*, August 7, 1814) — Joseph is institutionally recognized as the restorer of the Society of Jesus.
He died at Rome on November 15, 1811 at the age of 73. Canonized June 12, 1954 by Pope Pius XII.