A Young Dominican Reflects on St. Joseph
Published in Dominican Ashram , Vol. 3, Issue 1 (March 2021), pp. 16-21. Reproduced with permission. As a humble husband, father and head of the family, St. Joseph appears to be in the shadows of the life of Jesus and Mary at Nazareth. And yet, this carpenter of whom very little is said in the Scriptures, was declared the patron of the Universal Church, by Pope Pius IX in 1870. Celebrating the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this momentous declaration, Pope Francis has declared the Year of St. Joseph affording an opportunity for the entire Church to contemplate more closely the life and virtues of St. Joseph. At first glance, it may appear that the Dominican Order has no associations with devotion to St. Joseph. Interestingly, however, the Dominicans were among the first Religious Orders to introduce a liturgical celebration of St. Joseph into their calendar in 1518 (about 40 years after the Franciscans had done so). The observance of this feast by the mendicant Orders was t...