A SAINT FOR THE WEEK.

March 19th.

St. Joseph [kept this year on March 20].

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke tell us that he was a descendant of King David (‘of David’s line’), a carpenter by trade, betrothed to Mary at the time of the Virgin Birth, sustained by angelic visions in his doubts and forced flight to Egypt.  Then he disappears from the scene.  In the apocryphal Gospel of James, he is described as an old man – hence the carol ‘Joseph was an old man’ - at the time of his betrothal, but this is most improbable.  The cult of St. Joseph began in the East, thanks to a 6th century document, the ‘History of Joseph the Carpenter’ and spread to the West in the 8th century, reaching England about the time of the Norman Conquest.  In early sculpture, and in some of the medieval mystery plays, Joseph is shown almost as a comic character, bewildered and down in the dumps.  In reaction to this, saints such as Bridget of Sweden and Bernardine of Siena promoted devotion to him, and he was particularly esteemed by St. Teresa of Avila who dedicated her reformed Carmelite Convent in Avila to him.  In 1870 he was declared Patron of the Universal Church, and in 1962 his name was added to the Roman Canon of the Mass.  He is patron of families, bursars of institutions, and manual workers, also of all who seek a holy death (17th century) based on the tradition that he himself feared death until reassured by his wife and son.  So devotion to this slightly elusive figure has risen and fallen throughout history.  “Poor Joseph!” used to say our own late lamented Sister Thérèse on seeing that the total of votive candles at his altar in our church never matched those of his wife opposite.