Saint Joseph is the husband of the Virgin Mary and the legal father of Jesus — the one whom the four Gospels call "the son of Joseph"[1]. A craftsman of Nazareth, a descendant of King David, he left not a single word in the New Testament: he is known only through his actions, always commanded in a dream and carried out without delay. Yet it was to him that God entrusted the keeping of his two greatest treasures, Jesus and Mary.
The Gospels say nothing of his birth or his death: no ancient source fixes those years, and the chronology of Joseph's life remains one of the most uncertain in the whole New Testament. What is known with certainty fits into a few scenes: the virginal conception announced in a dream, the nativity at Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the finding of the child in the Temple. After that, nothing more: Joseph disappears from the narrative before the public life of Jesus, which very early nourished the conviction that he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary — hence his patronage of the dying.
Long discreet in Western devotion, his cult expanded spectacularly from the late Middle Ages, carried by theologians such as Jean Gerson and Bernardine of Siena, then by Saint Teresa of Avila, its great propagator. The movement culminated on 8 December 1870, when Blessed Pius IX proclaimed him Patron of the universal Church. From Leo XIII to Francis, six popes have since built a true theology of Saint Joseph: Quamquam pluries (1889), Redemptoris Custos (1989), Patris Corde (2020).
This article covers the life, holiness and cult of Saint Joseph. For the two neighboring dossiers already covered by Ignispedia, see the dedicated articles: Why is Joseph patron of the Church? and How did Saint Joseph live in the Divine Will?.
Saint Joseph in the Gospels: what the New Testament really says
Everything the Church holds as certain about Joseph comes from four chapters: the infancy narratives of Matthew (chs. 1–2) and Luke (chs. 1–2), supplemented by a few scattered verses. Matthew tells the story from Joseph's point of view; Luke, from Mary's. Neither puts a single word on his lips. It is through his acting silences that the Gospels portray him.
A man of the house of David
Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy culminating in Joseph: "Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ"[2]. The angel himself calls him "Joseph, son of David"[3]. This detail is not decorative: it is christologically decisive. The Messiah had to be "of the seed of David" (2 Sam 7:12–16; Is 11:1). Yet Jesus has no human father. It is therefore through Joseph, his legal father, that Jesus is juridically inserted into the royal line of David and receives his right to the messianic throne.
The two genealogies, Matthew's (1:1–17) and Luke's (3:23–38), do not coincide: Matthew descends from David through Solomon, Luke through Nathan. The Fathers and exegetes have proposed several harmonizations — the levirate hypothesis (Julius Africanus, as early as the 3rd century), according to which Joseph would have had a distinct legal father and biological father, or the idea that Luke actually traces the line of Mary[4]. The debate remains open, but it does not touch the essential point: Joseph is "son of David", and through him so is Jesus.
"Joseph her husband, being a just man" (Mt 1:19)
The only adjective the Gospel applies directly to Joseph is this one: δίκαιος, just. In the Bible, the just man (Hebrew tsaddiq) is not merely the honest man: he is the believer attuned to God's will, the man of the Psalms who "meditates on the law of the Lord day and night" (Ps 1). The whole drama of Matthew's first chapter lies in how this justice manifests itself before a mystery beyond Joseph.
"And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly." — Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 1:19[5]
Three readings of Joseph's "justice"
Why does Joseph want to "send Mary away quietly" when he finds her with child? Tradition has proposed three interpretations, long discussed by the Fathers:
| Reading | What Joseph thinks of Mary | Why he wants to withdraw | Defenders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading of suspicion | He believes her guilty | In justice, he cannot cover adultery; in kindness, he avoids scandal and stoning | Saint Augustine, majority Latin current |
| Reading of perplexity | He does not know what to think | Faced with an inexplicable fact, he prefers to withdraw without judging | Saint Jerome |
| Reading of reverence | He senses God's work | He judges himself unworthy to be associated with such a mystery and wishes to step aside | Saint Bernard, Saint Thomas Aquinas |
The reading of reverence has the favor of great medieval theology: Joseph, discerning in Mary a divine mystery of which he judges himself unworthy, would step aside out of respect rather than suspicion. Saint Thomas Aquinas reports this reading in his Catena aurea on Mt 1:19 (after Origen)[6], in line with Saint Bernard (Super Missus est, homily II). Whichever interpretation is retained, the angel's words — "do not fear to take Mary your wife" (Mt 1:20) — confirm that Joseph's justice is made of obedience and delicacy, never of legalistic hardness.
