Joseph of Jacob, Saint Joseph

Drawing of Joseph by Lorenzo Ferri According to the indications of Maria Valtorta. Source: documentary collection of the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation.

Joseph, the husband of Mary, is of royal descent. He is the second and last son of Jacob, himself the son of Mathan and grandson of Eleazar. Nothing else is known about his family except his older brother, Alpheus, and his descendants.

Portrait

"Joseph is a handsome man in the prime of life. He must be thirty-five years old at the most. His face is framed by his dark brown hair and a beard of the same colour and his eyes are very sweet and very dark, almost black. His forehead is large and smooth, his nose thin and slightly aquiline, his cheeks are roundish of a brown hue, but not olive-coloured, on the contrary they are rosy near the cheek-bones. He is not very tall, but he is strong and well built."

Thus he is about 15 to 20 years older than his wife Mary. Their "legal marriage," the first partial step of marriage as experienced today, takes place at the Temple of Jerusalem. It is the occasion for Maria Valtorta to describe in detail the festive clothes of the two betrothed.

In another vision, Maria Valtorta sees him roughly the same height as the Virgin Mary: he would therefore be about 1.65 m tall.

Jesus and Mary speak of Joseph

Mary: "At the beginning he was but a just man of his times. Then by successive steps, he becomes the just man of Christian times. He acquires faith in Christ and he relies so securely on that faith"

Jesus: "O beloved father of mine on the earth, how loved you have been by God, by God the Father in the Most High Heavens, by God the Son, Who became the Saviour on the earth!"

"he worked very hard indeed, to give Me bread and comfort and he had the loving kindness of a real mother. From him I learned - and never had a pupil a kinder teacher - I learned everything that makes a man of a child, and a man who is to earn his own bread."

"Was Joseph not on Golgotha? Do you think he is not amongst the co-redeemers? I tell you solemnly that he was the first and therefore he is great in the eyes of God. Great for his sacrifice, his patience, his perseverance, his faith. Which faith is greater than this one that believed without seeing the miracles of the Messiah?"

According to Jesus, he used to say when something painful weighed on the Holy family :

"Let us raise our spirits. We shall meet the eyes of God and we shall forget that it is men who grieve us. And let us do whatever is burdensome, as if the Most High presented it to us. In this way we shall sanctify also the least things, and God will love us".

His life

He was probably born in Bethlehem in Judah and left it very early. Later, when it was time to register in his hometown, there was no longer any house or person he recognized.

Alpheus, Joseph's older brother, had four sons: "the brothers of the Lord." The wives of two of them are "the sisters of the Lord."        

Joseph worked as a carpenter, a trade he initiated his son into. This job allowed Joseph to support the Holy Family during their travels in the early years: in Bethlehem where he stayed about a year following the census, and in Matharaea in Egypt where he stayed for four years.      

Drawing of Joseph dying by Lorenzo Ferri According to the indications of Maria Valtorta. Source: documentary collection of the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation.

Maria Valtorta mentions a screwdriver in his workshop. This anachronistic word is explained by the poverty of technical vocabulary available to the seer. At the time of the Christ, the carpenter's tools looked a great deal like contemporary tools: Maria Valtorta most likely describes a chisel (wood chisel for drilling mortises).

His death

At his death, "[Mary] devoted thirty years of faithful life to him." From this, it is deduced that Jesus was 28 years old at that time, Mary 44, and Joseph about 63/64 years old. His death occurs two years before the beginning of Jesus' public life.  

Joseph had a painful death, "he was resigned." Jesus gave him peace by reciting appropriate Psalms during his agony: Psalm 15 (16),1-11; Psalm 83 (84),1-10; Psalm 84 (85),1-13; Psalm 131 (132),1-18; Psalm 111 (112),1-6; Psalm 90 (91),1-16.

It is from Joseph that Jesus learned about certain episodes of his childhood. Joseph is joined in this by the Virgin Mary and by Alphaeus of Sarah, a long-time neighbor friend of the family.

The chastity of Joseph

Joseph had consecrated himself to God and did not aspire to marriage. He confesses it to his fiancée Mary when his staff miraculously blooms, designating him as chosen by God:

"I am a Nazirite and I have obeyed because it is an order of the Priest, not because I wish to get married."

