Prayer to Saint Joseph: the text Leo XIII wrote in 1889
The prayer
To thee, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of thy most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke thy patronage also.
Through that charity which bound thee to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and through the fatherly love with which thou didst embrace the Child Jesus, we humbly beg thee graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with thy power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful Guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ. O most loving father, keep from us every contagion of error and corruption. O our most mighty protector, assist us from heaven in this our struggle with the powers of darkness; and as once thou didst rescue the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now defend God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity.
Shield each one of us by thy constant protection, that, following thine example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain everlasting happiness in heaven. Amen.
In short
The prayer “To thee, O blessed Joseph” was written by Leo XIII in 1889 and ordered to be said after the rosary in October. It is one of the very few prayers in current use whose author and date are known exactly, and it asks protection for the Church and for whoever prays it.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 6 min read
When to pray it
After the rosary, which is the use it was written for, and in any strain involving family, home or work. It is prayed most on 19 March and 1 May.
The prayer has the structure of a formal petition, and it is nineteenth-century, not first-century. First it invokes the relationship (the bond with Mary, the love for the Child), then it sets out the object (the Church, purchased by blood), then it asks, then it closes with the personal request. It is the shape of a legal submission, and that is no accident: the man who wrote it was trained in canon law.
The central argument is an analogy, and it is the best part of the text. Joseph got a child out of Herod’s reach; he is asked to do the same for the Church. The prayer does not invent a new power for him — it points at something he actually did, according to Matthew, and asks for a repeat at another scale.
Catholic devotion asks Joseph to intercede: God protects, and what is asked of him is that he ask alongside. Most Protestant and evangelical churches do not hold that practice and pray directly to God. This page describes what the devotion claims and does not decide between the two readings.
One piece of the language has aged badly and is better explained than hidden. “Contagion of error and corruption” lands harder today than it did in 1889, and “snares of the enemy” is war vocabulary. The text was written in a moment of institutional siege and carries that tone. Anyone can know this and pray it anyway; what does not help is pretending the prayer is neutral.
Where this prayer comes from
When it appeared 15 August 1889, in Rome
This is one of the rare prayers in current devotional use with a birth certificate. It was published by Leo XIII at the end of the encyclical Quamquam pluries, dated 15 August 1889, with instructions that it be recited after the rosary during October. There is no doubt about author, date or purpose — the opposite of almost every other prayer in this group.
The context is nineteen years older. In 1870 Pius IX had declared Joseph patron of the universal Church, at a moment when the papacy was losing the Papal States and felt besieged. Leo XIII’s prayer is the devotional consequence of that decision: it asks protection not only for the person praying but for the whole Church, and that is why the language is one of siege and defence.
The English form in use is an old devotional translation that keeps the period vocabulary — patronage, snares, contagion of error. The word patronage, now mostly commercial, carries here its Roman legal sense: a patronus is the one who answers for you before a higher authority.
Little-known details
Joseph never says a single word in the Gospels
His name entered the Roman Canon only in 1962
Burying a statue of him to sell a house is an American custom, not a rite
The two genealogies of Jesus run through him, and they do not match
What the passages say
18Now the procreation of the Christ occurred in this way. After his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they lived together, she was found to have conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit.
19Then Joseph, her husband, since he was just and was not willing to hand her over, preferred to send her away secretly.
20But while thinking over these things, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to accept Mary as your wife. For what has been formed in her is of the Holy Spirit.
21And she shall give birth to a son. And you shall call his name JESUS. For he shall accomplish the salvation of his people from their sins.”
The scene that defines Joseph: he decides, silently, to spare Mary public exposure, and changes plan after the dream. Note that the text praises the decision taken before the dream — he was already acting justly before he received any instruction.
19Then, when Herod had passed away, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt,
20saying: “Rise up, and take the boy and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For those who were seeking the life of the boy have passed away.”
21And rising up, he took the boy and his mother, and he went into the land of Israel.
22Then, hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in sleep, he withdrew into parts of Galilee.
23And arriving, he lived in a city which is called Nazareth, in order to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “For he shall be called a Nazarene.”
The return from Egypt and the decision not to go back to Judea. It is the last time Joseph acts on his own initiative in the Gospel: he chooses the town, and because of that choice Jesus is called a Nazarene for the rest of history.
41And his parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the time of the solemnity of Passover.
42And when he had become twelve years old, they ascended to Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast day.
43And having completed the days, when they returned, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem. And his parents did not realize this.
44But, supposing that he was in the company, they went a day’s journey, seeking him among their relatives and acquaintances.
45And not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.
46And it happened that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, listening to them and questioning them.
47But all who listened to him were astonished over his prudence and his responses.
48And upon seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: “Son, why have you acted this way toward us? Behold, your father and I were seeking you in sorrow.”
49And he said to them: “How is it that you were seeking me? For did you not know that it is necessary for me to be in these things which are of my Father?”
50And they did not understand the word that he spoke to them.
51And he descended with them and went to Nazareth. And he was subordinate to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart.
Joseph’s last appearance on stage. Notice who speaks: Mary speaks, Jesus answers, and Joseph is present without a line. It is the passage that best illustrates his silence — and the closing verse, about the boy’s obedience to his parents, is what tradition uses to speak of his paternal authority.
54And arriving in his own country, he taught them in their synagogues, so much so that they wondered and said: “How can such wisdom and power be with this one?
55Is this not the son of a workman? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude?
56And his sisters, are they not all with us? Therefore, from where has this one obtained all these things?”
The only information about the family trade, given in passing and in a sneering tone by the neighbours. The Greek word rendered as carpenter covers work in wood and also in stone — so the joinery workshop familiar from Christian art is a choice of translation more than a datum.