On December 8, 1870, Blessed Pope Pius IX released his historic decree, Quemadmodum Deus, where he declared Saint Joseph the Patron of the Universal Church. Just as St. Joseph faithfully protected the Holy Family during their many trials, so now he faithfully protects Mother Church during the trials of history. In honor of the 150^thanniversary of this momentous occasion, Pope Francis declared this year (12/8/2020 – 12/8/2021) the Year of St. Joseph. There are many good resources⁽¹⁾https://yearofstjoseph.org. This website from the Diocese of Charlotte has many excellent resources. Note that it is in conjunction with their own diocesan celebration of the Year of St. Joseph. out there for this special year of grace, and I encourage everyone to deepen their knowledge and love of this chosen guardian of the Holy Family.⁽²⁾I recommend Edward Healy Thompson’s The Life and Glories of Saint Joseph, a scholarly and pious work; and for those open to approved private revelation, the eighteenth century Italian mystic Sr. Maria Cecilia Baij’s The Life of Saint Joseph. Fr. Donald Calloway’s Consecration to Joseph is also a valuable resource.

            Sometimes there is a confusing and worldly narrative of St. Joseph which describes his reaction when Mary, “was found to be with child”. The Scriptures tell us that St. Joseph, “being a just man, and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly” (Matthew 1:19). At times, it has been portrayed in commentaries, books, and movies that St. Joseph’s reaction to this situation was one that is in truth beneath his dignity as the most just of men, and offensive to the singular purity of Our Lady. In fact, any narrative that portrays St. Joseph entertaining doubts and suspicions about Our Lady’s purity should be quickly rejected. 

            In this article, I will first explain the title of “Joseph most just”, noting how that after Our Lady, St. Joseph is the greatest saint in the history of the Church. I will then show how five Doctors of the Church illustrate the proper understanding of the hidden struggle that St. Joseph underwent when he found that his spouse was with child.  

Joseph Most Just 

            After the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph was the greatest saint ever to walk the earth. The proof of St. Joseph’s sanctity can be found when the Scriptures call him a “just man”. The word in the original Greek text for just is δίκαιος (dikaios), which implies not only being righteous and virtuous, but especially just and acceptable in the eyes of God.⁽³⁾“δίκαιος” in Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the Bible, accessed on January 7, 2021. https://biblehub.com/greek/1342.htm As a devout Jew, St. Joseph rendered to God all that was due to Him, faithfully loving God with all his heart and following the Mosaic law. His sense of being just could be understood in the same way the Scripture describes Zechariah and Elizabeth: “Both were just (dikaioi) before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord” (Luke 1:6). 

            Yet the righteousness of St. Joseph was even greater. In Pope Leo XIII’s 1889 encyclical Quamquam Pluries (On Devotion to Saint Joseph), the Holy Father declares that St. Joseph’s two-fold dignity of being both the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the supposed father of Jesus made him more just and holy than any other saint. 

            Pope Leo XIII writes: “As Joseph has been united to the Blessed Virgin by the ties of marriage, it may not be doubted that he approached nearer than any to the eminent dignity by which the Mother of God surpasses so nobly all created natures.”⁽⁴⁾Quamquam Pluries, 3. Our Lady is the Immaculate Conception, free from all sin, and because of his marriage to her, St. Joseph was closer to her holiness than any other saint. This truth, “may not be doubted”. 

