Joseph

Today, on the Roman Calendar, western Christendom observes the Feast of Saint Joseph, husband of Mary and foster-father of Jesus. What little we know of him is in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, where he is referred to as "a just man." Various apochryphal gospel accounts list him as an old man at the time he married Mary, even that he was a widower, with four children from a previous marriage, including "James the brother of Jesus." The Church generally considers James to be a cousin, the original languages often using the same word for both.

There are also many stories of his intercession. A famine in Sicily was said to have ended following a fervent use of a Novena in his name. Thus he is revered throughout Italy, where they parade his statue through the village, atop "Saint Joseph altars," which are laden with bread and other foods. Perhaps this explains why Angelo Roncalli had a special devotion to him as well, and as Pope John XXIII, added his name to the "Roman Canon," the traditional Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Mass. There is also in the USA, the story of the mysterious traveling carpenter who voluntarily built a spiral staircase in a convent chapel in New Mexico. The structure was completed without nails, and its design defies engineering convention. It has never needed repair.

As a carpenter, Joseph is also revered as the patron of the workingman, and of real estate agents. Catholics of all level of devotion still bury a statue of Joseph upside down near their house to pray for a timely selling. Sadly, this practice tends to border on superstition, but it is typical of the "folk religion" that pervades many cultures.

As the "strong and silent type," Joseph is also remembered as the patron of fathers, and of a happy death. Conventional wisdom holds that he died while Jesus was a youth, and left his carpentry business to him. Thus Jesus is also remembered as "the carpenter from Nazereth," as was His foster-father.