Who is Saint Joseph? Faithful, and prudent servant to whom God entrusted the Holy Family, St. Joseph was seen as the father of the only Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Who is St Joseph?
Below you will find a list of prayers dedicated to Saint Joseph, grouped for easy browsing. Click on the prayer you wish to access its full page:
Saint Joseph was the righteous man, whom God gave as a husband to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. He was the faithful and prudent servant, whom God entrusted to the Holy Family. As such, Saint Joseph was seen as a father to the only son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
According to the Divine Plan, the Messiah was to be born of a virgin. But the word made flesh and his young mother needed a protector that would replace an earthly father, a faithful and devout guard who would surround them with his affection and whose work would make them live. St. Joseph was to give the Lord his marital status, his insertion into society.
Joseph was of David’s offspring.
But while he had this real ancestry, he lived in very modest conditions. He was a carpenter (see Mt 13:55: “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”). Saint Joseph was a simple man, poor, silent, humble and kind, patient and strong, full of goodness, piety, and fidelity to God’s Will. The Gospel tells us that he was “just” (Mt 1:19: “Joseph, her husband, who was a just man”).
Submitting to the Divine Will Mary became Joseph’s virgin wife. And St. Joseph fully accepted the mission God gave him. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, to your house. The son who is begotten in her comes from the Holy Spirit “(Mt 1,20).
The marriage of Mary and Joseph was the very pure union of two virginities, destined to protect each other, and whose fidelity was destined to maintain among them the chastity that united them. Mary and St. Joseph were two lilies of purity, two virgin souls, marvelously pure and loving of God, who lived together, according to the Will of God, to run with renewed ardor towards the Lord.
God has entrusted to St. Joseph not only that which is most precious in the whole universe but also that which surpasses the price of all possible universes: Jesus, his Son, and Mary, his Mother. As the patriarch Joseph once held in his hands, all the grains of Egypt, so at the dawn of new times. God has entrusted to Saint Joseph the tutelage of the mysteries of salvation.
Jose was elevated to eminent sanctity
When God predestines for any vocation, he never fails to grant to the chosen one all the graces that will be necessary for him to fulfill the mission for which he is destined. And the more difficult the task, the more abundant is the measure of God’s gifts. This explains the height of perfection to which Saint Joseph was elevated. Joseph literally fulfills the word that Jesus was going to say one day: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
Joseph is the Man of God’s Will
Faith and obedience are virtues that shine in Saint Joseph’s soul, as in Mary’s, with a very strong glow. His faith and obedience, when the angel told him not to be afraid to take his wife, his wife (Mt. 1: 20-24). When the angel wakes him in the middle of the night and orders him to flee without delay to Egypt (see Mt 2:13-15): “After his departure, behold, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream. and said to him: “Arise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the child to destroy him.
He arose, took the child and his mother with him at night, withdrew to Egypt, and remained there until Herod’s death, to fulfill this prophetic oracle of the Lord. (Egypt, I called my son.). When later the angel again commands him to return to Palestine (Mt. 2:19-21: “When Herod ceased to live, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in Egypt in a dream, and he said: “Arise, take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead, who seek the life of the child.
Saint Joseph lets himself be guided like a child by God, without murmuring. Joseph is the just and generous man, ready for all sacrifices, at the same time he abandons the counsels of human prudence, in order to obey God’s commands quickly. For Joseph, God’s service has priority and dominates everything.
Joseph is the Man of State Duty.
He faithfully fulfilled, with great love, his humble duty every day. His ordinary actions were valued by a great love of God and neighbor. It is true that in daily contact with the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary, his love cannot fail to reach the highest perfection.
Recommended: Novena To St Joseph that Never Fails
Joseph is our Protector
Model of the interior life, St. Joseph, according to St. Teresa of Avila, uniquely favors the spiritual progress of the souls recommended to him. For men who anxiously contemplate the hour of death, Saint Joseph presents himself as the patron saint of the dying, the one who was fortunate enough to die near Jesus and Mary.
