Skip to main content

 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.







 


    








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 2018 Do you like to look at old photos? Most of us do, even though the quality of the photos may have faded over time. Here I am at about age 11 or 12 standing with my Mother and my sister Barbara's mother-in-law, Mrs. Leila Ponce, in Mrs. Ponce's front yard in north Jacksonville. My Mother, Grace Stovall, is holding my first nephew and her first grandson, Patrick Ponce, in her arms following his baptism, I believe. This was around 1960 or 1961. See the old cars behind us? My nephew had to find a copy of his baptismal certificate recently because he plans to get married in April in a Catholic church up in North Carolina. He was baptized in our home parish, Holy Rosary, in Jacksonville. At this time I was a student at Holy Rosary School. My parents allowed me to go there after it opened, which for me was when I was entering fourth grade. My first teacher in Catholic school was Sister Philip Neri, an Irish Sister of St. Joseph who died tragically in an automobile cr...
2 comments
Read more
Springbank Retreat, Kingstree, S.C . Spring Sabbatical in South Carolina during COVID-19  There are some events in one's life that you will never forget. For me, one was hearing of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas, when I was a student at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Another was hearing of the bombing of the World Trade Centers when I was driving to Stuart, Florida from Palm Beach Gardens.  This spring I heard of the COVID-19 pandemic in our country while I was on a two-month sabbatical at Springbank Retreat in Kingstree, South Carolina, from late February to late April. The stay-at-home orders actually came while I was with my nephew Patrick and his wife Mina touring Charleston, South Carolina. We were able to do our tours of the historic district on a Saturday in March, but the Sunday tours were cancelled.  One of many lovely houses in Charleston, SC The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has changed dai...
Post a Comment
Read more
 Pandemic and Presence  The Catholic Health Association graphic of a woman wearing a mask (above) to demonstrate her love of her neighbors during the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the best visuals I have to symbolize what self-sacrificing love looks like right now in our world. I do not know one person who enjoys wearing a mask, especially here in Florida with our heat and humidity.  Another way to demonstrate self-sacrificing love now is staying home and avoiding risky behaviors such as optional traveling and being in crowded groups of people where others may not be wearing masks and social distancing is difficult.  As Sisters of St. Joseph who have been seized by God's love, we work in collaboration with others to bring union and reconciliation to our world "that  all may be one." (John 17;21) Looking back at all the tragic events of 2020 and even recently in our own country, the need for this mission and charism of healing and reconciliation and unity is greate...
Post a Comment
Read more