Robert Ellsberg’s Blessed Among Us: Day by Day with Saintly Witnesses; Volume 2 is now available from Liturgical Press.
St. Joseph’s part in the nativity story is a familiar feature of every Christmas pageant. But for many centuries the Church paid him scant attention. Only in the sixteenth century did the Church officially encourage his cult, as he began to figure as an ideal “provider and protector” of the Holy Family. In 1870, Pius IX declared him Patron of the Universal Church. Besides his feast day on March 19, an additional feast for St. Joseph the Worker was assigned by Pope Pius XII on May 1.
After Joseph and Mary were betrothed, Mary was discovered to be pregnant. Matthew’s Gospel relates the story from Joseph’s perspective. Here, the discovery of Mary’s pregnancy precedes any divine reassurance, thus presenting Joseph with a terrible dilemma. According to the law, Mary should be stoned to death. But Joseph instead resolves to divorce her quietly. Fortunately, an angel appears in Joseph’s sleep to explain the source of Mary’s condition, and he is apparently satisfied. After Jesus’ birth, Joseph is alerted in another dream to the threat from King Herod, and so leads his family to safety in Egypt, returning to Israel only following assurance in a dream that “those who sought the child’s life are dead.”
Aside from his virtues as a father and man of faith, Joseph is also a poor workingman—a detail not without significance in the Gospels. Though linked to the house of David, he remains a carpenter from a Galilean town so miniscule that it serves as the butt of jokes. Thus, while Joseph recedes from the Gospel story, he remains a reminder of Jesus’ humble origins—and an enduring reminder of his humanity.
“When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” —Matthew 13:55
