Saint Joseph

The Life of Saint Joseph

Joseph was born in the first century BC. He lived in Nazareth, but his ancestral home was in Bethlehem. Joseph was a carpenter by trade. Virtually everything we know about Joseph’s life comes from the Gospels, specifically Matthew and Luke. Both Gospels give genealogies of Jesus, so we know that Joseph was a descendant of David.

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Joseph wed Mary, who gave became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. He thought at first that she had become pregnant through another man, but an angel came to him in a dream and explained the situation: Mary was to give birth to the Messiah, Jesus, who had been conceived by God Himself. Joseph remained with Mary, making him the foster-father of Our Lord and the protector of the Holy Family.

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Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with a prophecy from Scripture. The evil King Herod sought out the child to kill him, but Joseph was warned in another dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to hide until the danger had passed. Once Herod had died, Joseph received yet another dream that it was safe for him to return with his family, so they returned to Nazareth. The final mention of Joseph is in the Gospel of Luke, when the Holy Family went to the Temple to celebrate the Passover when Jesus was twelve years old.  Joseph is not mentioned at all during the period of Jesus’s ministry, so it is certain that he had died before then.

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Joseph’s role in Jesus’s life was to serve as his earthly father, raising him as a devout Jew and training him in his profession of carpentry. Over time, devotion to Joseph grew as Christians came to understand Joseph’s role as the protector of Jesus and Mary. Thomas Aquinas pointed out that, if Mary had been unmarried and pregnant, the Jews of her day would likely have stoned her to death for adultery.

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St. Joseph is the patron and protector of the Church, as well as the patron saint of fathers and carpenters.

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Saint Joseph, pray for us.