Saint Joseph

This article is about the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus. For other saints and uses, see Saint Joseph (disambiguation). For the Joseph of Genesis, see Joseph (Genesis).

Saint

Joseph
Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus by Guido Reni, c. 1635
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Legal father of Jesus
Patron of the Universal Church
Guardian of the Holy Family
Venerated inAll Christian denominations that venerate saints
Feast
AttributesCarpenter's square or tools, holding the infant Jesus Christ, staff with lily blossoms, two turtle doves, and a rod of spikenard.
PatronageCatholic Church, among others fathers, workers, carpenters, married people, persons living in exile, the sick and dying, for a happy death
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Saint Joseph (c. 1640) by Guido Reni.
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Joseph (Hebrew: יוסף, romanized: Yosef; Greek: Ἰωσήφ, romanized: Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus.[2]

Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Anglicanism and Lutheranism.[3][4] In Catholic traditions, Joseph is regarded as the patron saint of workers and is associated with various feast days. The month of March is dedicated to Saint Joseph. Pope Pius IX declared him to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a holy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. Joseph has become patron of various dioceses and places. Being a patron saint of virgins, he is venerated as "most chaste".[5][6] A specific veneration is attributed to the pure and most Chaste Heart of Joseph.[citation needed]

Several venerated images of Saint Joseph have been granted a decree of canonical coronation by a pontiff. Religious iconography often depicts him with lilies or spikenard. With the present-day growth of Mariology, the theological field of Josephology has also grown and since the 1950s centers for studying it have been formed.[7][8]

  1. ^ Domar: the calendrical and liturgical cycle of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church 2003, Armenian Orthodox Theological Research Institute, 2002, p. 530-1.
  2. ^ Boff, Leonardo (2009). Saint Joseph: The Father of Jesus in a Fatherless Society. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 34. ISBN 9781606080078. Legal father, because he cohabits with Mary, Jesus' mother. Through this title Mary is spared from false suppositions and Jesus from spurious origins.
  3. ^ "stjoeshill.org - stjoeshill Resources and Information". ww1.stjoeshill.org.
  4. ^ "St. Joseph Lutheran Church, Allentown, Pennsylvania". lutherans.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014.
  5. ^ Thomas H. Kinane (1884). St. Joseph, his life, his virtues [&c.]. A month of March in his honour. p. 214. OCLC 13901748.
  6. ^ Reverend Archdeacon Kinane. "Section VI - The perpetual virginity os St. Joseph". Saint Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power. Aeterna Press. p. 138. OCLC 972347083. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  7. ^ P. de Letter, "The Theology of Saint Joseph", The Clergy Monthly, March 1955, JSTOR 27656897
  8. ^ For the use of the term, see: James J. Davis, A Thomistic Josephology, 1967, University of Montreal, ASIN B0007K3PL4