History of SAINT JOSEPH the Carpenter

Written by Benoît Santos - Updated on Oct 27, 2024

Who is Saint Joseph? What do you know about this Christian saint? What does he represent for the Church and the world?

Our team is on a mission to help you in your quest for knowledge. Here is a brief summary just for you:

Joseph was the righteous man whom God gave as husband to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. He was the faithful and prudent servant to whom God entrusted the Holy Family. Saint Joseph watched over the Only Begotten Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, as a father.

By the end of this article, you will:

Know who Saint Joseph is in the Church;
Know its history and what it represents;
Learn about the cult dedicated to St. Joseph and the places where he manifested himself.

If you would like to discover more stories about Christian saints, here are several articles available on our site that you can discover:

Saint Joseph, the silent believer

It is not easy to draw a portrait of a character who, however important he may be, appears in the New Testament as a silent saint . The Gospels do not speak of Joseph of Nazareth: the husband of Mary and father of Jesus always silent. While other characters are counted in the story like (Mary, the apostles, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and even Pilate, Herod, Anna).

It seems that the evangelists intentionally remain silent about him. It is a dense and full silence, wrapped in contemplation and mystery. For Joseph's life unfolds before "God made flesh" and before Mary, who becomes his mother (cf. Mt 1:20). In life, facts count, and all the more so if they are marked by an interior silence. And yet, Joseph is not a secondary character. If in Jewish society, Jesus has a father and a name, he owes it to him.

Saint Joseph and the Christian tradition

Joseph was of the lineage of David. But, despite his royal ancestry, he lived in very modest circumstances. He worked as a carpenter (cf. Mt. 13:55: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?”). Joseph was a simple man, poor, silent, humble and gentle, patient and strong, full of goodness, piety, and fidelity to the Will of God. 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 the virginal wife of Joseph. And Joseph fully accepted the mission that God entrusted to 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 as your wife. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 1:20).

The marriage of Mary and Joseph was the most pure union of two virginities, destined to protect each other And whose fidelity had precisely the purpose of keeping between them that chastity which united them. Mary and Joseph were two lilies of purity, two virginal souls, marvelously pure, in love with God, who lived together. Following the Will of God, to rush with redoubled ardor towards the Lord. God entrusted to Joseph not only what was most precious in the whole universe, but what surpasses the price of all possible universes. Jesus, his Son, and Mary, his Mother. As the patriarch Joseph had once held in his hands all the grains of Egypt, so at the dawn of the new times.

God entrusted Joseph with the custody of the mysteries of Salvation. Joseph was raised to eminent holiness. When God predestines to some vocation, he never fails to grant to the chosen one of his choice, all the graces that will be necessary for him. To accomplish the mission for which he is destined. And the more difficult the task, the more abundant is the measure of divine gifts . This is what explains to us the height of perfection to which Joseph was raised. Joseph fulfills to the letter the word that Jesus was to pronounce 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 which shine in the soul of Joseph , as in that of Mary, with a very bright brilliance. His faith and obedience, when the angel tells him not to be afraid to take Mary, his wife, into his home (cf. Mt. 1:20-24. When the angel wakes him up in the middle of the night and orders him to flee to Egypt without delay (cf. Mt. 2:13-15): "After they had left, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said to him, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.' So he got up and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt, and stayed there until Herod's death, that what the Lord had spoken might be fulfilled: 'Out of Egypt I have called my son.'").

When later, the angel again orders him to return to Palestine (Mt. 2,19-21: "When Herod had ceased to live, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said to him: "Arise, take the child and his mother with you, and set out for the land of Israel; for those who sought the child's life are dead." "He arose, took the child and his mother with him, and returned to the land of Israel.") Saint Joseph lets himself be led like a child by God, without murmuring. Joseph is the just and generous man , ready for all sacrifices. Abandoning at once the advice of human prudence, to promptly obey the orders of God. For Joseph, the service of God takes precedence and dominates everything. He subjects his whole life to the divine good pleasure.