The angel's message and the acceptance of the mystery
Four times Joseph receives a message from God, and each time in a dream: to take Mary into his home (Mt 1:20–24), to flee into Egypt (Mt 2:13), to return from it (Mt 2:19–20), to settle in Nazareth (Mt 2:22–23). The pattern is always identical: the angel speaks, Joseph rises, Joseph obeys. "When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife" (Mt 1:24).
It is this immediate obedience that defines his faith. Where Zechariah doubts (Lk 1:18–20), Joseph acts. Saint John Paul II made this the heart of his re-reading: Joseph answers God with an "obedience of faith" analogous to Abraham's and Mary's[7]. He accepts a child who is not his, a mystery he does not understand, a mission that overturns his life — and he does so without a word.
From Bethlehem to Egypt: the father who protects
The infancy narratives show Joseph in a constant role: the one who protects the threatened Child's life. It is he who leads Mary to Bethlehem for the census (Lk 2:4–5), he who is present at the nativity, he who presents the child in the Temple (Lk 2:22–24). Then, warned that Herod wants to destroy the child, it is he who "rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt"[8]. The Holy Family becomes a family of refugees, and Joseph the father who saves. Francis saw in this episode the image of Joseph's "creative courage": not a passive man, but one who, faced with danger, always finds a way to protect his own[9].
The finding in the Temple: the last scene where Joseph appears
The last Gospel episode in which Joseph is present is the finding of Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:41–52). Jesus is twelve years old; lost for three days, he is found among the teachers. Here we read the only words Mary addresses to her son in Joseph's presence: "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously" (Lk 2:48). Mary says "your father" — the title the Gospel recognizes in Joseph. Jesus' answer, "did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?", already opens the distance between Joseph's fatherhood and God's, without ever abolishing it.
After this scene, Luke sums up thirty years in one formula: Jesus "went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them"[10]. That is all. Joseph will not appear again.
"Is not this the carpenter's son?": Joseph's trade
When Jesus teaches in the synagogue of Nazareth, his townsfolk marvel: "Is not this the carpenter's son?"[11]. The Greek word is τέκτων (tektōn). It does not designate exactly the modern joiner: it is the building craftsman, who works wood but also sometimes stone, and makes ploughs, yokes, doors, roof timbers, furniture[12]. Joseph is thus a skilled manual worker, a man of the people. Jesus learned this trade at his side: in Nazareth, the Gospel itself calls him "the carpenter" (Mk 6:3).
John Paul II draws the lesson: at Nazareth, Joseph's daily work, carried on in the workshop together with Jesus, brought human work close to the mystery of Redemption[13].
This detail, seemingly trivial, would have an immense doctrinal posterity: it is on it that Pius XII would base, in 1955, the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, making the craftsman of Nazareth the patron and model of all who earn their bread by work.
The silence of Joseph
One fact dominates every reading of the Gospels: Joseph never says anything. Not one word of his is recorded. Mary sings the Magnificat, Zechariah the Benedictus, Simeon the Nunc dimittis; Joseph is silent. This silence is not emptiness: in spiritual tradition it has become the very place of his greatness. Joseph is the man of recollection, who hears the Word and fulfils it instead of commenting on it. The liturgy and the saints saw in it the model of the interior life: from Joseph we do not learn what to say, but what to do. This acting silence makes him, in a formula now classic, the gospel of everyday life — the hidden holiness of work, family and obedience.
What the Gospels do not say: traditions, apocrypha and debates
Whatever goes beyond the few canonical scenes belongs to tradition or to the apocryphal writings. This must be said plainly, for many popular images of Joseph — the white-bearded old man, the widower laden with children, the death between Jesus and Mary — come not from the Gospels but from later narratives of very unequal value. Distinguishing them is not a sceptical reflex: it is the condition of a solid devotion.