This life in virginity, mutually accepted, leads to a separate life in Nazareth. Joseph's little eagerness to celebrate the weddings arouses the surprise of the family and neighbors:

"[Joseph] put off the wedding as long as possible, and we never understood why he suddenly made up his mind before the fixed time. And also when we heard You were a mother, how surprised was Nazareth at his contained joy!" said to the Virgin Mary, Mary of Clopas her sister-in-law.

The Annunciation and Joseph's dream hastened the weddings, then cohabitation in chastity. The marriage had originally been planned for Mary's 16th birthday. This married life in virginity, sometimes hard to understand, is explained by Jesus:

"Joseph of Nazareth was a just man. The Lily of God could be given only to him, and he was the only one to have it. And, being an angel both in his body and his soul, he loved as the angels of God love. The depth of that strong love [...] will be understood only by few people on the earth."

This life in chastity establishes an authentic love:

"Those who think that Mary did not love Joseph deeply, only because he was the spouse of Her soul and not of Her flesh, are also mistaken. Mary did love Joseph deeply, and She devoted thirty years of faithful life to him. Joseph was Her father, Her spouse, Her brother, Her friend, Her protector."

Joseph's passion

When Joseph became aware of Mary's pregnancy, a true passion began for him: the spouses had only celebrated the first stage of their marriage, thus not yet cohabiting and Mary was a virgin consecrated for life to God. Joseph decided to quietly repudiate Mary. However, the angel appears to him in a dream to reveal who Jesus is and by whom he was conceived.

"Also My Joseph suffered his passion. It began in Jerusalem when he noticed My condition. And it lasted several days, exactly as it had happened to Jesus and to Me. Neither was it less painful for his soul. And only because of the holiness of My just spouse, it was contained in such a dignified and secret form, that it has been hardly noticed throughout centuries. [...]

Who can truly tell Joseph’s pain, his thoughts, the perturbation of his feelings? Like a little boat caught in a great storm, he was in a vortex of conflicting ideas, in a turmoil of reflections, of which one was more piercing and painful than the other. He was, to all appearances, a man betrayed by his wife. He saw his good reputation and the esteem of his world collapse around him; because of Her he saw scornful fingers pointed at him and felt pitied by the village people. Above all, he perceived that his love and esteem for Me had fallen, struck to death, before the evidence of a deed.

In this respect, his holiness shines brighter than Mine. And I give this witness with the affection of a spouse, because I want you to love My Joseph, this wise, prudent, patient and good man, who is not separated from the mystery of Redemption, on the contrary, he is closely connected to it, because he suffered for it, consuming himself in sorrow for it, saving your Saviour at the cost of his own sacrifice because of his holiness.

Had he not been so holy, he would have acted in a human way, denouncing Me as an adulteress so that I should be stoned, and the Son of My sin should perish with Me. If he had been less holy, God would not have granted him His light as guidance in his trial. But Joseph was holy. His pure spirit lived in God. His charity was ardent and strong. And out of charity he saved your Saviour for you, both when he refrained from accusing Me to the elders, and when he saved Jesus in Egypt, leaving everything with prompt obedience."

His name

ףיוס (Joseph).

Joseph (Iosseph - Iehosseph) means "May God add!" Historical reference: the eleventh son of Jacob whom he had by Rachel. This favored son was sold by his brothers and became Pharaoh's steward.

Where is he mentioned in the work?

In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"

Mary’s childhood: GRM 9 GRM 12 GRM 13 GRM 13 GRM 14

The Nativity cycle: GRM 18 GRM 19 GRM 20 GRM 20 GRM 22 GRM 22 GRM 25 GRM 25 GRM 26 GRM 26 GRM 27 GRM 28 GRM 29 GRM 29 GRM 30 GRM 31 GRM 31 GRM 32 GRM 34 GRM 34 GRM 35 GRM 35 GRM 36 GRM 36

Jesus’ youth: GRM 37 GRM 37 GRM 38 GRM 39 GRM 40 GRM 41 GRM 42 GRM 42 GRM 43.  

GRM 44 GRM 44 GRM 73 GRM 99 GRM 136.      

