Icons or Famous Depictions of St. Joseph?

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Greetings all - i’ve recently convinced a number of members of my family to undertake the Consecration to St. Joseph by Father Calloway for the Solemnity of St. Joseph in 2021.

While Fr. Calloway has done us all a good service putting together the Consecration, i began to wonder if - aside from his comissioned artwork - there had ever been a history of Icons or Statues of St. Joseph that have held special devotion to Catholics throughout the ages. Our Church has a long history of Miraculous Icons of Our Lady throughout the ages - just wanted to see if there were any famous or traditional depictions of St. Joseph that have achieved the same level of noteriety.
 
The oldest iconographic tradition of St. Joseph is as part of the Nativity scene. The older tradition is to have St. Joseph contemplating the mystery to the side. Starting in the late medieval era, depictions of him adoring the Christ Child along with Mary; the latter remains the most common depiction in the West while the former is the most common in the East.
But if you want depictions that feature St. Joseph more, along with him sleeping and receiving the angel’s message, the death of St. Joseph and the Betrothal of Joseph and Mary have been fairly popular.
 
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“The oldest iconographic tradition of St. Joseph is as part of the Nativity scene. The older tradition is to have St. Joseph contemplating the mystery to the side.” Like this:

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Oh yes thank you! I bought that for my parents. I’ve never really understood why Sleeping St. Joseph is popular in certain parts of the world. I’ve certainly seen a lot of them in Filipino households and also from folks in Latin America. But, its to my understanding at least, that particular depiction of St. Joseph didn’t make much of a splash until Pope Francis ascended the Papal Throne.
 
Ahh i see.

I find it…a little odd though, there’s never really been a depiction of him, whether in Icon or Statue format, that ever gained some level of acclaim - like something akin to say Our Lady of Czestochowa. Even Saints from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages have been honored in some way or another with an Icon.

He doesn’t seem to be taken into consideration outside of the Nativity.
 
Thank you for the images Margaret. They are both lovely.

I do find it funny though - there is a lot of variance about the age of St. Joseph (as the images attest), depicting him either as a very old or younger man.
 
St. Joseph is depicted as an older man in iconography because in the early Church Helvidius et al propagated the heresy that Our Lady was not a virgin. St. Jerome vigorously defended the Perpetual Virginity of Our Lady. Eventually the Council of the Lateran (649) infallibly defined the Perpetual Virginity of Our Lady.

This dogma permeates Byzantine hymnography and services. Every Divine Service mentions in some way “our most holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary”. Examples:

Nativity of Our Lord, Festal Matins:

Come, all you peoples, let us praise the Mother of our Saviour, for she remained a virgin after childbirth. Rejoice, O holy city of our King and God. The Saviour has chosen to live in you, and in you He has worked out our salvation. With Gabriel, we sing your praises;* and with the shepherds we glorify you, saying:* O Mother of God, implore Him who became incarnate from you,* that He may save our souls.

Tone 7 Theotokion: "…for you have saved those subject to sin by giving birth to our Salvation, O Virgin before childbirth, and Virgin in childbirth, and still a virgin after the childbirth.

(This actually incorporates the dogmatic definition of the Council of the Lateran.)

Tone 7 Dogmatikon:

Immaculate Mother of God,* you became a mother outside the laws of nature, remaining a virgin in a way that exceeds all description** and human understanding.* The wonder of your birth-giving could not be told in human language,* for your conception of Christ blinded intelligence,* and your birth-giving exceeded understanding:* for whenever God so desires, the laws of nature are broken.* Wherefore, we all firmly believe that you are the Mother of God,* and we eagerly beseech you to intercede for the salvation of our souls.
 
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Devotion to St Joseph has been a “slow burn”. It’s only in recent centuries, and really even more so the last one or two centuries, that we see this special devotion to St Joseph as second only to Our Lady, take off… at least that’s my understanding. The Church has only gradually come to fully appreciate this great saint. I have added St Joseph prayers to my daily Rosary routine, as well as his litany.

If you look at the liturgy, it’s St John the Baptist who stood out traditionally… with St Joseph gaining more attention in recent times.
 
LastMinute said:
there is a lot of variance about the age of St. Joseph (as the images attest), depicting him either as a very old or younger man.
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Fr. Calloway wrote extensively about this in his book “Consecration to St Joseph”. The idea of St Joseph being an older man came mostly from the idea that he remained celibate during his marriage to Mary (like a young man wouldn’t be able or willing to do this) and thus was not Jesus’ biological father, and somewhat from the Scripture verses about Jesus’ “brothers” which people took as meaning Joseph was a widower with adult children when he married Mary. In recent years, people have been more likely to see Joseph as a younger man of normal age to be marrying a young girl, and not a widower. Mother Angelica said she thought of Joseph as young because of the physically demanding stuff he was recorded as doing in Scripture: “old men don’t walk to Egypt”.
 