The apocryphal sources: Protoevangelium of James and History of Joseph the Carpenter
Two ancient texts shaped the Christian imagination of Joseph. The Protoevangelium of James (c. 150) recounts how Joseph, presented as an aged widower, was designated by a miraculous sign to become the guardian of Mary, a virgin consecrated to the Temple[14]. The History of Joseph the Carpenter (Coptic then Arabic text, 4th–7th century) describes at length Joseph's death, at one hundred and eleven years of age, with Jesus and Mary at his bedside[15]. From this last narrative comes Joseph's patronage of the happy death.
These texts are not inspired, and the Church recognizes no doctrinal authority in them. They contain legendary elements, sometimes theologically fragile. But they bear witness to an ancient veneration, and beyond their improbabilities they carried two sound intuitions that tradition retained: the virginity of Joseph and Mary's marriage, and the holiness of his death.
Was Joseph an aged widower? East and West
From these apocrypha was born the representation, chiefly Eastern, of an aged widower Joseph, already father of several children by a first marriage. This image has an apologetic advantage: it protects Mary's virginity by making the "brothers of Jesus" older half-brothers, sons of Joseph. Byzantine iconography fixed it permanently: on Nativity icons, Joseph is an old man seated apart, pensive.
The Latin West, under Saint Jerome's influence, instead favored the image of a young and virginal Joseph. Later Western theology even saw a fittingness in it: Mary's virginal marriage required a husband who was himself virginal, vigorous, able to work and protect his family. This is the image dominating Baroque art and modern devotion — the robust Joseph carrying the Child, lily in hand.
The "brothers of Jesus" and Joseph's virginity
The Gospels mention "brothers" and "sisters" of Jesus (Mk 6:3; Mt 13:55–56). How is this reconciled with the perpetual virginity of Mary, which the Church holds as dogma? The debate, an ancient one, opposes three hypotheses.
The three hypotheses
| Hypothesis | Who the "brothers" are | Joseph | Status in the Church |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hieronymian | Cousins: in Aramaic, "brother" also denotes close relatives | Ever virginal | Current position of the Latin Church, since Saint Jerome |
| Epiphanian | Sons of Joseph by a first marriage | A widower, then virginal with Mary | Tradition of Eastern Christianity and Orthodoxy |
| Helvidian | Children of Mary and Joseph born after Jesus | Ordinary married life after the nativity | Rejected: incompatible with Mary's perpetual virginity |
Saint Jerome, in his treatise Against Helvidius (383), vigorously refutes the third thesis and establishes the Western reading: the "brothers" are relatives, and Mary as Joseph remain virgins[16]. The first two hypotheses, Hieronymian and Epiphanian, are both compatible with the Catholic faith; the third, upheld by Helvidius in the 4th century and taken up by some Reformers, contradicts constant Tradition. For the detail of this question, see the dedicated article on the perpetual virginity of Mary.
When and how did Joseph die?
Joseph's total absence during Jesus' public life, and still more beneath the Cross — where Jesus entrusts Mary to John and not to a living husband (Jn 19:26–27) — very early convinced tradition that Joseph had died before Jesus' public ministry. Neither the date nor the circumstances are known. But the conviction that he passed away "between Jesus and Mary", surrounded by the two holiest beings in history, made him the patron of the happy death — the one invoked to obtain a peaceful, Christian end. Pope Benedict XV would officially consecrate this patronage in his motu proprio Bonum sane (1920)[17].
What are these traditions worth? The Catholic compass
Should these traditions be rejected because they are not in the Gospels? No. The Catholic rule is to distinguish degrees of certainty without falling into the modernist contempt for all that is ancient. Three levels emerge: what the Gospels affirm (legal fatherhood, justice, trade, protection of the Child) is certain; what Tradition firmly holds (virginity of the marriage, eminent holiness, death before the public life) is sure; what the apocrypha add (the age of 111, the first marriage, the details of the death) is probable or simply pious, to be received with prudence, never as an article of faith. This hierarchy does not weaken devotion: it founds it on the rock of the Gospels rather than on the sand of legends.
The holiness of Joseph: a virginal marriage and a real fatherhood
The great theological question raised by Joseph is this: how is he truly Mary's husband and Jesus' father, when their union is virginal and Jesus is not his? The Church answered with remarkable precision, against two symmetrical errors: making Joseph a mere extra, or making his marriage a fiction.
