St. Joseph
Singularly little is known about St. Joseph. If it is true that Matthew 1 and 2 is dependent upon a source which ultimately stems from St. Joseph (as Luke 1 and 2 is based upon one stemming from Our Lady), Matthew in the event tells us as little about him as Luke. The genealogy in both Gospels places him in the line of David. At the beginning of our era this royal descent was no longer a title to rank or riches, and everything we know about Joseph (e.g. the substitute offering made at the Presentation in Luke 2:24) suggests that he was one of the unprivileged poor. His family belonged to Bethlehem in Judea (Luke 2:4), but he had removed to Nazareth in Galilee to take up there the occupation of builder (the word used in Matthew 13:55 is wider than is suggested by the translation 'carpenter'). There is no reason to suppose that he was above the normal age of twenty to twenty-four when he married Mary, who would herself be between fifteen and twenty. Matthew mentions the annunciation to Joseph of Mary's miraculous conception, the visit of the Magi, the flight to Egypt and the return to Nazareth. Luke fills in the intermediate details of the birth, the circumcision, the presentation, and the temporary loss of the child in Jerusalem at the age of twelve. From this time Joseph disappears from the Gospel pages, and since there is no mention of him with Mary during the public ministry of Christ, it is probable that he died in the interval.
With their concern to provide the information demanded by popular curiosity and piety, the apocryphal Gospels are more than usually liberal in their treatment of Joseph, and expatiate on the children of his first marriage, the death of his wife, his long years of widowhood, his winning the guardianship of Mary in competition against other suitors, the ordeal by which his chastity is proved, the circumstances surrounding the birth of Christ, and finally his protracted death and the consolation given him by Jesus and Mary. While some of these details have great poetic beauty, others betray their origin and purpose too clearly to be mistaken for history. Thus, Joseph's former marriage has been invented to give some explanation of the 'brothers and sisters' of Jesus (Matthew 12:46; 13:55, etc.), and his death at the age of 111, based on that of his Old Testament namesake, in an attempt to compensate and account for his early disappearance from the Gospels.
The Gospels remain therefore as the only reliable source of information about Joseph. Yet with all their reticence they have left a sharp outline of his character. Even if it is unsafe to argue from the mere fact that they record no word of his, it is clearly their purpose to present him as the patient instrument of God, who does what is required of him with unquestioning faith. His pious observance of the Jewish Law, his faithful protection of the family in his charge, his willing acceptance of hardship, his prompt obedience to the demands of God, his constancy under trial, his calm dignity at all times, these mark him out as the 'just' or godly man, who can be proposed as a model to all Christians, and to Christian working men in particular. Christ's own attractive human character, with its forthrightness, courage and deep charity, was developed under the example and upbringing he received from Joseph. Yet Joseph's true greatness lies at a deeper level, and the customary description of him as the putative or foster-father of Jesus may here be a little misleading. The term suggests a purely metaphorical relationship to Christ, the merely extrinsic exercise of parental authority. It would be more accurate to say that Joseph was, in every way short of generation, the true father of Christ, a term which the Gospels do not hesitate to use constantly. Jesus was truly the fruit of the marriage in which Joseph played an indispensable role. If his fatherhood was virginal it was not thereby something less than physical fatherhood; by its spiritual nature it was an earthly reflection of the paternity of God himself. The relationship of the Virgin Father to Christ is therefore analogous to that of the Virgin Mother. Both Mary and Joseph are integral parts of the mystery of the incarnation; and in so far as this mystery is extended through time in the mystical body of the word made flesh, Joseph continues his role of fostering, protecting and guiding the church, not by any mere extrinsic title, but by the very nature of things.
The reticence of the Gospels has helped to obscure this true dignity of Joseph. The cult which grew up in the east in connection with the fourth century account of his happy death, and which only slowly spread to the west through the middle ages, was not acknowledge universally until the seventeenth century, and did not receive its final crown until 1870, when Pius IX proclaimed Joseph as the Patron of the Universal Church. This fact is commemorated annually on March 19th. In 1955 Pius XII added a second feast of Joseph the Worker, to be celebrated on the traditional Labor Day of May 1st.
The Saints: A Concise Biographical Dictionary, ed. John Coulson
Courtesy of Catholic Information Network (CIN)