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Oh wow thanks for the list. Surprised though that he didn’t receive much recognition in this regard to the 1700s. I also found it interesting that St. Joseph didn’t really have a major shrine devoted to him until one was built in Quebec. I’ve been the Oratory once or twice in my life, but at the time i never knew it was the major international shrine.

It all seems odd to me though - these are “relatively” recent happenings in comparison to say a devotion to St. Sebastian or St. Michael (who has had numerous permutations of depictions and also at least 2 major shrines - Mont San Michel and the one on Monte Gargano).
 
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St. Joseph is depicted as an older man in iconography because in the early Church Helvidius et al propagated the heresy that Our Lady was not a virgin. St. Jerome vigorously defended the Perpetual Virginity of Our Lady. Eventually the Council of the Lateran (649) infallibly defined the Perpetual Virginity of Our Lady.
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Ah thank you for that tidbit, was completely unaware. A little surprised too, that this would be up for debate in the Early Church.

Oh just noticed you are part of the UCC. Short aside: Do you have Ukranian roots yourself or are you a…transfer? (Not sure what the correct term is). A lot of the Eastern Catholics i’ve interacted with tend to be bound by a specific ethnic group based on community/roots - but i’ve noticed the UCC seems a lot more successful than the others in attracting people outside of the traditional ethnic group.
 
Devotion to St Joseph has been a “slow burn”. It’s only in recent centuries, and really even more so the last one or two centuries, that we see this special devotion to St Joseph as second only to Our Lady, take off… at least that’s my understanding. The Church has only gradually come to fully appreciate this great saint. I have added St Joseph prayers to my daily Rosary routine, as well as his litany.
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I’ve added the Litany and so has the rest of my family. But what are your thoughts as to why he never gained much traction? I mean, off the top of my head, the only Saint i can think of who had a particularly strong devotion to St. Joseph was Teresa of Avila.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
In recent years, people have been more likely to see Joseph as a younger man of normal age to be marrying a young girl, and not a widower.
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I’m far (very far) from being a theologian, but I think that for the Holy Family to be relatable, they had to have been (from outside appearances) normal.
 
Fr. Calloway wrote extensively about this in his book “Consecration to St Joseph”.
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hmmm. It makes me wonder though - do “middle age men walk to Egypt?” 😉

I can see the logic - but it just lends to the rather large variance we can give to St. Joseph’s age. It seems like we end up with a St. Joseph age somewhere north of 30 but below 60. A Joseph for every age group you might say
 
LastMinute said:
I mean, off the top of my head, the only Saint i can think of who had a particularly strong devotion to St. Joseph was Teresa of Avila.
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Then you need to learn about Saint Andre Bessett - a Holy Cross brother who founded Saint Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal!
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Mother Angelica said she thought of Joseph as young because of the physically demanding stuff he was recorded as doing in Scripture: “old men don’t walk to Egypt”.
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I don’t understand such opinions. There are many highly accomplished older endurance athletes.
 
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I think much of this will be determined by how long and how far a trip.

If i understand the estimates correctly - its about 30-45 day trip from Bethlehem to the Egyptian border past the Sinai Peninsula - by foot or pack animal.

So a couple unanswered questions:

1.) Were there any pack animals for the trip? We always portray the blessed mother on a Donkey. Theoretically - St. Joseph could have been on one too.

2.) Was the trip on the most trafficked portion of the route between Egypt and Israel?

That’s important - there could have been places to rest/eat/oasis/wadis utilized by merchants and others - although i do recall St. Alphonsus Liguori stating that wasn’t the case (although where he got his information who knows).

The reason this is important, aside from rest stops, is that theoretically St. Joseph and Mary could have linked up with caravan going to Egypt. Crossing the Sinai isn’t exactly an easy feat - it strongly incentivizes cooperation when making the trip. More people = easier trip.

3.) What’s the differential in physical health for a man age 60 in 1 AD vs. today?

It could be for instance that a 60 year old man (or 50 year old man) who worked his life as a carpenter (which some suggest a stone cutter due to the furniture used at the time) is probably in better shape than your average 50-60 year old coming from a First world nation in 2020.
 
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