The month of March is dedicated to St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and Guardian of the Holy Family. March 19 marked the feast of St. Joseph, a solemnity in the Catholic Church. While not a Holy Day of Obligation in the U.S., St. Joseph's Day is celebrated with fervor in the Archdiocese of Boston, especially in churches and communities with special devotional ties to St. Joseph.

One of the earliest surviving sermons of Cardinal William Henry O'Connell was given on St. Joseph's Day. The sermon predates Cardinal O'Connell's episcopal ordination in 1901, and likely dates to his time in priestly ministry, either at St. Joseph in Medford (1885-1886) or at St. Joseph in the West End of Boston (1886-1895).

"Today," the sermon begins, "the Church wishes to show by the devotion of her children the confidence she feels in the protection of the chaste spouse of our Blessed Lady and the foster-father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

"We have but to call to mind the intimate union that existed between Christ and Joseph," the future cardinal argued, "the important part he played in the Redemption, the position he held in the Holy Family, his brief history in the Gospel narrative, to understand why the Church holds his name first in love and veneration after the Sacred Names of Jesus and Mary."

Everything we know about St. Joseph comes from Scripture, especially from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. St. Joseph, born of the Davidic Line, was a first century Nazarian Jew. A carpenter by trade and a man of humble means, he married the Blessed Virgin Mary and became the foster father of Jesus. He cared for and protected Jesus during childhood, including during the flight into Egypt, but died before the Crucifixion and likely before Jesus's public ministry began. He is venerated as a just man exemplifying virtuous living and total surrender to the will of God.

"Unlike the other saints who are set up as examples for special classes, or ranks, or conditions," Cardinal O'Connell noted in his sermon, "St. Joseph, like Christ himself, is a universal model." To the wealthy and successful, St. Joseph, a prince of David's Line, is a model of humility and submission "who knew how to prize the grace of God above earthly rank." To the poor and vulnerable, St. Joseph serves as an example of a "life of humble toil and weary labor ... brightened and lightened by prayer and confidence in God." To husbands, fathers, and spiritual fathers, St. Joseph models caring affection and self-gift.

In his sermon on St. Joseph, Cardinal O'Connell stressed the need to turn to the saint especially in moments of fear and uncertainty. "Go to him," he wrote, "with full confidence in his loving protection." In this, he echoed the words of Pope Pius IX, whose decree "Quemadmodum Deus" made St. Joseph patron of the Universal Church: "Because of this sublime dignity which God conferred on his most faithful servant, the Church has always most highly honored and praised blessed Joseph next to his spouse, the Virgin Mother of God, and has besought his intercession in times of trouble."

Even as St. Joseph serves as patron of the Universal Church, he is also patron of fathers, workers, travelers, immigrants, and the dying. In the Archdiocese of Boston, St. Joseph is patron of churches named for him in Belmont, Boston, Hanson, Kingston, Lynn, Malden, Medford, Medway, Needham, Quincy, and Wakefield. He is also patron of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the largest congregation of women religious in the archdiocese. Finally, certain national parishes, including Italian parishes with large Sicilian populations and Polish parishes, have special ties to St. Joseph.

More than a century ago, Cardinal O'Connell looked out into the pews and posed this question to his congregation: "What can (Joseph) ask that will not be granted by Him who, while a child upon earth, was subject to his paternal authority?" As the month of March draws to an end, we are called to remember the great power of St. Joseph and to continue to ask him to intercede for us throughout the year.

VIOLET HURST IS AN ARCHIVIST FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.