In 1870 Blessed Pius IX declared Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. ¹ A hundred and fifty years later, in December 2020, Pope Francis marked that anniversary with an apostolic letter on him, Patris Corde - "with a father's heart." ¹ For a man the Gospels never quote, that is a remarkable position to hold.

Patris Corde is built around seven descriptions of Joseph, and they read less like a biography than like a job description for anyone raising anyone. Francis calls him a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father, a creatively courageous father, a working father, and a father in the shadows. ¹

The last is the one people remember. Francis describes a father who "realizes that he is most a father and educator at the point when he becomes useless, when he sees that his child has become independent and can walk the paths of life unaccompanied." ¹ Fatherhood aimed at its own redundancy - which is a hard thing to want, and the thing Joseph is held up for wanting.

Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. Francis draws the consequence out plainly: "From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one's own labour." ¹

The Church gave him a second feast, on 1 May, as Saint Joseph the Worker. Ordinary work, done to keep a household fed, is not a lesser thing that gets in the way of holiness. In Joseph it is the material of it.

Joseph is never quoted. Francis calls it an "eloquent silence" ¹ - not an absence of interior life but a life whose whole expression was action: getting up in the night, going to Egypt, coming back, teaching a boy a trade.

Franciscan Media makes a related point about the household he ran: God intended the holiest family to live under circumstances like those of every family. ² Nothing about Joseph's situation was easier than yours.

Saint Joseph is the patron saint of fathers, families, and carpenters, and is invoked by workers generally. ² He is also Patron of the Universal Church. ¹

The Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is celebrated on March 19. ² A second memorial, Saint Joseph the Worker, falls on 1 May.

When nobody sees the work. Joseph is the father in the shadows. ¹ If you are doing the thing that holds a family or a household together and no one has noticed, you are doing the thing he is a saint for.

When your job feels spiritually irrelevant. Jesus learned the dignity of work from a carpenter. ¹ The hours you spend earning a living are not time subtracted from your spiritual life; in Joseph they are the place it happened.

When you have to act without an explanation. Francis calls him an obedient father and an accepting father. ¹ Joseph was told to take his family to Egypt and did, without being given the reasoning. Most obedience feels like that.

When being needed less is the goal. A father is most a father "at the point when he becomes useless." ¹ For any parent, mentor, or teacher who is finding it hard to let go, that line is worth sitting with - it names the loss and calls it success.

When you have no words. Joseph never says anything in Scripture and is a Doctor of nothing. If prayer has gone wordless on you, his example is that the silence was never the problem.