Pope Pius IX placed the universal Church under the patronage of St. Joseph (see Pius IX’s Prayer to St. Joseph). “Joseph was the guardian, the administrator, the educator, the Head of the Family in which the Son of God wanted to live on earth. He was, in a word, the protector of Jesus. And the Church in its wisdom concluded: if he was the protector of the body, of the physical and historical life of Christ, in heaven, Joseph will certainly be the protector of the Mystical Body of Christ, that is, of The Church (Paul VI). Let’s love St. Joseph!
Let us invoke him with fervor, imitating him, living like him, with Mary, for Jesus. Sanctify our lives with humility, simplicity, faith, obedience, piety, love of God and neighbor, kindness, gentleness, and fidelity to our duty of the state.
St. Joseph husband of Mary, Devotion to Him is inseparable from Devotion to Mary Most Holy: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mt 19:6). And it is expressly stated in the Gospel that Joseph was “the bridegroom of Mary, from whom Jesus, called Christ, was born” (Mt 1:16).
It is impossible to have a deep and authentic devotion to Mary without also feeling a special veneration for her virginal spouse St. Joseph.
All of St. Joseph’s theology is enclosed in these two fundamental titles: Mary’s husband and Jesus’ virginal father.
Indeed, all the greatness of St. Joseph starts from that seems natural and simple fact: to carry the Child Jesus in his arms, that is, to be his adoptive father and virginal husband of Mary Most Holy.
It is by virtue of these two sublime titles that St. Joseph forms, in a certain way, an integral part of the mystery of the Incarnation. There is no doubt that St. Joseph was, in some way, necessary in that order, namely: to safeguard Mary’s honor and to protect Her and Jesus from Herod’s persecution, during the exile to Egypt…etc. and to earn them their daily bread during the years of hidden life in the little house of Nazareth.
He did not physically participate in the whole mystery of the Incarnation, but he did participate fully in offering his life as a sacrifice for the care, service, provision, and protection of Jesus and Mary. He was always the faithful custodian of Jesus and Mary.
Let us briefly explain the most important points about the person of the so glorious St. Joseph:
- His relationships with Jesus and Mary
- His ineffable holiness
- Your patronage over the Universal Church
- Your patronage of the dying
- The devotion we must profess to Him
Who is St Joseph? Virginal Father of Jesus
As we know, the conception of the divine Word in Mary’s virginal womb was made by virtue of a miraculous action of the E.S., without any intervention of St. Joseph. The Gospel says it expressly and it is one of the fundamental dogmas of our Catholic faith: Mary’s perpetual virginity.
So physical paternity must be excluded at all, but St. Joseph has been given many different titles: nurturing father, adoptive father, legal father, etc…but none in itself defines the fullness of St. Joseph’s mission in the life of Jesus. The one who most closely resembles him is a virginal father.
In fact, Saint Joseph exercised over Jesus the function and rights that correspond to a true father, in the same way, that he exercised over MARY, virginally, the functions and rights of a true husband. Both functions are stated in the Gospel.
When she meets the Child in the Temple, Our Lady asks Jesus: “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I, in sorrow, we’re looking for you”. MARY names St. Joseph by giving him the title of father, evident proof that St. Joseph was so-called by Jesus himself because he saw in Joseph a reflection and an authentic representation of his Heavenly Father.
Who is St Joseph? Husband of Mary
Only to a man as pure and humble as St. Joseph could the Lord commend the call to be the spouse of the Mother of God…What a sublime bond, formed by the Holy Spirit; the most sacred after the one that unites humanity with divinity in Christ, or like the bond that unites Mary with Jesus!
The marriage of St. Joseph and of Mary Most Holy is full of virtues, of harmony of two hearts that live to love God and his mission of being parents of God made a man. Deep denial of these two lives, one for the other, sharing the pains and joys; the thorns, poverty, love, respect, holiness, light, peace?
The marriage of Joseph and Mary was real and true, with an exceptional and singular characteristic (virginity), but so exceptional and singular was the purpose intended by God with this holiest marriage: to safeguard Mary’s virginity with St. Joseph’s virginity. Let us see what an author tells us about St.
Joseph: “MARY belongs to Joseph and Joseph to the holiest Mary; with so much truth, that their marriage is very true since they have given themselves to each other. But how did they surrender? In Purity.
