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 Why Joseph?
Statue of St. Joseph and Child Jesus in front foyer of Motherhouse.

During this Year of St. Joseph in the Diocese of St. Augustine, I thought a blog entry on how the Sisters of St. Joseph received their name would be fitting. Since October 15, 1650, is recognized as the official founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, I decided to post this on October 15, 2020, 370 years later. 

In researching this topic, I found a page on the Philadelphia (Chesnut Hill) Sisters of St. Joseph website that was written by Sister Dolores Clerico, SSJ, one of their members who is familiar to our Congregation since she has spoken at our Assemblies, and even led a Congregational retreat one summer at Marywood. 

According to Sister Dolores, St. Joseph was in the shadows before the 16th century. St. Teresa of Avila, the discalced Carmelites, the Jesuits and Franciscans and many newly-formed confraternities of Catholic laity in Europe began to promote devotion to St. Joseph. 

"By the beginning of the 17th century, Joseph was presented as the model of the mystical life - one who lives close to Jesus," Sister Dolores writes on the website. 

Statue of St. Joseph in Motherhouse chapel.

Bishop Henri de Maupas of Le Puy, France was the bishop who first recognized the Sisters of St. Joseph as vowed religious women in the Catholic Church. Sister Dolores explains how in a 1648 document the sisters' ministry in Le Puy bears the name of "House of Charity of Orphan Girls of Saint Joseph." She asks, "Was the orphanage named for the sisters or was it a reflection of Bishop de Maupa's devotion to Saint Joseph?"  No one is sure. 

For Sisters of St. Joseph, the patronage of St. Joseph is beyond simple devotion. Sister Dolores writes, "The oldest copy of our primitive rule in Lyon states that the name of Saint Joseph was chosen because of the 'hidden virtue of this great saint'." She adds, "Joseph is a man who carries within him a holiness that is both vigorous and inconspicuous. He is an ordinary man whose meaningful life without fanfare is wordlessly faithful."

                        Statue of St. Joseph the Worker in Lourdes Convent courtyard.

The Jesuit founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Jean-Pierre Medaille, included relationship with Joseph in the summary of a Sister of Saint Joseph vocation in the same primitive rule (Reglements): 

      "In honor of Saint Joseph, their Patriarch, they will be one in         service of each other, and one in the service of the neighbor without distinction for whom they will try to have cordial charity, as Saint Joseph had for his dear spouse and for the Savior Jesus."

October 15th, Founder's Day for the Sisters of St. Joseph, is also the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, who had a strong devotion to Saint Joseph, and from whom we got the theme of this Year of St. Joseph: Go to Joseph.







 


    








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