            Pope Leo XIII then explains more about the holiness exchanged between St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Sacrament of matrimony: “For marriage is the most intimate of all unions which from its essence imparts a community of gifts between those that are joined together. Thus, in giving Joseph the Blessed Virgin as spouse, God appointed him to be not only her life’s companion, the witness of her maidenhood, the protector of her honor, but also, by virtue of the conjugal tie, a participator in her sublime dignity.”⁽⁵⁾Ibid. St. Thomas Aquinas describes this community of gifts shared in marriage as an inseparable union of souls: “The form of matrimony consists in a certain inseparable union of souls by which husband and wife are pledged by a bond of mutual affection that cannot be sundered.” Summa Theologica III.29.2. Also, in his book, Love and Responsibility, Karol Wojtyla (Pope St. John Paul II) argues similarly to Pope Leo XIII when he asserts that matrimony creates a interpersonal bond between two people that is greater than any other form of friendship: “Betrothed love is something different from, and more than, all forms of love so far analyzed, both as it affects the individual subject, the person who loves, and as regards the interpersonal union which it creates. When betrothed love enters into this interpersonal relationship something more than friendship results: two people give themselves each to the other.” Love and Responsibility(Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 1993), 96. The marriage bond allowed him to participate in a sanctity that was reserved alone to Our Lady, giving him also a sublime dignity. 

            Secondly, St. Joseph’s holiness came from his closeness to Jesus, acting as the earthly father to the Word Incarnate: “And Joseph shines among all mankind by the most august dignity, since by divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and reputed as His father among men.”⁽⁶⁾Quamquam Pluries, 3. St. Joseph’s “most august dignity” was greater than any man who ever walked the earth because God predestined him to be Jesus’ guardian. 

            Hence, after Our Lady, the theological and cardinal virtues of St. Joseph should be understood to be greater than any other saint who ever lived.⁽⁷⁾Various arguments are made that St. John the Baptist should be considered the greatest saint. For example, the words of Jesus appear to contradict what Pope Leo XIII asserts: “Amen I say to you, among those born of women there is not risen a greater one that John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). However, this should not be taken in the absolute sense because St. John the Baptist was not greater than the mother of Jesus. Christ’s words should be understood in the sense that St. John the Baptist is the greatest of the prophets (Cf. Matthew 11:9). Cf. Sr. Maria Cecilia Baij, The Life of Saint Joseph, trans. Hubert Joseph Mark (The 101 Foundation, Inc.: Asbury, NJ, 1997), 358-360. For these reasons, the Church gives a list of superlatives in the Litany of St. Joseph that venerate him for possessing the highest degree of virtue, beginning with the title, Ioseph Iustissime (Joseph most just).⁽⁸⁾The Litany of Saint Joseph was approved by Pope St. Pius X for public and solemn use, only one of five official litanies of the Catholic Church.

Saint Joseph’s Struggle according the Doctors of the Church 

            The Doctors of the Church give the proper explanation of St. Joseph’s struggle when he found that the Blessed Virgin Mary was with child. The Scripture states that St. Joseph “being a just man, and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly” (Matthew 1:19). It does not say St. Joseph was compassionate or merciful, as if he, being a just man, was willing to forgive Our Lady.⁽⁹⁾Cf. Edward Healy Thompson, The Life and Glories of Saint Joseph (Tan Books: Rockford, Il, 1980), 198-199. That would be reading a false meaning into the text. 

            Nor can there be any sense that St. Joseph was willing to hide the sin of adultery. The law of Moses explicitly states that it is not possible to hide the sin of someone who is guilty: If anyone, “…comes to know the [sinful] matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity” (Leviticus 5:10). Hence, as a devout follower of the law, St. Joseph would no longer be “just” if he knew the matter and concealed the sin. St. Jerome explains the principle well: “[I]t is a precept of the Law that not only the one who commits a crime, but anyone who is silently aware of it, is guilty of sin. Then how can Joseph be called a just man, when he is hiding his wife’s crime?”⁽¹⁰⁾St. Jerome, “Book 1 of the Commentary on Matthew” quoted in The Roman Breviary, vol. 1 (Baronius Press: 2011), December 24 – Vigil of Christmas, 1149.

