Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. His festival was ordered by pope Sixtus IV. to be observed as a double; Gregory XV. recommended its general observance by the faithful, and this recommendation was confirmed by Urban XIII., by bull in 1642.

All we know for certain concerning S. Joseph, the husband of Mary the mother of God, is derived from the Holy Gospels. To him was confided the most precious treasure ever entrusted to man, the guardianship of Mary and Jesus, of the Mother and the Son of God; whence we may infer the great sanctity and merit of S. Joseph.

He was of the lineage of David, and therefore of royal race, but was poor, and gained his livelihood as a carpenter. According to S. Matthew his father's name was Jacob, according to S. Luke it was Heli, this discrepancy in the accounts is explained by the supposition that one of the genealogies represents the direct line of natural generation, the other the legal descent of royal prerogative. We are expressly told that he was a just man. On perceiving that his virgin wife was with child, he resolved secretly to put her away, for having lived with her in the purest relations, he knew that the child could be none of his; and by secretly divorcing her, he would spare her the scandal which would attach itself to her, for the world would regard her offspring as his son, and he alone would know that this was not the case.

But he was warned by God in a dream to believe in the innocence of his wife, and was told that she was to become the mother of the Son of God. Afterwards, when Herod sought the life of the young child, he took Him and His mother by night and fled with them into Egypt, till hearing that Herod was dead, in obedience to an angelic order, he returned to Palestine; but finding that Archelaus the son of Herod was reigning in Judea, he thought it imprudent to enter his dominions, and therefore settled at Nazareth. He and Mary went once every year to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifice in the temple, in obedience to the requirements of the law, and on one of these occasions Jesus accompanied them. The child Jesus grew up under the care of Joseph, assisting him in his shop. It is believed that Joseph died before our Lord began his ministry; for we hear of him no more.

The girdle of S. Joseph is said to be preserved among the sacred treasures of the church of Joinville, in the diocese of Langres.