A true marriage, without carnal union
Saint Augustine established it first, against the idea that marriage would require bodily union: the marriage of Joseph and Mary was an authentic marriage, because it possessed the three goods of marriage — fidelity, offspring (Jesus, received and raised as their son) and sacrament, that is, the indissoluble bond of hearts[18]. Virginity does not destroy their marriage: it elevates it.
Saint Thomas Aquinas systematizes: marriage is essentially a union of souls and a consent, and carnal union, though ordinarily linked to marriage, does not constitute its essence. The marriage of Joseph and Mary was therefore "most true" (verissimum), and even the most perfect of marriages, since it realized in purity what every marriage signifies[19]. This doctrine founds Joseph's unique place: he is not Mary's guardian nor the appointed keeper of the child; he is her true husband.
A real fatherhood, though not carnal
From this true marriage follows a true fatherhood. Joseph is not Jesus' biological father, but he is far more than an adoptive father in the modern sense. Saint John Paul II formulated this crisply:
"Mary's marriage is the juridical basis of Joseph's fatherhood. It was to assure a fatherly presence for Jesus that God chose Joseph to be Mary's spouse." — Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos, no. 7[20]
The Catechism takes up this idea: Jesus was "obedient" to Joseph (Lk 2:51), recognizing in him the real paternal authority God himself had conferred on him[21]. Joseph gives Jesus his name, his lineage, his trade, his home, his human upbringing. Latin tradition calls him foster father (pater nutritius); the East, betrothed; the Catechism and the liturgy, simply husband of the Virgin. Francis, borrowing the image of the Polish writer Jan Dobraczyński (The Shadow of the Father), would add that of the father who is for Jesus the shadow of the heavenly Father on earth:
"In an evocative image, he defines Joseph as the shadow on earth of the heavenly Father: he watches over Jesus, protects him, never leaving him to follow in his footsteps. [...] Fathers are not born, but made. A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child." — Pope Francis, Patris Corde, no. 7[22]
The "just" man par excellence: holiness in the hidden everyday
In what does Joseph's holiness consist? Not in spectacular miracles, of which the Gospels say nothing, but in the perfection of everyday life. Manual work, family life, silent obedience, poverty, protection of his own: Joseph sanctifies the ordinary. That is why tradition holds him the greatest of saints after Mary — placed immediately after her in the litany of the saints and in the hierarchy of holiness, because none was closer to Jesus and Mary, nor more intimately associated with the mystery of the Incarnation.
This holiness of the hidden made Joseph a privileged model of the interior life. Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Francis de Sales, later Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, made him the discreet master of union with God in the humblest tasks. Modern spirituality recognizes a path here: "doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way", sanctifying work and family — what the liturgy still celebrates every 1 May.
Joseph and the Holy Family of Nazareth
The thirty years of Nazareth — the hidden life — are Joseph's invisible masterpiece. There, under his roof, in his workshop, at his table, God willed to grow "in wisdom and in stature, and in grace" (Lk 2:52). The Catechism teaches that the hidden life of Nazareth allows every man to share "in the holiness of ordinary life marked by silence, work and prayer"[23]. The Holy Family thus becomes the model of every Christian family, and Joseph the guardian of this domestic sanctuary.
In the spirituality of the Divine Will according to Luisa Piccarreta, the Holy Family of Nazareth holds a singular place: Jesus, Mary and Joseph live there in perfect union with the divine will, a model of the holiness to come. Ignispedia devotes a separate article to this dimension — see how Saint Joseph lived in the Divine Will — to which we refer here without duplicating it.
The cult of Saint Joseph through the centuries
Remarkable fact: the saint closest to Jesus after Mary was one of the last to receive a developed cult in the West. Understanding this paradox illuminates the whole history of the devotion.
Why Joseph was never "canonized"
A clarification is needed, for it often surprises: Saint Joseph never underwent a formal canonization. The juridical procedure of canonization, with trial and pontifical decree, only took shape in the second millennium. Joseph belongs to the category of saints "of immemorial tradition": his cult was not decreed, it was received by the Church from the earliest centuries, like that of the apostles and the first martyrs. His title of saint therefore rests on living Tradition itself, not on a dated juridical act — which, far from weakening it, roots it all the more deeply.
