Saint Joseph

About Saint Joseph

Joseph was a carpenter in Nazareth, a village small enough that everyone knew everyone else's business. When he found out Mary was expecting a child, he decided to leave her quietly to spare her public shame — and changed his mind after a dream. It was the first of several: through dreams he took Mary in, fled to Egypt with the child, and came back when the danger had passed.

The gospels record not a single word spoken by him. Joseph always appears doing, never speaking: travelling, protecting, working, looking for somewhere for the birth, teaching his son a trade. That is how tradition understood him — the man who held the Holy Family together in silence.

He is patron of the universal Church, of workers, of fathers, of carpenters and of a peaceful death, because tradition pictures him dying beside Jesus and Mary. His feast is 19 March, and 1 May celebrates him as a labourer.

A message from Saint Joseph is sent on Father's Day, on 19 March, to someone starting a new job, and to men who hold a household together without ever complaining.

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