Saint Thomas Aquinas established a principle: “the closer something received comes to the cause that has produced it, the more it participates in the influence of that cause”.
In other words, the closer we get to the fire, which produces heat, the more intensely we warm ourselves. Now, the only cause from which all holiness comes is God Himself. Then, the closer a creature is to God, the more it will participate in His infinite holiness.
Just as after the Virgin Mary no one has come as close to God as St. Joseph, precisely because of his very unique call to be the spouse of Mary and the virginal father of Jesus, it must be concluded with all certainty that the sanctity of St. Joseph cannot be compared to any other creature after Mary.
There are two reasons to prove this:
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- “God gives to each one the grace according to that for which he is chosen”.
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- “An exceptional divine mission requires proportionate holiness”.
It has been tried to define many times the virtues of St. Joseph: “They shine in him, above all the virtues of the hidden life: virginity, humility, poverty, patience, prudence, fidelity that cannot be broken by any danger, simplicity, and faith; trust in God and the most perfect charity. I keep with love and total dedication, the deposit that was entrusted to him with a proper fidelity to the value of the treasure that was deposited in his hands.
St. Joseph is also an incomparable model, after Jesus, of the sanctification of corporal work. That is why the Church has instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1), presenting him as a sublime model of manual workers.
4. Who is St Joseph? Patron of the Universal Church
Pope Pius IX, in response to the innumerable petitions he received from the Catholic faithful throughout the world, and especially to the request of the bishops gathered at the First Vatican Council, declared and constituted St. Joseph as the universal Patron of the Church on December 8th, 1870.
What guardian or patron is God going to give to his Church? for he was the protector of the Child Jesus and Mary. When the time had come to found the divine family, St. Joseph was chosen by God for a nurturing and protective father, and when it came to continuing this family in the world, that is, to found, extend and preserve the Church, St. Joseph was entrusted with the same office.
A heart that is capable of loving God as a son and the Mother of God as a wife, is capable of embracing in its love and taking under its protection the whole Church, of which Jesus is Head and Mary is Mother.
Let us ask St. Joseph to guard the whole Church!
5. Who is St Joseph? Patron saint of the dying
Christian devotion has always considered St. Joseph as the Patron Saint and the most special Advocate of the dying, since he had the most privileged death ever experienced by any creature: in the arms of Jesus and Mary.
This pious belief has been proven in practice with many testimonies of people who have clearly seen the intercession of St. Joseph at the time of the death of a family member.
The Church has confirmed this devotion. We see Pope Benedict XV, on July 25th, 1920, saying:
“Having approved this Apostolic See various ways of honoring the Holy Patriarch Joseph….let St. Joseph is celebrated principally as the patron saint of the dying, for at his death Jesus and Mary themselves were present.
Encourage, then, the pious associations that were founded to pray to St. Joseph for the dying such as that of the Good Death, that of the Transit of St. Joseph…etc.
6. Devotion to St. Joseph
As is known, one of the most fervent propagators of devotion to Saint Joseph was Saint Teresa of Avila. In the Sixth Chapter of her Life, she wrote one of the most beautiful stories ever written in honor of St. Joseph:
“I took the glorious St. Joseph as my lawyer and protector, and commend him to me very much. It was clear to me that this father and my lord, as well as to other elders, brought me out of this need rather than what I knew how to ask of him. I do not remember until now having begged him for anything that he had failed to do.
It is such a great thing the marvelous Mercedes that God has made me by means of this blessed saint, of the dangers that he has freed me, as much of body as of soul; of this saint, I have the experience that undermines in all the necessities, and it is that the Lord wants to make us understand that as he was subject to him on earth, that as he had the name of the father, and could command him, so in heaven he does what he asks of him.
I would like to persuade everyone to be devotees of this glorious saint through the great experience that I have of the goods that he obtains from God. – His first convent was called “Saint Joseph”.
On March 21, 1935, Pope Pius XI approved and indulged the litanies of St. Joseph.