Eastern origins and the relative silence of the West
The cult of Joseph appears first in the East. The Copts celebrated him from the 4th century; Byzantine calendars commemorate him on the Sunday after Christmas, with David and James. In the West, his mention is found in a few Carolingian martyrologies (9th century), but without a widely spread proper feast. Throughout the first Latin millennium, Joseph remains in the shadows — as if continuing, in the liturgy, the silence he had kept in the Gospel.
The medieval flowering: Gerson and Bernardine of Siena
The turning point comes in the 14th–15th centuries. Two great figures revive the devotion. The chancellor of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson (1363–1429), defends at the Council of Constance the institution of a feast of the Espousals of Joseph and Mary and composes a long poem in his honour: he makes Joseph, theologian and pastor, the model of the chaste husband. In Italy, the Franciscan Bernardine of Siena (1380–1444) ardently preaches his greatness, affirming that where God grants a singular grace, he also grants all the gifts needed for the mission — and none received a higher mission than to serve as father to Jesus.
Saint Teresa of Avila, the great propagator
No saint did more for devotion to Joseph than Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582). The reformer of Carmel places most of her foundations under his patronage and attributes countless graces to him. Her testimony, in the Book of Her Life, has become the classic text of trust in Saint Joseph:
"I took for my advocate and lord the glorious Saint Joseph, and I earnestly commended myself to him. [...] I do not recall ever having asked anything of him that he failed to grant. To other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to help in this or that need; but to this glorious saint, I know by experience, he has given help in them all." — Saint Teresa of Avila, Book of Her Life, ch. 6[24]
From Teresa comes the adage summing up Carmelite devotion: everything may be asked of Joseph. Her Spanish popularity redounds upon the whole Church: in the 16th–17th centuries, Joseph becomes one of the most invoked saints of the Counter-Reformation.
From the Roman calendar to the 19 March feast
Liturgical institution follows popular growth. The 19 March feast enters the Roman calendar under Sixtus IV (c. 1479). Gregory XV makes it a holy day of obligation in 1621. The 17th and 18th centuries see Joseph proclaimed patron of many countries and dioceses — Canada, then Mexico, Bohemia, and many others. The table below summarizes this liturgical rise.
| Date | Act | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 4th c. | First attested cult (Copts, Eastern calendars) | Eastern Churches |
| c. 1479 | 19 March feast entered in the Roman calendar | Sixtus IV |
| 1621 | 19 March becomes a holy day of obligation | Gregory XV |
| 1714 | Insertion in locally approved litanies | — |
| 1847 | Extension of the feast of the Patronage of Saint Joseph to the whole Church | Pius IX |
| 1870 | Proclamation as Patron of the universal Church | Pius IX |
Saint Joseph and the Magisterium: a growing patronage
From 1870 to our day, seven popes have made Saint Joseph the object of an ever richer teaching. We pass from a proclaimed patronage to a true theology of Saint Joseph, integrated into the very heart of the Mass.
Pius IX: Patron of the universal Church (1870)
On 8 December 1870, by the decree Quemadmodum Deus of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Blessed Pius IX proclaims Saint Joseph Patron of the entire Catholic Church. The moment is dramatic: Rome has just fallen, the Papal States have vanished, the pope considers himself a "prisoner in the Vatican". In this trial Pius IX entrusts the Church to the one who had protected the threatened Child. The decree develops the comparison with the patriarch Joseph of Egypt, to whom Pharaoh said: "Go to Joseph" (Gen 41:55)[25].
Leo XIII: Quamquam pluries (1889)
Leo XIII gives the patronage its theological foundation in the encyclical Quamquam pluries (15 August 1889). His reasoning is limpid: the Holy Family Joseph governed contained in germ the nascent Church; it is therefore natural that he now extend to the whole Church the protection he exercised at Nazareth.
"The divine house which Joseph ruled with the authority of a father contained within its limits the scarce-born Church. [...] As of old he supplied every need of the family at Nazareth and surrounded it holily with his protection, so now he extends his heavenly patronage to the Church of Christ and defends her." — Leo XIII, Quamquam pluries, no. 3[26]
It is also Leo XIII who composes the prayer "To thee, O blessed Joseph", to be recited after the Rosary, still in use today.
Pius XII: Saint Joseph the Worker (1955)
On 1 May 1955, Pius XII institutes the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, set on the day of the international labour day. The gesture is deliberately apostolic: faced with the Marxist ideology claiming to annex the working world, the Church sets up the carpenter of Nazareth as patron and model of workers, recalling the Christian dignity of manual work[27].