GRM 173 GRM 196 GRM 199 GRM 207.  

GRM 259.

GRM 560 GRM 577.

GRM 596.  

GRM 642.

In Notebooks 1944

The portrait of Saint Joseph in Paradise, in the vision of January 10, 1944

"I see St. Joseph (in the corner, where the Nativity Scene is). He is not so tall, more or less like Mary. Sturdily built. With grizzly hair, curly and short, and a squarely‑cut beard. A long, thin, aquiline nose. Two wrinkles cut across his cheeks, starting from the corners of his nose and moving down until fading at the sides if his mouth in his beard. Dark, very good eyes. In them I rediscover the lovingly good look of my father. The whole face is good, thoughtful without being sad, dignified, but very, very good. He is wearing a dark blue‑purple tunic like the petals of certain periwinkles, and his cloak is the color of camel's skin. Jesus points him out to me, saying, 'Here is the patron of all the just.'"

Learn more about this character

Excerpts from the Dictionary of Gospel Characters, according to Maria Valtorta (Msgr. René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Éditions Salvator, 2012):

Saint Joseph is celebrated on July 20 in the East and March 19 in the West.  

His worship began in the East with "The History of Joseph the Carpenter," a 4th-century Coptic apocryphal text. The work became very popular in the 5th century and greatly influenced iconography.

In the 2nd century, the Protoevangelium of James presented Joseph as a widower who already had children from a first marriage. This notion was taken up by successive apocrypha, such as the Pseudo-Matthew at the end of the 6th century and the Book of the Nativity of Mary in the 9th century.

Seers like Mary of Agreda (17th century), Anne-Catherine Emmerich (19th century), and Maria Valtorta break with this tradition: Joseph was about thirty-three years old and had never been married. His vow of chastity is confirmed by these seers, but only implicitly for Anne-Catherine Emmerich.

Several traditions place his death around 60 years old, whereas "The History of Joseph the Carpenter," the already mentioned apocryphon, placed it at 110 years.

In "Joseph of Nazareth"

"Joseph of Nazareth"

In 2019, the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation published a selection of texts drawn from the work of Maria Valtorta chosen by Claudia Vecchiarelli on "Joseph of Nazareth," supplemented by two encyclicals about him.

The painful death of Joseph According to Maria d'Agréda (1602-1665)

"Saint Joseph had been afflicted by illnesses and pains for eight years [...] During the nine days preceding the death of Saint Joseph, the Son and the Mother attended him day and night, [...] The entire life of the happiest of men, Saint Joseph, was sixty years and a few days. Indeed, he married the most pure Mary at thirty-three years old, and lived a little more than twenty-seven years with her; and when the holy spouse died, our august Queen was about forty-one years and six months old, since [...] she was married to Saint Joseph at the age of fourteen, which, added to the twenty-seven years they lived together, makes forty-one years, plus the time that passed from September 8 to the happy death of the most holy spouse. (in "The Mystic City of God").

The one in whom the Father was best reflected

Father Joseph-Marie Verlinde, published at mariedenazareth.com March 15, 2012:

After Mary, Saint Joseph is undoubtedly the greatest saint in heaven. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus wrote of him: "The Lord gathered in Joseph, as in a sun, all that the saints have together of light and splendor."  

Throughout the history of the Church, from Saint Irenaeus, Saint Ephrem, Saint Basil to Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Vincent de Paul, through Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard and many others, how much inspiration drawn from the humble carpenter who became the shadow of the Father by virtue of his mission in the mystery of the Incarnation! And the popes are not the last to sing the glory of Saint Joseph!        

For just as Mary continues, at the heart of the Church, her maternal ministry of birthing the New Man, so Saint Joseph continues to watch over the growth of the Mystical Body of the One on whom he received paternal authority.        

Why not follow the example of the "good Pope John XXIII" who simply confessed: "'Saint Joseph, I love him very much, so much so that I cannot begin my day, nor end it, without my first and last thought being for him.'"

Person or animal who has been killed by stones. This punishment was used in the East and especially among the Jews. (For example, Jews stoned adulterers, blasphemers).

First part of the Bible from the book of Genesis until before the coming of Jesus Christ. Parallel