St. Joseph the Worker

St. Joseph, Christ’s adoptive father, is one of the most well-known saints in the Church. Beloved by fathers, exiles, and the ill alike, St. Joseph is the patron of many. One role of St. Joseph that is less familiar to people nowadays, though, is his patronage of workers. The Church has always emphasized St. Joseph’s relationship to Christ in his capacity as an adoptive father—a shadow of Christ’s heavenly Father. To this end, St. Joseph is tasked with protecting and guiding those entrusted to him, as God Himself is. For this reason, St. Joseph was chosen to be the patron of workers; as both a father and a carpenter, St. Joseph is an excellent role model and intercessor for the vocation of labor.

Work has always been exalted in the Church. In Genesis, God commands man to shepherd the Earth: “The LORD God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it ” (Gn. 2:15). Man’s vocation to work is not merely an expression of the virtues of diligence and service, but is also a participation in God’s creative act.

St. Joseph encapsulates the importance of labor through his life of service within the Holy Family. Pope Pius XII said of St. Joseph’s virtue in work, “[t]he spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work.” Just as St. Joseph taught Christ in his workshop, so can he teach us to follow Christ through the love we share with those around us, the service we can charitably offer for the good of others.

St. Joseph as patron of workers is celebrated on May 1 under the title of “St. Joseph the Worker’s Day.” This tradition was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to acknowledge the importance of labor, stand in solidarity with workers during ongoing labor disputes, and provide a Catholic alternative to the Communist-instituted International Worker’s Day.

St. Joseph is an excellent saint for students to emulate. Living the vocation of being a  Christian student is a serious calling—an obligation that requires consistency and hard work. Many academic virtues overlap with those found in labor. St. Joseph’s life as a carpenter can help us to be diligent and can aid us in forming habits of service. St. Joseph humbly fulfilled the obligations required of him as a father and husband; his work pointed to things beyond and higher than himself while his labor allowed for Christ and the Virgin Mary to shine. In the words of Pope St. John Paul II, “Saint Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care. May he always guard, protect, and enlighten families.”

St. Joseph the Worker, pray for us.