On 8 December 1962—exactly 92 years after Pope Pius IX proclaimed St. Joseph the patron and protector of the Church—Pope John XXIII added the saint’s name to the daily Mass. In the Church’s most solemn of prayers he is now honoured with his wife Mary. Those whom God has joined together, the Church-at-prayer now daily invokes together, thanks to Pope John XXIII, Pope of St. Joseph.
When developing the Eucharistic prayer that is recited by the priest at Mass, it was decided early on that various saints would be mentioned by name. These included saints such as the Virgin Mary, Ss. Peter and Paul, the rest of the apostles and a list of Roman martyrs.
However, for many centuries the name of St. Joseph was not mentioned in the Roman Rite.
Why was the father of Jesus omitted from the official canon of the Mass?
One of the reasons was because the Church in Rome wanted to highlight the holy example of the martyrs. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains that, in the Eucharistic prayers, “After Our Lady follows 12 Apostles and 12 martyrs … The 12 martyrs are arranged to balance the Apostles. First, come five popes, then a bishop [St. Cyprian], and a deacon [St. Lawrence], then five laymen. All these saints, except St. Cyprian, are local Roman saints, as is natural in what was originally the local Roman Liturgy.”
This doesn’t give a full explanation, but it does give some insight as to why St. Joseph wasn’t included in the Eucharistic prayer. He wasn’t a martyr, so his example was not frequently mentioned during a time when Christians were heavily persecuted by the Roman Empire. At the same time, St. Joseph was included in various Eastern Liturgies during the first few centuries of the Church.
According to the Life and Glories of St. Joseph, “The ancient hymns of the Greek Church likewise bear witness to the honour paid to St. Joseph. St. Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, states that the feast of St. Joseph was celebrated on the Sunday after the Nativity and he gives for that Sunday a canon which concludes thus: ‘Thou, O God-bearing, Joseph wast the guardian of the Virgin, who preserved virginity intact. Be thou with her mindful of us, O Joseph.’”
It took until 13 November 1962, for Pope John XXIII to insert the name of St. Joseph into the First Eucharistic Prayer. Then on 1 May 2013, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments promulgated the decree Paternas vices, inserting the name of St. Joseph into Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV.
With this, the Church is proclaiming what a treasure she has in St. Joseph and is repeatedly lifting him for all to imitate, as has Pope Francis in his declaration of the Year of St. Joseph.
