The St Joseph Novena

The Saint Joseph Novena is one of the great traditional Catholic devotions to the foster father of Jesus, the chaste husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the patron of the Universal Church. Saint Joseph holds a unique place in Catholic devotion: silent in the Gospels, he is given the most exalted title of any saint after Mary, Patron of the Universal Church, by Pope Pius IX in 1870. His intercession is invoked across the Catholic world for the protection of the family, for employment, for fathers, for those preparing for a holy death, and for the needs of the Church in time of trial.

Origin and history of the St Joseph Novena

Devotion to Saint Joseph developed slowly in the Western Church. The early Church, focused on the great Christological controversies, did not foreground his cult; the Eastern liturgies preserved a feast of Joseph the Betrothed but the Western Church did not establish a universal feast until the fifteenth century. The breakthrough was the work of Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444), the Franciscan preacher who placed the figure of Saint Joseph at the center of his preaching on the Holy Family.

The devotional flowering came in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), who chose Saint Joseph as the patron of her reformed Carmelite order and testified that "to other saints the Lord seems to have given grace to succor us in some of our necessities, but of this glorious saint, my experience is that he succors us in them all." The novena tradition developed especially in the nineteenth century, when Pope Pius IX, in his apostolic letter Quemadmodum Deus (8 December 1870), declared Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church in response to the gathering crisis of the Church under the conditions of the Italian unification and the loss of the Papal States.¹

The form of the novena is traditional rather than received from a particular apparition or private revelation. The traditional Saint Joseph novena prayer, O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great..., is preserved in the Raccolta (the official collection of indulgenced prayers in pre-conciliar Catholic devotion) and remains in widespread use.

When the St Joseph Novena is prayed

The novena is most commonly prayed:

• In the nine days before March 19, the solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The solemnity is celebrated as a transferred feast in years when March 19 falls in Holy Week. Many Catholics also continue praying the novena through the day of the feast itself.
• In the nine days before May 1, the optional memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker, instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955.
• For specific intentions: a job search, a difficult family situation, the preparation for a holy death of oneself or a loved one, the protection of the family during a particular trial.

The novena is not bound to a particular liturgical season and may be prayed at any time. In Italy and the Italian-American Catholic world, the Saint Joseph's Day Table (Tavola di San Giuseppe) is a traditional day of celebration on March 19 with elaborate meatless feasts; the Saint Joseph Novena is often prayed in the nine days preceding the table.

The structure of the St Joseph Novena

Each day of the Saint Joseph Novena follows this form:

1. Opening invocation: Saint Joseph, glorious patriarch... (or other traditional invocation).
2. A meditation on a theme proper to the day: Joseph's identity, his virtues, his patronage.
3. The petition: the specific intention for which the novena is being prayed.
4. The classical novena prayer to Saint Joseph (the O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great prayer, in the Raccolta tradition).
5. Closing prayers: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be, sometimes prayed seven times in honor of the Seven Sorrows and Seven Joys of Saint Joseph (a Franciscan devotional pattern).

Daily themes for the nine days:

1. Saint Joseph the Just Man
2. Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary
3. Foster Father of Jesus
4. Patron of the Universal Church
5. Patron of Workers
6. Model of the Interior Life
7. Patron of a Holy Death
8. Terror of Demons and Protector of the Family
9. Confidence in the Intercession of Saint Joseph

Theological foundations

The Catholic theology of Saint Joseph rests on three principal Gospel data: he is named in the genealogies of Christ as the legal father of Jesus through whom the Davidic descent is established (Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38); he is described in Matthew 1:19 as a just man ( dikaios in Greek, justus in Latin); and he receives the angelic instruction in dreams that protects the Holy Family from Herod and re-establishes them in Nazareth after the flight to Egypt (Matthew 1:18-25, 2:13-23).

From these Gospel foundations, the Catholic theological tradition has developed a rich doctrine of Saint Joseph. The decisive papal magisterial documents are: Pope Leo XIII, Quamquam Pluries (encyclical, 15 August 1889), establishing Saint Joseph's universal patronage of the Church; Pope Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (apostolic exhortation, 15 August 1989), the most extensive papal treatment of Saint Joseph's role in the economy of salvation; and Pope Francis, Patris Corde (apostolic letter, 8 December 2020), declaring a Year of Saint Joseph from December 2020 to December 2021 in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his proclamation as Patron of the Universal Church.²

The Catechism of the Catholic Church treats Saint Joseph in paragraphs 437, 488, 497, 532, and 1655, principally in the context of the Incarnation and the holy family of Nazareth as the school of the Christian life.

Pairing the St Joseph Novena with other prayers

Catholics commonly pair the Saint Joseph Novena with:

• The Holy Rosary, particularly the Joyful Mysteries, which directly meditate on scenes of the Holy Family with Saint Joseph (the Annunciation under his protection, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation, the Finding in the Temple).
• The Litany of Saint Joseph, an indulgenced prayer in the Catholic tradition.
• The thirty-day Saint Joseph devotion, a longer form of consecration drawing on Saint Joseph's traditional patronage.
• The Memorare of Saint Bernard, prayed to Mary in conjunction with the husband to whom she was given.
• For employment intentions, the prayer to Saint Joseph the Worker.

For the life of the saint, see Saint Joseph. For the broader Catholic doctrine of the saints' intercession, see the Communion of Saints.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Pope Pius IX, Quemadmodum Deus (apostolic letter, 8 December 1870), declaring Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. Saint Teresa of Avila, Book of Her Life, chapter six. Saint Bernardine of Siena, Sermons on Saint Joseph. Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), "Saint Joseph," available at newadvent.org. ↩

2. Pope Leo XIII, Quamquam Pluries (encyclical, 15 August 1889). Pope Pius XII, instituting the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on 1 May 1955. Pope Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (apostolic exhortation, 15 August 1989). Pope Francis, Patris Corde (apostolic letter, 8 December 2020). All available at vatican.va. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 437, 488, 497, 532, 1655. Available at vatican.va. ↩