♔ ST. JOSEPH PATRON OF WORKERS and ANTI-COMMUNISM ♔

… and I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to rejoice in his work. – Ecclesiastes 3:22

We know from the Holy Bible that Joseph was a just man with a humble demeanor. He made an honest living as a tradesman and no doubt was a great friend to others—always willing to extend a helping hand. We are told that Joseph was a carpenter, one who works with wood. We picture the scene at his workshop with people coming in and out. We see curled wood shavings carpeting the floor and little piles of sawdust scattered throughout his shop. We hear the rhythmic sawing of wood, constant like a heartbeat. To some this would be considered “noise,” but to Joseph this is music. He makes his work into an art and puts every effort into each piece he makes—whether it be a table, a bed, or even a plough. To him a quiet workshop is an idle one. “Noise” means there is work being done. Work being done means there is food on the table.

But did Joseph work only with wood? The word “faber,” used in the Latin scriptures when defining Joseph’s occupation, was a general term applied to a workman in any material; this could be one who works with wood, stone, iron, or even precious metals. St. Hilarion, St. Isidore, and St. Bede believed that Joseph was an ironsmith and wrote in their commentaries on the Gospels that Jesus was the son of “the smith who subdues iron with fire.”

The great saints Justin Martyr (100-165), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), and John Chrysostom (347-407), however, held the opinion that Joseph was in fact a worker of wood, as was Jesus:

Jesus came to John, being reputed the son of Joseph, the carpenter, or worker in wood, and He Himself was reckoned to be a carpenter; for while He dwelt amongst men He had performed carpenter’s work, making ploughs and yokes, teaching us to live just lives free from idleness. – St. Justin Martyr

Jesus was reputed to be the son of Joseph, who was not a forger of iron but a worker in wood. – St. Thomas Aquinas

Therefore Mary was espoused to a carpenter, because Jesus, the Spouse of the Church, was to work, the salvation of the world by the wood of the Cross. – St. John Chrysostom

The accepted idea is that Joseph was a carpenter who worked with wood, but also worked with other materials on the side. The earliest art depicting Joseph shows him holding carpentry tools, but we are allowed to picture him working with both wood and iron. He could be called on to help build a neighbor’s house, replacing locks, or hanging doors. What Joseph did for a living isn’t as important as how he did it. Certainly, Joseph was known as being not only a fine workman, but also a man of integrity. Joseph was a master of his trade and put care into the work he did for people, and the people of Nazareth knew this. They knew that he was a good man who was proud of what he was and put his love into everything he did.

In his 1889 encyclical, “Quamquam Pluries,” Pope Leo XIII shows us the dignity of St. Joseph the Worker:

For Joseph, of royal blood, united by marriage to the greatest and holiest of women, reputed the father of the Son of God, passed his life in labor, and won by the toil of the artisan the needful support of his family. It is, then, true that the condition of the lowly has nothing shameful in it, and the work of the laborer is not only not dishonoring, but can, if virtue be joined to it, be singularly ennobled. Joseph, content with his slight possessions, bore the trials consequent on a fortune so slender, with greatness of soul, in imitation of his Son, who having put on the form of a slave, being the Lord of life, subjected himself of his own free-will to the spoliation and loss of everything.

PATRON AGAINST COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM

The 20^th century saw the rise of Socialism and Communism – enemies of the Church and the Christian worker. Knowing full well the threat of these powers, a succession of Pontiffs saw fit to warn the faithful and to entrust them to the care of St. Joseph.

On July 25, 1920 Pope Benedict XV, known as the “Pope of Peace” during World War I, issued the moto proprio “Bonum Sane” in which he warned the faithful of Socialism and World Government, while also entrusting them to the care of St. Joseph:

We now see, with true sorrow, that society is now much more depraved and corrupt than before, and that the so-called "social question" has been aggravating to such an extent as to create the threat of irreparable ruin. … This World Government will no longer acknowledge the authority of the father over his children, or of the public power over the citizens, or of God over human society. All things will, if implemented, lead to terrible social convulsions, like those which are already happening… We, therefore, concerned most of all by the course of these events … remind those on Our side, who earn their bread by their work, to save them from Socialism, the sworn enemy of Christian principles, that with great solicitude We recommend them in particular to St. Joseph, to follow him as their guide and to receive the special honor of his heavenly patronage.

Pope Pius XI, who succeeded Benedict XV, also saw the growing threat against the Church. In his 1937 encyclical “Divini Redemptoris” he decided to explicitly entrusted the cause against Communism to St. Joseph:

To hasten the advent of that "peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ" so ardently desired by all, We entrust the vast campaign of the Church against world Communism under the standard of St. Joseph, Her mighty Protector. He belongs to the working-class, and he bore the burdens of poverty for himself and the Holy Family, whose tender and vigilant head he was. To him was entrusted the Divine Child when Herod loosed his assassins against Him. In a life of faithful performance of everyday duties, he left an example for all those who must gain their bread by the toil of their hands. He won for himself the title of "The Just," serving thus as a living model of that Christian justice which should reign in social life.

In 1955 the successor to Pius XI, Venerable Pope Pius XII, established the Feast Day of “St. Joseph the Worker” to be celebrated annually on May 1. This date was specifically chosen in order to counteract the predominantly Socialist and Communist holiday “International Workers’ Day,” also known as “May Day.” Pius XII encouraged laborers to look to St. Joseph as their model and to ask for his intercession in their work:

St. Joseph is the best protector to help you in your life, to penetrate the spirit of the Gospel. Indeed, from the Heart of the God-Man, Savior of the world, this spirit is infused in you and in all men, but it is certain that there was no worker’s spirit so perfectly and deeply penetrated as the putative father of Jesus, who lived with him in the closest intimacy and community of family and work. So, if you want to be close to Christ, I repeat to you “Ite ad Ioseph”: Go to Joseph! – Ven. Pius XII, Address to Italian Workers, 1 May 1955

The clang of the hammer deafens his ears; his eyes are fixed on what he is shaping. His care is to finish his work, and he keeps watch till he perfects it in detail… he maintains God’s ancient handiwork, and his concern is for exercise of his skill. — Sirach 38:28, 34

There is nothing better for man than to eat and drink and provide himself with good things by his labors. Even this, I realized, is from the hand of God. — Ecclesiastes 2:24