History of the cult of Saint Joseph

According to an ancient tradition, the cult of Joseph developed from the 5th century. In certain Egyptian monasteries where the apocryphal History of Joseph the Carpenter was written and where his feast day is fixed on the date of July 20 (he remains registered to this day in the Coptic calendar). The cult of this saint has also spread around the " house of Joseph " since at least the 7th century. However, Joseph was rarely prayed to throughout the early Middle Ages. And his cult remained marginal, as shown by the scarcity of place names concerning him (they are only found in Canada, which does not go back more than three centuries, at best). This "old man", neither precursor, nor apostle, nor martyr, interests the faithful little and embarrasses theologians: what to do with his thorny status as husband of the Virgin? What paternity should be attributed to the one who raised the son of God?

In the writings of the Fathers of the Church, the treatises of the Carolingian era or the sermons of Saint Bernard, it is never considered in itself. And only appears in discourses on marriage and the virginity of Mary. His feast day, fixed on March 19, appears for the first time in the year 800 in an abbreviated Gallican martyrology of Rheinau. In which he is called Ioseph sponsus Mariæ (" Joseph husband of Mary "). The choice of this date six days before the feast of the Annunciation is probably due to confusion with the name of a martyr of Antioch named Joseph. The celebration of his feast day is limited to the great Benedictine abbeys. Joseph remains "in the shadow of the Virgin": a necessary withdrawal to value the incarnation of Christ which was made by Mary and not by him. In the following centuries, he is no longer known simply as the husband of Mary but as a father, Nutritor Domini ("Nourishing Father of the Lord").

It was from the 13th century that he emerged from the shadows, in connection with a greater humanization of Christ. Also increasingly numerous representations of the Nativity. This putative and nourishing father, model of devotion to Christ and the Virgin, particularly seduced the Franciscans (who became the guardians of the "house of Joseph". Whose general chapter of Assisi adopted in 1399 his feast of March 19 ), who debated to know if he was the last of the patriarchs or the first of the saints. The humble carpenter became a model for all Christians. In the 15th century, during the Great Schism and the rivalries between Armagnacs and Burgundians, a real promotional campaign was launched in its favor.

Gerson, one of the most famous theologians of the time, wrote many times from 1413 to 1418 to celebrate the wedding of Joseph and Mary. Praising his responsible fatherhood, comparing him to John the Baptist (his two most important texts: The Considerations on Saint Joseph between 1413 and 1414, and the sermon Jacob autem genuit, delivered in Constance on September 8, 1416). At the end of the 15th century, the Church instituted a feast in honor of Joseph. A genuine popular devotion was born, which would reach its peak in the 19th century. The promotion of Joseph at the end of the Middle Ages is particularly visible in the iconography of the Nativity in which his character becomes autonomous. He becomes recognizable thanks to specific attributes: an old man, sometimes haloed, he very often holds the flowered staff and the gourd.

Saint Joseph's cult grew over time

In 1621 Pope Gregory XV elevated the feast of Saint Joseph on March 19 to the rank of an obligatory feast. In 1642 Pope Urban VIII in turn confirmed the rank of this feast. In 1661, after the apparition and the miracle of the Cotignac spring, Bishop Joseph Ondedei of Fréjus, officially recognized the apparitions of Saint Joseph and approved the cult. That same year, 1661, King Louis XIV of France, who became a father for the first time, consecrated France to Saint Joseph, head of the Holy Family.
In 1678, Emperor Leopold I named Joseph, the son born to him by his third wife Eleanor of Neuburg. As a sign of gratitude to the foster father of Christ . In 1741, Maria Theresa of Austria, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, also named her son Joseph as a sign of gratitude to Mary's husband. On December 8, 1870, Pope Pius IX officially declared Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church, and made March 19 a solemn feast day. He also instituted the Solemnity of Saint Joseph , patron of the Universal Church, set for the 3rd Sunday after Easter. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII demonstrated how Saint Joseph was the model for fathers and workers. He officially awarded him the title of "patron saint of fathers and workers". A title that popular piety had already awarded him for centuries.
In 1955, Pope Pius XII took up the principle of Labor Day by instituting the memory of Saint Joseph the Craftsman . And by setting it on May 1st of each year. Saint Joseph is thus one of the saints who is celebrated twice a year (March 19th and May 1st ) . Joseph is the most celebrated character on the pediment of the 67,000 French public establishments (2015 census). No fewer than 880 schools, colleges and high schools have given him his name, ahead of Jules Ferry (642). Our Lady (546), Jacques Prévert (472), Jean Moulin (434), Jean Jaurès (429), Joan of Arc (423), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (418), Saint Mary (377), Victor Hugo (365), Louis Pasteur (361), Marie Curie (360), Pierre Curie (357), Jean de la Fontaine (335)[42].

