On March 20, the Church will celebrate this 2023 the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary and adoptive father of Christ, who has been venerated by many saints, Pontiffs and faithful.
Pope Francis has expressed his deep devotion and admiration for this saint since the beginning of his pontificate and has encouraged people to follow his example and ask for his intercession.
Thus, for example, on 8 December 2020, he called the Year of Saint Joseph to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his declaration as patron of the universal Church, and published his apostolic letter Patris corde (Father’s Heart), where he called to imitate the virtues of Saint Joseph and deepen his devotion.
Here we present 8 facts that you may not have known about San José:
1. There are no words of Saint Joseph in the Holy Scriptures
He protected the Immaculate Mother of God and helped raise the Lord of the Universe. However, there is no word of his in the Gospels. Rather, he was a silent and humble servant of God who played his part to the full.
2. Saint Joseph is rarely mentioned in the New Testament
Allusions to St. Joseph are made in the Gospel of Matthew, in Luke, once in John (someone calls Jesus “the son of Joseph”)… and that’s it. He is not named either in the Gospel of Mark or in the rest of the New Testament.
3. His departure from the Gospel story is not explained in the Bible
Saint Joseph is undoubtedly an important figure in the accounts of the Nativity of the Lord in Matthew and Luke, and is included in the passages that tell of the moment when Jesus was lost at the age of 12 and was found in the Temple. But that’s the last we heard from him.
Mary appears several times during Jesus’ ministry, but Joseph is gone without a trace. So what happened to her? Various traditions explain this difference by saying that Joseph died around Jesus’ 20th birthday.
4. Was Saint Joseph a widower and an old man?
Scripture does not tell us how old Saint Joseph was when he married Mary or about his previous life. However, for a long time he was represented as an elderly man, apparently based on a text from the so-called protoevangelium of Santiago, an apocryphal writing from which it follows that Saint Joseph would have been previously married and became a widower.
According to that tradition, Saint Joseph knew that Mary had taken a vow of virginity and was chosen to marry her to protect her because he was old and would not be interested in having a new family. This idea was refuted throughout history by great saints like Saint Augustine.
5. The veneration of Saint Joseph dates back to at least the 9th century
One of the first titles they used to honor him was ” nutritor Domini “, which means “educator of the Lord”.
6. San Jose has two festivals
The solemnity of San José is celebrated -usually- on March 19 and the feast of San José obrero (International Labor Day) is on May 1. It is also included in the feast of the Holy Family (December 30), and is undoubtedly part of the Christmas story.
7. Saint Joseph has multiple patronages
He is the patron of the Universal Church, the good death, families, parents, pregnant women, travelers, immigrants, artisans, engineers and workers. He is also the patron saint of the Americas, Canada, China, Croatia, Mexico, Korea, Austria, Belgium, Peru, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
8. The theological study of the saint gave rise to ‘Josephology’
Among the subdisciplines of theology, Christology and Mariology are known; but, did you know that there is also Josefology?
Saint Joseph has been a figure of theological interest for centuries. However, beginning in the 20th century, some people began to collect the Church’s opinions about it and turned their research into a theological subdiscipline.
In the 1950s, three centers dedicated to the study of Saint Joseph were opened: in Spain, Italy, and Canada.
(This text is originally posted on ChurchPOP)