St. Joseph
Descended from the royal line of David, Saint Joseph was the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who defended her good name, and foster father and protector of the God Who made him, yet Who wished to be known throughout His life as the son of Joseph.
He saw to Jesus's education and taught him his trade of carpentry or building. Joseph's disappointment upon learning of Mary's pregnancy was said to be assuaged by an angelic vision, and he was the recipient of two more visions: one telling him to seek refuge in Egypt to escape Herod's persecution, and the second, to return to Palestine. Saint Joseph bore the responsibilities of a father perfectly. A dream told him that King Herod planned to kill the infant Jesus. Joseph took Mary and Jesus away by night to Egypt and thus saved the life of the Savior. He kept the child hidden from Herod's son in case he, too, would have harmed Jesus.
Joseph was with Mary in the stable at Bethlehem when Jesus was born. He was looking after the mother and child when the shepherds and the Magi came to worship him. He took Mary and Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to God in the Temple. He shared Mary's anxieties for her son when Jesus was presumed lost, after their visit to the Temple when he was 12.
After this no more is heard of Joseph in the New Testament except in Luke
4:22, where he is named as the father of Jesus. He is not mentioned as being
present at the crucifixion, a fact that persuaded many artists to portray him
as an old man who had presumably died by the time Jesus was in his early
thirties.
The few Biblical particulars give an impression of a just, kind, dignified
and level-headed man, prompt in action but self-effacing. The apocryphal
Protoevangelium of James holds that he was an old man when Jesus was born,
but this appears unlikely when one considers the fact that he reared Jesus
and fulfilled the family duties.
