Page 62 - Reflections on St. Joseph

17, 1870, a week after the presentation of the petition to the Vatican Council, St. Joseph Marello
wrote from Rome to his friend, Fr. Giuseppe Riccio: “On the pre-vigil of our Patron Saint, and in
a moment when devotion to the Head of the Holy Family is about to reach its highest
development, due to the petitions made by Christendom to the Father of the Vatican Council, I
cannot hold back from writing a couple of words... Let us pray, the both of us together on the
day of our great Patriarch, so that as we start to exalt him in our hearts, we will be worthy of
soon seeing him exalted by all Christendom with the title being prepared of Patron of the
Universal Church.” (cf. Letter 64). For St. Joseph Marello, this was important news, which will
guide him towards a spirituality of Joseph which is of a particularly ecclesial nature. His Draft
for a Company of St. Joseph, promoting the interests of Jesus, the first step in his founding our
Congregation, drew strong inspiration from this spirituality of Joseph.

St. Joseph, Protector of the Universal Church

The Patronage of St. Joseph was proclaimed on December 8, 1870 by Pius IX by means of a decree
of the Sacred Congregation of Rites Quemadmodum Deus, which was promulgated during a
solemn Mass in the Basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Peter in the Vatican, and St. Mary Major. This
was a decree, according to St. John XXIII which “opened a vein of rich and precious inspirations
to the successors of Pius IX” (Apostolic Letter, St. Joseph Patron of Vatican Council II, March 19,
1961).

The story of this provision is like an adventure. Pontifical documents at the time, were being
controlled by the Italian government. Pius IX legally evaded this government control by
making use not of a Bull or Papal Letter, but of a decree of the Congregation for Sacred Rites.

It is a document which marks a genuine turning point. While preceding documents of the Holy
See on St. Joseph at most arrived at calling him the “most distinguished spouse of the Mother of
God”, and the title of Spouse only preceded by the title of “Adoptive Father of the Only Begotten
Son of Almighty God. This document represents a small official treatise on St. Joseph, with
references to his titles, his greatness, his dignity, his holiness and his mission to all the world.

The figure of St. Joseph is described through the role which the Patriarch Joseph had in the story
of salvation. That which Joseph, son of the ancient Jacob, was in relation to the earthly life of
Israel, St. Joseph was with regard to the supernatural life of men. Pius IX writes: “In the same
way that God placed that Joseph, son of the Patriarch Jacob, over all the land of Egypt, so that he
might provide grain for his people, so also, with the arrival of the fullness of times, when He
was about to send His Only Begotten Son to earth as Savior of the world, did He choose another
Joseph, of which the first was a type and figure, who having been made head and master of the
house and of his possessions, he chose him as guardian of his greatest treasures.”

The decree, first of all, shows the singular dignity of St. Joseph “constituted by God as lord and
prince of his house and possessions and chosen as guardian of divine treasures”. “In fact, he had
as his spouse the Immaculate Virgin Mary, from whom was born by the Holy Spirit, our Lord
Jesus Christ, and before men deigned to be known as the reputed son of Joseph, and was subject
to him. He whom so many kings and prophets longed to see, was not only seen by Joseph, but

38 Reflections on st. joseph