Saint Joseph
Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus and the guardian of Jesus. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Christian traditions he is regarded as Saint Joseph. Wikipedia
Joseph (Hebrew יוֹסֵף, "Yosef"; Greek: Ἰωσήφ) is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus and the guardian of Jesus. InRoman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Christian traditions he is regarded as Saint Joseph.
Feast days
Main article: Saint Joseph's Day
March 19, Saint Joseph's Day, has been the principal feast day of Saint Joseph in Western Christianity,[45][46] since the tenth century, and is celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, many Lutherans and other denominations.[47] In Eastern Orthodoxy, the feast day of Saint Joseph is celebrated on the First Sunday after the Nativity of Christ.
In 1870, Pope Pius IX declared Joseph patron of the universal Church and instituted another feast, with an octave, to be held in his honour on Wednesday in the second week after Easter. This was abolished by Pope Pius XII, when in 1955 he established the Feast of "St. Joseph the Worker", to be celebrated on 1 May. This date counteracts May Day, a union, workers and socialists holiday and reflects Joseph's status as what many Catholics and other Christians consider the "patron of workers" and "model of workers." Catholic and other Christian teachings and stories about or relating to Joseph and the Holy Family frequently stress his patience, persistence, and hard work as admirable qualities which believers should adopt.
Pope John XXIII added the name of Joseph to the Canon of the Mass. The 19 March feast is a solemnity and is transferred to another date if impeded (for instance, if it falls on a Sunday, which must fall in Lent). The 1 May celebration is an optional memorial, and so is omitted if impeded. (However, the 1 May celebration is 1st class in the Tridentine calendar, so in it St. Joseph the Worker was celebrated on 2 May in 2008 because 1 May was Ascension Thursday and in 2011 because 1 May was in the Easter octave.)
Modern appraisal
The name of Joseph is found almost exclusively in the genealogies and the infancy narratives.[26][27] The variances between the genealogies given in Matthew and Luke are explained on the basis that Matthew's genealogy traces his legal descent, according to Jewish law, through St. Joseph; while Luke's genealogy traces his actual physical descent through Mary.
Modern positions on the question of the relationship between Joseph and the Virgin Mary vary. The Eastern Orthodox Church, which names Joseph's first wife as Salome, holds that Joseph was a widower and merely betrothed, but never married, to Mary,[28] and that references to Jesus' "brothers" are to children of Joseph and Salome. The position of the Catholic Church, derived from the writings of Saint Jerome, is that Joseph was the husband of Mary, but that references to Jesus' "brothers" should be understood to mean cousins or step-brothers. In both cases, the church doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity means that Joseph and Mary never had sexual relations. The Protestant churches, following the tenet of Virgin Birth but not that of Perpetual Virginity, hold no strong views on the subject