John XXIII: Joseph at the heart of the Mass (1962)
On 13 November 1962, in the midst of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII — whose personal devotion to Joseph was intense — orders the insertion of his name in the Roman Canon (the First Eucharistic Prayer), just after Mary's. For the first time in centuries, the most sacred text of the Latin Mass is modified, and it is to name Joseph. John XXIII also makes Saint Joseph the patron of the council.
John Paul II: Redemptoris Custos (1989)
For the centenary of Quamquam pluries, John Paul II publishes the apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos — "Guardian of the Redeemer" — on 15 August 1989. It is the most developed document ever devoted to Saint Joseph. In it he meditates on fatherhood, work, silence, the obedience of faith, presenting Joseph as the guardian not only of the Child but of the whole Church, the "mystical Body" of Christ[28].
Francis: Patris Corde and the year of Saint Joseph (2020–2021)
On 8 December 2020, for the 150th anniversary of Pius IX's proclamation, Francis publishes the apostolic letter Patris Corde — "With a father's heart" — and proclaims a Year of Saint Joseph (8 December 2020 – 8 December 2021). Written in the midst of the pandemic, the letter exalts "ordinary people" and presents Joseph in seven aspects: a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father, a creatively courageous father, a working father, a father in the shadows[29]. As early as 2013, Francis had already had Joseph's name inserted in all the Eucharistic Prayers (decree Paternas vices), completing John XXIII's gesture[30].
| Pope | Act | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Blessed Pius IX | Quemadmodum Deus — Patron of the universal Church | 8 December 1870 |
| Leo XIII | Encyclical Quamquam pluries | 15 August 1889 |
| Benedict XV | Motu proprio Bonum sane — patron of the dying | 25 July 1920 |
| Pius XII | Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker | 1 May 1955 |
| Saint John XXIII | Insertion in the Roman Canon; patron of Vatican II | 13 November 1962 |
| Saint John Paul II | Exhortation Redemptoris Custos | 15 August 1989 |
| Francis | Decree Paternas vices (all Eucharistic Prayers) | 1 May 2013 |
| Francis | Letter Patris Corde; Year of Saint Joseph | 8 December 2020 |
Patron of the Church and of the faithful: why invoke him?
Devotion to Saint Joseph is not a secondary piety: it flows directly from his mission. A few great patronages concentrate its meaning.
Patron of workers
Because he earned his bread with his hands and taught his trade to Jesus, Joseph is the patron of workers and craftsmen. His 1 May feast makes him the model of work lived as participation in the Creator's work and as prayer — a Christian antidote both to contempt for manual work and to its ideological idolization.
Patron of the happy death
Deceased, according to tradition, between Jesus and Mary, Joseph is invoked as patron of the dying and of the happy death. Countless confraternities, and the Church's own prayer, call upon him to obtain for the dying a peaceful, reconciled end in Christ's presence — the grace of "breathing one's last in the arms of Jesus and Mary".
"Terror of demons" and protector
The litany of Saint Joseph, approved by Pius X in 1909, invokes him as "Terror of demons" (Terror dæmonum): the vigilant guardian of the Child against Herod is also guardian of the Church against evil. In 2021, in the wake of the Year of Saint Joseph, the Congregation for Divine Worship added seven new invocations to this litany, drawn from pontifical teaching: Guardian of the Redeemer, Servant of Christ, Minister of salvation, Support in difficulties, Patron of exiles, Patron of the afflicted, Patron of the poor[31]. The figure of Joseph, patron of migrants and distressed families, thus speaks with new force to the contemporary world.
Patron of fathers
Legal father, educator, protector, Joseph is the model of fathers. Patris Corde portrays a fatherhood that does not possess but liberates, standing "in the shadows" to let the child grow. In an age of fragile fatherhoods, the Church proposes Joseph as the icon of the "chaste" father in the strong sense: the one who loves without grasping.
How to pray to Saint Joseph
Tradition has multiplied forms of devotion: Leo XIII's prayer after the Rosary, the litany of Saint Joseph, the devotion of the seven sorrows and seven joys, the month of Saint Joseph (March), the Wednesdays consecrated to him, and the ancient invocation from the book of Genesis, become the watchword of all Josephine devotion: Ite ad Joseph — "Go to Joseph" (Gen 41:55). On the properly doctrinal question of the legitimacy of invoking the saints, see Should we pray to the saints? and The communion of saints.
