Their story
Everything we know for certain about Joseph comes from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and he never speaks a single word in them. He was a descendant of David living in Nazareth and worked as a tektōn: a builder or carpenter (Matthew 13:55). He was betrothed to Mary. When he learned she was pregnant, he decided to end the betrothal quietly rather than expose her. Then an angel in a dream told him to take her as his wife (Matthew 1:19–24).
Four times in Matthew, Joseph receives a message in a dream, and each time he gets up and acts without delay. He takes Mary to Bethlehem for the census, flees with her and the child to Egypt to escape Herod, returns, and settles in Nazareth. The last scene we have of him is the anxious three-day search for the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41–51). He is absent from the accounts of Jesus' public ministry, and tradition holds that he had died before it began, in the arms of Jesus and Mary.
Pius IX declared him Patron of the Universal Church in 1870; Leo XIII wrote the encyclical Quamquam Pluries about him in 1889; Francis wrote Patris Corde in 2020. People follow Joseph because he shows what faith looks like for most of us: no speeches, just getting up in the night and doing the next right thing to protect the people entrusted to him.
Three things you might not know
He never speaks a word in the Gospels.
Pope Leo XIII asked Catholics to add the prayer below to the Rosary every October (encyclical Quamquam pluries, 1889).
Pope Francis said he keeps a 'sleeping St. Joseph' on his desk and slips notes about his problems under it (Manila, 2015).
The novena
Nine days · one intention
A novena is nine days of prayer for one intention, modeled on the nine days the apostles and Mary prayed between the Ascension and Pentecost (Acts 1–2). Pray this each day:
To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction, and, having implored the help of thy thrice-holy spouse, we now with hearts filled with confidence earnestly beg thee also to take us under thy protection. By that charity wherewith thou wert united to the immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by that fatherly love with which thou didst cherish the Child Jesus, we beseech thee and we humbly pray that thou wilt look down with gracious eye upon that inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by His Blood, and wilt succor us in our need by thy power and strength. Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen offspring of Jesus Christ. Keep from us, O most loving father, all blight of error and corruption. Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness; and as thou didst once rescue the Child Jesus from great peril to His life, so now defend God's holy Church from the snares of the enemy and all adversity. Finally, shield every one of us with thy patronage that imitating thy example and strengthened by thy help we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting happiness in heaven. Amen.