            St. Joseph was aware of Our Lady’s purity and holiness. There was no doubt in his mind regarding his spouse’s virtue and he knew she was innocent. St. Jerome continues: “What he knew was not her crime (there was none to be known), but her chastity. What he did not know was the mystery of how she had conceived; and by his silence he kept hidden from the public the circumstances that was a source of wonder to him.”⁽¹¹⁾Ibid. St. Joseph was in the presence of that which he did not understand. There were also other times when St. Joseph did not understand God’s will, such as the Child was lost in the temple (Luke 2:50). The lack of understanding does not mean he doubted Our Lady or that he despaired of the goodness of God’s providence. 

            Being a devout Jew, St. Joseph also knew the ancient prophecies about the messiah, such as the prophecy by Isaiah: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” (7:14). He must have struggled to put this all together. According to St. Francis de Sales, St. Joseph then reasoned to himself: “’What is this? I know that she is a virgin, for together we took the vow of preserving our virginity and our purity, in which she could certainly not have failed. On the other hand, I perceive that she is with child, that she is a mother. And how can maternity and virginity subsist together. Might it be’, he then said, ‘that she is that glorious Virgin of whom the Prophet declares that she shall conceive and bring forth the Messiah?’”⁽¹²⁾Quoted in Thompson, 201-202. According to St. Francis de Sales, through prayer St. Joseph was able to recognize that Mary, his spouse, was to be the mother of the Savior. 

            The question then becomes, “Why did he decide to ‘send her away quietly’?” St. Bernard of Clairvaux answers: “Joseph wished to separate himself from Mary for the same reason as made Peter desire to leave the Lord, when he said, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord (Luke 5:8).’”⁽¹³⁾Quoted in Thompson, 200. Again, St. Joseph was filled with awe at the mystery before him.

St. Thomas Aquinas succinctly summarizes St. Joseph’s reaction: “Holy Joseph pondered in his humility not to continue to dwell with so much sanctity.”⁽¹⁴⁾Ibid., 201. Therefore, he wished to withdraw. 

            Finally, it was the angel who communicated to St. Joseph his own distinctive role that God had predestined for him: “Joseph, Son of David, do not fear to take Mary for your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; he will be a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Matthew 1:20-21). 

            St. Peter Chrysologus explains that the title the angel speaks, “Son of David”, after Joseph’s name would have immediately registered with him. St. Peter writes: “You observe, brethren, that the race is named in the person. The whole stock is indicated in one man…With this statement the promise of God the Father had been given to David.”⁽¹⁵⁾St. Peter Chrysologus, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 17, Saint Peter Chrysologus Selected Sermons and Saint Valerian Homilies, trans. George E. Ganss (Catholic University of America Press: Washington D.C. 2004), 234. The promise has been fulfilled. St. Joseph recognizes that because he too is of the line of David, he has a role to play in the Messiah’s life. He also knew that according to the Jewish tradition, the father who names the child has legal right over him. Therefore, Joseph, of the line of David, shall call the baby Jesus, becoming the legal father of the Messiah, while remaining the chaste spouse of Mary ever virgin. The struggle was resolved and he rejoiced in the privileged role to which God had called him. 

Year of Saint Joseph

            This explanation of St Joseph’s struggle after the annunciation better exemplifies the virtues of Our Lady and of St. Joseph, and helps us deepen our reverence for St. Joseph in the life of the Church. With all the doctrinal confusion and scandals in the Church today, our prayers during this year should be directed to St. Joseph, asking for his assistance in purifying the Church and protecting it from the wicked powers that threaten her. We should also ask that like St. Joseph, we would have the same sense of trust and surrender to the events that we do not understand, and that are beyond our control. 

            After the Blessed Virgin Mary, no saint in the history of the Church has been mentioned more frequently in the papal magisterium than St. Joseph.⁽¹⁶⁾Pope Francis, Patris Corde, Introduction. The importance of St. Joseph should be clear to us and this year should be a time for our increase of love and devotion to this most just husband and father. As one English bishop wrote: “Spend your life in honoring St. Joseph, and your love and homage will never equal the love and homage paid to him by Mary.”⁽¹⁷⁾Bishop Herbert Vaughan quoted in Thompson, ii.