page_title: Saint Joseph
section_title: Prayers and devotions
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Joseph / Patronage / Prayers and devotions
caption_attribution_description: Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus, Billafingen, Gemeinde Langenenslingen, Seitenaltar (Hl. Joseph)
context_page_description: Joseph is a figure in the canonical gospels who was married to Mary, Jesus' mother, and was Jesus' legal father. Perspectives on Joseph as a historical figure are distinguished by some persons from a theological reading of the Gospel texts.
  Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Anglicanism and Lutheranism. In Catholic traditions, Joseph is regarded as the patron saint of workers and is associated with various feast days. The month of March is dedicated to Saint Joseph. Pope Pius IX declared him to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a happy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. Joseph has become patron of various dioceses and places.
  Several venerated images of Saint Joseph have been granted a canonical coronation by a pope. In popular religious iconography he is associated with lilies or a spikenard. With the present-day growth of Mariology, the theological field of Josephology has also grown and since the 1950s centers for studying it have been formed.
context_section_description: In the Eastern Orthodox Church, during the feast day of Saint Joseph the following hymn is chanted:
  Verily, Joseph the betrothed, saw clearly in his old age that the foresayings of the Prophets had
  
  been fulfilled openly; for he was given an odd earnest,
  
  receiving inspiration from the angels,
  
  who cried, Glory to God; for he hath bestowed peace on earth.
  In the Catholic tradition, just as there are prayers for the Seven Joys of Mary and Seven Sorrows of Mary, so there are also prayers for the seven joys and seven sorrows of Saint Joseph; these include prayers for daily protection, vocation, happy marriage, happy death, and hopeless cases; specific prayers, novenas and devotions include the Prayer to Saint Joseph and the Novena to Saint Joseph. St. Francis de Sales included Saint Joseph along with Virgin Mary as saints to be invoked during prayers in his Introduction to the Devout Life, Saint Teresa of Avila attributed her recovery of health to Saint Joseph and recommended him as an advocate, and Saint Therese of Lisieux stated that for a period of time, every day she prayed to "Saint Joseph, Father and Protector of Virgins..." and felt safe and protected from danger as a result, and Pius X composed a prayer to Saint Joseph which begins:
  Glorious St. Joseph, pattern of all who are devoted to toil,
  
  obtain for me the grace to toil, in the spirit of penance,
  
  in order to thereby atone for my many sins...
  There is a belief that planting a statue of St. Joseph on a house will help sell the house.
caption: Altar of St. Joseph, Billafingen, Germany.
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