Joseph Oriol was born on 23 November 1650, he studied at the University of Barcelona, and received his doctorate in theological studies on 1 August 1674.

He visited Rome in 1686, and was granted a benefice in the church of Santa Maria del Pi in Barcelona, at the behest of Pope Innocent XI.

Wanting to experience martyrdom, he went to Rome in April 1698 to offer himself for the foreign missions, but he fell sick at Marseilles and returned to Barcelona.

He was said to have prophetic and miraculous powers; the dying, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the lame, and the paralytic, were said to be instantly cured by him.

He was buried in the Santa Maria del Pi Church in Barcelona.