The four places of apparition of Saint Joseph

The Catholic Church officially recognizes four places of apparitions of Saint Joseph:

AC Otignac in the Var, in Saint-Joseph du Bessillon

On June 7, 1660, Joseph is said to have appeared to Gaspard Ricard, a shepherd, during which he caused a spring to gush forth that still flows. In Cotignac, in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Grâces, the apparitions of Notre-Dame de Grâces are also venerated, as well as the Holy Family.

In Poland in Kalisz

Around 1670 , St. Joseph appeared to a man named Stobienia, who was seriously ill. The man had a picture of the Holy Family painted, and he offered it to the collegiate church of Kalisz (as requested by the apparition). He recovered shortly after. Kalisz became a great sanctuary.

In Knock, Knock Sanctuary

On 21 August 1879 , 15 people (of all ages) saw the Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John (the Evangelist) and Jesus at the Knock Marian apparition on the south gable of Knock Town Church.

In Fatima

October 13, 1917 : At the end of the Marian apparitions of Fatima, St. Joseph appears (holding the Child Jesus in his arms) to the visionaries of Fatima, as well as to some witnesses of the Miracle of the Sun).

The different places of worship in honor of Joseph

Saint Joseph is venerated more particularly:

At the Saint-Joseph Chapel in Beauvais, built in 1861, seat of the Archconfraternity of Saint-Joseph; founded in 1859 by Mgr Joseph-Armand Claverie, it was elevated to Archconfraternity by a Brief from Pope Pius IX on September 23, 1861; its importance is worldwide, thanks in particular to its bulletin[50].
In Cós (or Coz), Portugal, where Saint Joseph appeared to the nuns of the Cistercian abbey of Santa Maria, in 1661, at the time when they were undertaking the reconstruction of their monastery; the following year the Brotherhood of the Slaves of Saint Joseph ((pt) Irmandade dos Escravos de São José) was erected, to which Pope Alexander VII granted several indulgences;
In Brussels, the Saint-Joseph church, a pearl of Brussels' historical heritage, was built in 1842-1849 in the "Quartier Léopold". Following the expansion of the city and thanks to the political will of King Leopold I. It was dedicated to Saint Joseph. Indeed, at the request of King Charles II of Spain, Pope Innocent XI, in the bull Eximia Pietas of April 19, 1679, proclaimed Saint Joseph patron and protector of Belgium, well before the country's independence in 1830.
In Fakarava in French Polynesia. The Saint Joseph of Fakarava is a representation of Saint Joseph submerged near the northern pass of the Fakarava atoll. This statuette installed facing the ocean on one of the most beautiful diving sites in the world is dedicated to all those who have lost a father, a child, or more generally a parent while scuba diving.

Saint Joseph the protector of the family

Joseph is the patron saint of families, fathers, artisans, workers, travelers and exiles, gravediggers and the dying. The cult of Joseph, patron saint of the dying and of "the Good Death", comes from a tradition. It wants Joseph to receive a gentle death, assisted by Jesus and Mary. This cult comes from Italy and became established in France from the 1640s. He became the patron saint of material affairs. Catholics entrust their serious material affairs to his prayer.

A job search, a housing search, etc. Furthermore, because of his quality as a just man, many Catholics ask for his intercession. To discern their vocation, to meet the right husband, the right wife, etc. He is also the protector and patron saint to varying degrees of many cities, regions and countries. Notably of Belgium, China, Canada, Vietnam, the United States, Russia, Austria, the Croatian people, South Korea, Mexico and Peru.

John Paul II considered Saint Joseph to be the model of the witness of the Kingdom of God. Calling him " minister salutis " in his apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos: "the servant of salvation". For this reason, he wanted him to be the patron of the third millennium. And patron of the new evangelization. He is also a model for priests, to whom God has entrusted the Eucharistic presence of Jesus. Also that of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the faithful.

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Saint Joseph: protector of the mystical body of Christ!

Saint Pope Pius IX placed the universal Church under the patronage of Saint Joseph (Read the Prayer to Saint Joseph by Pius IX). “Joseph was the guardian, the steward, 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 her 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).