St. Joseph is the foster-father to Jesus, and is the most chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There isn’t a whole lot of information about St. Joseph in the Biblical canon, and none of his words are recorded. Nevertheless, there is much rich tradition and legend surrounding this holy and pious man.
The only recordings of him are in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. In each, he is shown to be very just. In Matthew, we see that Joseph, wants to divorce Mary, and rightly so, for being found with child before their marriage. However, even in the midst of this desire, he wanted to have the divorce be quiet, and not have Mary be put to shame. In this way, he realizes that people make mistakes, and, like Christ, does not want them to be injured any further. Obviously, though, Mary made no mistake, and the angel visits Joseph to assure him of this, and he immediately is obedient unto this messenger of God, and takes Mary unto his household to care for her, and this Immanuel who will become the Savior of his people.
Joseph is also shown to be full of love, loyalty, and duty to Christ and to his Blessed Mother as he flees with them to Egypt to protect the child from the threat of Herod, who wants to destroy the Christ child. Again, his obedience to the angel of God, and his willingness to make personal sacrifice for the sake of another exemplify his righteousness.
And what an honor it must have been to live out the last of his days in the presence of the Son of God, and the Queen of Heaven, the Immaculate Mother of our Lord. Tradition holds that Joseph died sometime after Jesus was found in the Temple, and before the beginning of his public ministry. The legend says that he died in the arms of Mary and Jesus, and that he was given the grace of a happy death.
Today, the Church honors St. Joseph in several feast days, and he is considered the patron of many countries and regions. He is the patron of the universal Church, and we humbly come before him to ask for the grace of a happy death. As head of the Holy Family of Nazareth, we also seek his intercession for the love and unity of our own domestic families.