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- Husband of the Mother of God
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- Custodian purism of the Virgin
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- Diligent defender of Christ
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- Head of the Holy Family
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- Joseph the Righteous
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- Chaste Joseph
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- Obedient Joseph
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- Faithful Joseph
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- Patience Mirror
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- Lover of poverty
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- The glory of domestic life
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- Custody of Virgins
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- Patron saint of the dying
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- Protector of the Holy Church
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- Family Support
Pope Leo XIII often referred to St. Joseph with full confidence in his patronage in the face of difficult times in the Church.
Pope Paul VI always invited the patronage of St. Joseph to be invoked when interceding for the Church.
In October 1989, the Holy Father John Paul II wrote an Apostolic Exhortation called “The Custodian of the Redeemer” dedicated to understanding and deepening the figure and mission of St. Joseph in the life of Christ and the Church.
“In addition to the certainty of his safe protection, the Church also trusts in the outstanding example of Joseph: an example that surpasses the particular states of life and is proposed to the whole Christian community.
“St. Joseph has been called by God to serve directly the person and mission of Jesus through the exercise of his paternity; in this way, he cooperates in the fullness of time in the great mystery of redemption and is truly a minister of salvation.
His paternity has been expressed concretely by having made use of the legal authority that belonged to him over the Holy Family, to make him a total gift of himself, of his life and of his work; by having converted his human vocation to domestic love with the superhuman oblation of himself, of his heart and of all capacity, into the love placed at the service of the Messiah, who grows in his house”.
March is dedicated to St. Joseph.
Saint Joseph’s Day: March 19th. Wednesdays have traditionally been considered St. Joseph’s Day. As part of the devotion, Mass is offered to intercede for the Church. The seven pains of St. Joseph.
Who is St Joseph: Custody of the Two Hearts
It is the first and perfect model of devotion and dedication to the Two Hearts. That was his singular mission. From him, we need to learn to live in communion of love with the Two Hearts.
He was chosen by God to love, care for and provide for the Blessed Mother. His first love relationship was the Blessed Virgin, called to be his virginal wife. It is through his relationship with her that he is chosen to become the adoptive father of Christ.
St. Joseph opened the doors of his heart to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and because of this, he came into profound communion with the Heart of Jesus, whom he protected, directed, formed, and cared for throughout his life.
Participated directly, like no other, in the covenant of the Two Hearts. He was the great and generous third heart, which placed itself at the service of the work of redemption, living, serving, and caring for the Redeemer and the Mother of the Redeemer.
It would be difficult to enter into a covenant or consecration to the Two Hearts, forgetting St. Joseph, who is the father and head of the Holy Family.
We consider St. Joseph “the faithful and self-sacrificing Custos of the Two Hearts”, since God the Father entrusted to him a very important task: to safeguard the ¨tesoros¨ of his paternal Heart: Jesus and Mary, and the mystery of the Incarnation.
In his mission as a custodian was to protect, with his dedication, presence, holiness, and work, the Holy Family. Those consecrated to the Two Hearts, that is, those who are in an intimate relationship of the spiritual family with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, will be protected by St. Joseph since he will exercise with us the same care he had with the Holy Family.
He is a model of unity with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary: St. Joseph reveals to us a heart totally in communion of love and service to the Two Hearts. We could call him “the third heart” in that covenant of love that exists between the hearts of Jesus and Mary. His heart was truly “one” with the Two Hearts.
When we contemplate St. Joseph, we discover an undivided heart that directs all its affections and actions toward the two great loves of his Heart: Jesus and Mary. All the movements of St. Joseph’s heart had only one objective:
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- Love and dedication to the Two Hearts.
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- Saint Joseph worked for them
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- He obeyed for them
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- St. Joseph suffered for them
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- He defended them and protected them without reservations or conditions.
This total communion of love and dedication to CD is the basis of the Consecration. By the intimacy in living together, by the depth of their contemplation and by their generous dedication, the unfathomable secrets of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary were fully known by St. Joseph. He can teach us to know more intimately the feelings and desires of the Two Hearts.
Because of his total fidelity to the covenant of love with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, St. Joseph is for us a reliable model of how to reach full communion of love with the Two Hearts and thus become us too, like him, in “that third heart”.
We take refuge in the care and protection of St. Joseph and we ask him to teach us to love, to serve, to sacrifice and to remain united to these Two Hearts as he did all his life.
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