Saint Joseph

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.

Joseph does not speak once in the Gospels. Pope Francis calls it an eloquent silence ¹, and it is the reason he suits people whose most important work leaves no record and gets no thanks.

Jesus learned the worth of a day's work from a carpenter. ¹ Whatever you do to keep a household fed is not time subtracted from your spiritual life. In Joseph it was the material of it.

He was told to take his family to Egypt and did it, without being given the reasoning. ¹ Most obedience feels roughly like that, and the accounts do not suggest he found it easy.

Francis says a father is most a father when he becomes useless, when the child can walk the roads alone. ¹ For any parent or teacher finding it hard to let go, that line names the loss honestly and then calls it success.