Further reading
Saint Joseph stands at the meeting point of the whole Christian mystery: the Incarnation, the Holy Family, work, fatherhood, the holiness of everyday life. The following articles develop facets only sketched here:
- Why is Joseph patron of the Church? — the full dossier on the 1870 proclamation and its scope for the whole Church.
- How did Saint Joseph live in the Divine Will? — Joseph's place in the spirituality of Luisa Piccarreta.
- The Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph — the virginal marriage and its meaning.
- The perpetual virginity of Mary — the question of the "brothers of Jesus".
- How to explain the Incarnation simply — the mystery Joseph guarded.
- Why is Mary called Mother of God? — Joseph's wife in dogma.
- The shrine of Loreto — the house of Nazareth in devotion.
- Should we pray to the saints? — the legitimacy of invoking the saints.
Notes and References
Pope Francis, apostolic letter Patris Corde (8 December 2020), opening: "With a father's heart: that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as 'the son of Joseph.'" Official English text on vatican.va. See Mt 1:16; Lk 3:23; 4:22; Jn 1:45; 6:42.
1Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 1:16 (English wording after the RSV; the French text cites the official French liturgical translation, AELF). Matthew's genealogy (1:1–17) descends from David through Solomon and ends with Joseph.
2Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 1:20: "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife." The messianic title "son of David" is applied to Joseph, and through him legally transmitted to Jesus.
3On the divergence of the two genealogies (Mt 1:1–17 through Solomon; Lk 3:23–38 through Nathan), see Julius Africanus, Letter to Aristides (c. 220), quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, I, 7 (levirate hypothesis); and the classic discussion in Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, Doubleday, 1993 ed., pp. 57–95.
4Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 1:19 (English wording after the RSV; the French text cites the AELF). The Greek reads δίκαιος (dikaios), "just", rendering the Hebrew tsaddiq.
5Saint Thomas Aquinas, Catena aurea on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, ch. 1, lect. 10 (Mt 1:19), reporting Origen: Joseph "sought to put her away, because he saw in her a great sacrament, to approach which he thought himself unworthy" ("Ideo ergo dimittere volebat quoniam magnum sacramentum in ea esse cognoscebat cui approximare se indignum aestimabat"); reading taken up by Saint Bernard, Homilies in Praise of the Virgin Mother (Super Missus est), homily II: Joseph judges himself a sinner and unworthy, like Peter in Lk 5:8.
6Saint John Paul II, apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos (15 August 1989), nos. 4–5: Joseph's response is an "obedience of faith" (cf. Rom 1:5; 16:26) comparable to Abraham's and Mary's.
7Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 2:14 (English wording after the RSV; the French text cites the AELF): "And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt."
8Pope Francis, Patris Corde (8 December 2020), no. 5, "Father of creative courage": the flight into Egypt shows a Joseph who, faced with danger, does not resign himself but finds the way to save the child.
9Gospel according to Saint Luke, 2:51 (English wording after the RSV; the French text cites the AELF): "And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them."
10Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 13:55 (English wording after the RSV; the French text cites the AELF): "Is not this the carpenter's son?" Parallel in Mk 6:3, where Jesus himself is called "the carpenter".
11The Greek τέκτων (tektōn) denotes the building craftsman working wood, sometimes stone; it renders the Aramaic naggara. See W. Bauer / F. W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed., University of Chicago Press, 2000, s.v. τέκτων; and Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew, 1973, on the broad sense of the term.
12Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (1989), no. 22 ("Work as an expression of love"): through his workshop, where he practised his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work close to the mystery of Redemption. Official English text on vatican.va.
13Protoevangelium of James (Protoevangelium Iacobi), ch. 8–9 (c. 150). Joseph, presented as an aged widower, is designated by a prodigy to receive Mary. Greek text in É. Amann, Le Protévangile de Jacques et ses remaniements latins, Paris, 1910. Apocryphal writing, without doctrinal authority.
