Aside from Mary herself, St. Joseph is the saint most represented on Notre Dame’s campus in painted images, stained glass, and statues. Joseph is one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints, and he is also the patron saint of the brothers of Holy Cross, who built this University.

Joseph, like Mary, is one of the key figures of Salvation History, whose personality and biography are not included in Scripture. Most of our traditional stories about Joseph come from the early Christian legend, the Protoevangelium of James. From canonical Scripture, we know that Joseph was a laborer in Nazareth—a carpenter. We know he was not wealthy because when he took Mary and Jesus to the Temple after Jesus was born, he offered two doves, which was an allowance for those who could not afford to offer a lamb. Even though he was a worker, Joseph was from royal lineage—in Matthew’s genealogy, which begins his Gospel, Joseph is listed as a descendant of King David.

In Scripture, Joseph provides us with the awe-inspiring example of a disciple who follows the Lord, no matter how surprising and shocking the commands received. When Joseph was engaged to Mary, she became pregnant with Jesus. Not knowing the child’s origin, Joseph planned to divorce her but intended to do so very quietly, so as to avoid scandal and causing additional pain for Mary. Joseph knew that this step could bring severe judgment—even stoning—upon the woman found pregnant by purported adultery. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream to explain the pregnancy and the identity of Jesus. In sheer obedience and faith, Joseph took Mary as his wife and provided for her and Jesus, whom he loved and cared for as his own son.

An angel appeared to him again, later, when Jesus was in danger. Joseph immediately followed the angel’s instructions, took his family to safety in Egypt, and only returned when the angel told him it was safe.

Because he is absent entirely from the story of Jesus’ public ministry, his passion and death, tradition teaches that Joseph died before these events took place. He is the patron of a happy death because tradition holds that he died of natural causes with Jesus and Mary at his side. (Joseph is pictured here on his deathbed in a mural in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus.)

Above all, we know that Joseph was faithful—he followed all of the religious laws of the time, and made the expensive trip to Jerusalem every year to celebrate Passover there. He followed without question the promptings of the angels who appeared to him, even though it sent him into the unknown. The Catholic Church has taught that Joseph and Mary had a celibate marriage, certainly a difficult vocation. Here, John Cavadini, of the McGrath Institute for Church Life examines what this tradition teaches us about the Incarnation.

Joseph has two feast days—today, and May 1, when he is venerated under the title, Joseph the Worker. He is patron saint of the universal Church, of workers and carpenters, of immigrants, of those who are dying, of those who are buying or selling a house, and of fathers, among many others who claim his intercession. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame’s campus, including pieces of his robe.

St. Joseph is depicted in a statue that stands atop the founder’s monument on campus, near Old College and the Log Chapel (top image). In one hand, Joseph holds a lily—a traditional symbol of purity—and, in the other, he holds the child Jesus. St. Joseph was chosen for the monument because he is the patron of the Holy Cross brothers, who came to the American frontier in northern Indiana to establish a university. They taught and provided indispensable labor such as carpentry and farming, building Notre Dame in both the intellectual and physical sense. The names of the founding brothers are inscribed on the back of the pedestal. Joseph is an inspiring image of someone who, like the brothers of Holy Cross, seeks to conform his life to the shape of the cross. Whatever Joseph’s hopes were for his own life or his relationship with Mary, he gave those up to help bring God’s plan for salvation to fruition. In W.H. Auden’s Christmas oratorio, For the Time Being, Auden imagines Joseph’s decision, as he contemplates divorcing Mary.

Joseph prays:

All I ask is one/Important and elegant proof/That what my Love had done/Was really at your will/And that your will is Love.

The angel Gabriel responds: No, you must believe.

Auden honors Joseph’s great faith. Whoever else he was, Joseph was a man who was able to follow God with no proof, but through his pure and sturdy faith.

Among many other places on campus, Joseph is also depicted in this statue to the left that decorates the atrium in the Stinson-Remick Engineering Hall, where he is reading a scroll with the child Jesus.

St. Joseph, faithful spouse of the Blessed Virgin and patron saint of the Holy Cross brothers—pray for us!

To learn even more about Saint Joseph, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.