The Body of St Joseph

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PrisonerOfChrist

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Where is the body of St Joseph the foster father of Jesus?
 
Somewhere around Nazareth, UNLESS he was taken up
to Paradise, since his death isn’t mentioned.
Hast thou a need to know ?
 
It is a mystery! St. Jerome was of the opinion that St. Joseph’s tomb is within the boundaries of the Garden of Gethsemane, but it has never been found.
 
Just wondering to confirm the historicity of this great man - I’m not doubting! It’s nice to have confirmation of our belief. For someone as important as St Joseph, it seems the early church won’t as motivated to seek out and venerate the body of St Joseph as she does with our saints today.
 
There have been prophecies that the tomb of St Joseph will be found and that people will then come to appreciate him more as a great saint, and turn to him for help. I believe these are all unapproved revelations so I can’t go into detail on here due to the prohibition on posting about them.

Given that St Joseph is the Patron Saint of the Church, which could use his help, I hope devotion to St Joseph increases soon, body or no body.

People have indeed been slow to appreciate St Joseph. It was only recently that he was added to the Divine Praises, for example.

Fr Donald Calloway is currently working on publishing a book about consecration to St Joseph that he hopes will foster a lot more devotion to St Joseph. He was at St Joseph’s Oratory last week asking St Joseph to please bless and help these efforts.
 
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This may help. It is an apocryphal work called The History of Joseph the Carpenter. It isn’t scripture but it is a witness to early Christian views on this.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0805.htm

27. Thereafter the chief men of the city came together to the place where the body of the blessed old man Joseph had been laid, bringing with them burial-clothes; and they wished to wrap it up in them after the manner in which the Jews are wont to arrange their dead bodies. And they perceived that he kept his shroud fast; for it adhered to the body in such a way, that when they wished to take it off, it was found to be like iron — impossible to be moved or loosened. Nor could they find any ends in that piece of linen, which struck them with the greatest astonishment. At length they carried him out to a place where there was a cave, and opened the gate, that they might bury his body beside the bodies of his fathers.
 
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It’s been very gradual. His feast only became a universal feast of the Latin Church a few centuries ago I believe. Certainly post-medieval. He was only added to the Roman Canon in 1962.
 
Thomasbradley312 said:
This may help.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0805.htm

27. Thereafter the chief men of the city came together to the place where the body of the blessed old man Joseph had been laid, bringing with them burial-clothes; and they wished to wrap it up in them after the manner in which the Jews are wont to arrange their dead bodies. And they perceived that he kept his shroud fast; for it adhered to the body in such a way, that when they wished to take it off, it was found to be like iron — impossible to be moved or loosened. Nor could they find any ends in that piece of linen, which struck them with the greatest astonishment. At length they carried him out to a place where there was a cave, and opened the gate, that they might bury his body beside the bodies of his fathers.
Click to expand...
Not sure how reliable this is?
 
It isn’t scripture.
But it is an early witness to what early Christians thought at the time they were written. I firmly believe at least the orthodox apocryphal New Testament writings should be encouraged to be read as a lot of our traditions are in them. Is it scripture? No. Do we know what happened to Joseph? No. But this is an early witness to what some in the early Church believed.
 
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In the liturgical and iconic tradition of the Church St John the Baptist is much more prominent. He’s still the only saint apart from Our Lord and Lady whose birth is celebrated as a feast (and a solemnity at that).
That said, I am also very glad that St Joseph’s cult has grown. I too am very devoted to him. I’m glad Pope Francis added him to the other three Eucharistic Prayers as well.
 
True.
I believe he is the only one to have two specific days to his name celebrated in the liturgical year outside of Christ and Mary. At least in the OF, I believe others have this in the EF. But we have the Nativity of John the Baptist and the Passion of John the Baptist in the OF.
 
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Maybe I was confused. Maybe I meant he is the only one besides Christ to have both his birth and death commemorated. You are right.
 
It’s because after St John the Baptist died, Jesus said among those born of women, there had been “no one greater” than John the Baptist. (Matthew 11:11) People have taken that as Jesus saying John the Baptist was the greatest of all saints. But “no one greater”, read literally, doesn’t mean other saints weren’t equally great. St. Joseph could have been equally great, just more low-key because his role was to protect Mary and Jesus, not to publicly announce Jesus.
 
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Early devotion was focused on the Apostles and martyrs, and of course the Blessed Virgin who lived on after the Ascension where Christ gaver her a special place (Behold thy mother) and whose Assumption was certainly a seal on her importance. St. Joseph is technically a kind of OT saint since He died before Christ died and rose and is therefore not really classed a confessor either. John the Baptist was a special case, since Scripture says he was sanctified in the womb and then He was martyred and he had a special, public role in the preparing the way for the Savior.

I’ve read that both St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist (who was certainly prominent from the very beginning) were not in the Communicantes in the Roman Canon because they were each technically OT (the angels are also not included there).

St. Joseph’s death was likely before Christ’s public ministry, and therefore he would not have had any special burial or attention given to his burial place.
 
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