Saint of the Day – 1 May – St Joseph the Worker
Additional Memorials
• 19 March
• 1 May (Joseph the Worker)
• 3rd Wednesday after Easter (patronage of Saint Joseph of the Universal Church)
• 3 January on some local calendars
• 29 October (Armenian)
• 20 July (Coptic)
Patronages – against doubt, against hesitation, accountants, attornies, barristers, bursars, cabinetmakers, carpenters, cemetery workers, children, civil engineers, confectioners, craftsmen, dying people, educators, emigrants, exiles, expectant mothers, families, fathers, furniture makers, grave diggers, happy death, holy death, house hunters, immigrants, interior souls, joiners, laborers, lawyers, married people, orphans, people in doubt, people who fight Communism, pioneers, pregnant women, social justice, solicitors, teachers, travellers, unborn children, wheelwrights, workers, working people, Catholic Church, Oblates of Saint Joseph, for protection of the Church, Universal Church, Vatican II, Americas, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, China, Croatian people, Korea, Mexico, New France, New World, Peru, Philippines, Vatican City, Viet Nam, Canadian Armed Forces, Papal States, 46 dioceses, 26 cities, states and regions.
St. Joseph has two feast days on the liturgical calendar. The first is March 19—Joseph, the Husband of Mary. The second is May 1—Joseph, the Worker.
“Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God,” Pope John Paul II had once said.
There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture but still, we know that he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter and a man who was not wealthy. We also know that he came from the royal lineage of King David.
We can see from his actions in scripture that Joseph was a compassionate man and obedient to the will of God. He also loved Mary and Jesus and wanted to protect and provide for them.
Since Joseph does not appear in Jesus’ public life, at his death, or resurrection, many historians believe Joseph had probably died before Jesus entered public ministry.
Joseph is the patron of many things, including the universal Church, fathers, the dying and social justice.
AnaStpaul 