14History of Joseph the Carpenter (Historia Iosephi fabri lignarii), Coptic then Arabic text, dated between the 4th and the 7th century. It places Joseph's death at the age of one hundred and eleven, in the presence of Jesus and Mary, and founds his patronage of the happy death. Apocryphal, not inspired.
15Saint Jerome, De perpetua virginitate beatae Mariae adversus Helvidium (383). Jerome establishes that the "brothers" of Jesus are relatives (kinsmen), Aramaic and Hebrew using "brother" in a broad sense, and defends the perpetual virginity of Mary and Joseph. Latin text in the Patrologia Latina, vol. 23.
16Benedict XV, motu proprio Bonum sane (25 July 1920), for the fiftieth anniversary of Pius IX's proclamation: recommends devotion to Saint Joseph as "the most effective protector of the dying", himself deceased in the care of Jesus and Mary, and encourages associations for the happy death.
17Saint Augustine, De nuptiis et concupiscentia, I, 11, 12; Sermo 51, 13, 21; Contra Faustum, XXIII, 8. The marriage of Mary and Joseph was true because it possessed the three goods of marriage: fides, proles (Jesus, received as their son) and sacramentum (indissolubility). Carnal union is not required for the reality of marriage.
18Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa pars, q. 29, a. 2: the marriage of the Virgin and Joseph was "most true" (verissimum); the essence of marriage is the indivisible union of souls and consent, not the carnal act.
19Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (1989), no. 7: "Mary's marriage is the juridical basis of Joseph's fatherhood. It was to assure a fatherly presence for Jesus that God chose Joseph to be Mary's spouse." Official French text on vatican.va.
20Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 532: Jesus' submission to Mary and Joseph at Nazareth (Lk 2:51) perfectly fulfils the fourth commandment and prefigures his filial obedience to the Father.
21Pope Francis, Patris Corde (8 December 2020), no. 7, "Father in the shadows": Joseph is for Jesus "the shadow on earth of the heavenly Father"; "fathers are not born, but made": true fatherhood consists in caring for the child responsibly, not in possessing him. Official English text on vatican.va.
22Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 533: "The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus"; the hidden life makes possible communion "in the holiness of ordinary life marked by silence, work and prayer".
23Saint Teresa of Avila, Book of Her Life (Libro de la vida), ch. 6 (written c. 1565). English rendering after the standard translations; Spanish original: "Tomé por abogado y señor al glorioso San José [...]. No me acuerdo hasta ahora haberle suplicado cosa que la haya dejado de hacer."
24Sacred Congregation of Rites, decree Quemadmodum Deus (8 December 1870), promulgating Blessed Pius IX's decision to proclaim Saint Joseph "Patron of the Catholic Church" and raising his 19 March feast to a double of the first class. The decree develops the typology of the patriarch Joseph of Egypt (Gen 41:55: "Ite ad Ioseph").
25Leo XIII, encyclical Quamquam pluries (15 August 1889), no. 3, on the foundation of Joseph's patronage: the house of Nazareth contained "the scarce-born Church". Official text on vatican.va.
26Pius XII, institution of the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on 1 May (1955), set out in the address to Christian workers (ACLI) of 1 May 1955. The feast answers the international labour day by proposing the carpenter of Nazareth as model and patron of workers.
27Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (1989), nos. 1 and 28–32: Joseph, guardian (custos) of the Redeemer and of the Holy Family, now watches over the Church, the "mystical Body" of Christ and extension of the family of Nazareth.
28Pope Francis, Patris Corde (8 December 2020). The letter is structured in seven sections: beloved father (1), tender and loving father (2), obedient father (3), accepting father (4), creatively courageous father (5), working father (6), father in the shadows (7). The Year of Saint Joseph runs from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021.
29Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, decree Paternas vices (1 May 2013), by authority of Pope Francis: insertion of the name of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV, after Mary's name, completing John XXIII's gesture for the Roman Canon (1962).
30Litany of Saint Joseph, approved by Pius X (1909). On 1 May 2021, the Congregation for Divine Worship added seven invocations drawn from pontifical teaching: Custos Redemptoris (Guardian of the Redeemer), Serve Christi (Servant of Christ), Minister salutis (Minister of salvation), Fulcimen in difficultatibus (Support in difficulties), Patrone exsulum (Patron of exiles), Patrone afflictorum (Patron of the afflicted), Patrone pauperum (Patron of the poor).
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