St. Joseph
Feast 03-19
Patron of
About
Joseph of Nazareth was the husband of the Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus. A descendant of the house of David, he worked as a carpenter in Nazareth. The Gospels describe him as a just man who, upon learning of Mary's pregnancy, planned to divorce her quietly until an angel in a dream revealed God's plan; he then took Mary as his wife and protected the child Jesus.
Joseph led the Holy Family to Bethlehem for the census, fled with them into Egypt to escape Herod, and later returned to settle in Nazareth. He is last mentioned in Scripture when the twelve-year-old Jesus is found in the Temple. Tradition holds that he died before Jesus began his public ministry.
Venerated from the earliest centuries, Joseph was declared patron of the universal Church in 1870. He is the patron of workers, fathers, and families, and is popularly invoked by those selling a home.
Suggested prayer
O God, who entrusted your Son to the care of St. Joseph, the just man who led the Holy Family to safety in Egypt, grant through his intercession that fathers and workers may guard and provide for those entrusted to them. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
