The Church celebrates the solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19. However, in this year specially dedicated to honour him, we cannot have joyful gatherings and grand celebrations due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions still in place. Devotion to St. Joseph, husband of Mary, can be traced back to the beginnings of the Church, with a local feast dedicated to St. Joseph confirmed in Egypt as early as the 4th century.
In the Western Church, the feast of St. Joseph wasn’t fixed until the 15th century. According to some traditions, March 19 was the day of Joseph’s death. The Bible is entirely silent about his death and as a result, the Church relies on oral traditions passed down over the centuries. By 1621 Pope Gregory XV extended a feast of St. Joseph to the entire Church and it was elevated even more when Pope Pius IX declared him the Patron of the Universal Church in 1870.
St. Joseph is honoured as the Patron of a Happy Death. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC#1014) teaches “us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the litany of saints, for instance, the Church has us pray: “From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord”; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us “at the hour of our death” in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to “St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.”
It is essential to understand the true meaning of the phrase “a happy death.” The term “happy,” signifies being peaceful, full of Faith and hope, which carries with it a certain joy. The traditions of the Church hold the death of St. Joseph a blessed and happy death, because Jesus and Mary were at his side. Yet another story from the apocryphal writings hold that St. Joseph did not want to go to heaven, because heaven was ‘empty’… both Jesus and mary where still on earth! If Jesus and Mary are not around, how can that place be called heaven?
An apocryphal fifth century book, The History of Joseph the Carpenter, tells that Joseph was afraid of dying and saddened that he hadn’t accomplished more in his life. Mary and Jesus comforted him, and promised protection and life to everyone who did good in the name of Joseph. With those assurances, Joseph was able to die in peace and contentment—a happy death. By the 17th century, many Catholic groups had developed a special devotion to St. Joseph for those desiring a happy death.
St. Joseph was a caring man who loved his family, a faithful man who did what God wanted him to even when he didn’t completely understand what was going on, and a just man who lived honestly and humbly, working to support his wife and foster-child, fulfilling the laws of his religion and quietly doing his duty.
Taking Joseph as our model and asking for his intercession, we too can look forward to a happy death with Mary and Jesus by our side.
