Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/578

 JOSEPH

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JOSEPH

Bridget of Sweden (d. 1373). According to Benedict XIV (I)e Scrv. Dei beatif., I, iv, n. 11; xx,n. 17), "the general opinion of the learned is that the Fathers of Carmel were the first to import from the East into the West the laudable practice of giving the fullest cultus to St. Jo.seph ". His feast, introduced towards the end of the fourteenth century into the Franciscan and, shortly afterwards, into the Dominican Calendar, gradually gained a foothold in various dioceses of Western Europe. Among the most zealous pro- moters of the devotion at that epoch, St. Vincent Ferrer (d. 1419), Peter d'Ailly (d. 1420), St. Bernar- dine of Siena (d. 1444), and Jehan Charlier Gerson (d. 1429) deserve an especial mention. Ger.son, who had, in 1400, composed an Office of the Espousals of Joseph and Mary, displayed all his learning and influence, particularly at the Council of Constance (1414), in pro- moting the public recognition of the cult of St. Jo- seph. Only under the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1471- 84), were the efforts of the.se holy men rewarded by the introduction of the feast of St. Joseph into the Roman Calendar (19 March). From that time the de- votion acqviired greater and greater popularity, the dignity of the feast keeping pace with this steady growth. At first only a festum simplex, it was soon elevated to a double rite by Innocent VIII (1484-92), declared by Gregory XV, in 1621, a festival of obliga- tion, at the instance of the Emperors Ferdinand III and Leopold I and of King Charles II of Spain, and raised to the rank of a double of the second class by Clement XI (1700-21). Further, Benedict XIII, in 1726, inserted the name into the Litany of the Saints.

One festival in the year, however, was not deemed enough to satisfy the piety of the people. The feast of the Espousals of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, so strenuously advocated by Gerson, and permitted first by Paul III to the Franciscans, then to other religious orders and individual dioceses, was, in 172.i, granted to all countries that solicited it, a proper Office, com- piled by the Dominican Pietro Aurato, being assigned, and the day appointed being 23 January. Nor was this all, for the reformed Order of Carmelites, into which St. Teresa had infused her great devotion to the foster-father of Jesus, chose him, in 1621, for their patron, and in 1689, were allowed to celebrate the feast of his Patronage on the third Sunday after Easter. This feast, soon adopted throughout the Spanish Kingdom, was later on extended to all states and dioceses which asked for the privilege. No devo- tion, perhaps, has grown so universal, none seems to have appealed so forcibly to the heart of the Chris- tian people, and particularly of the labouring classes, during the nineteenth century, as that of St. Jo- seph.

This wonderful and unprecedented increase of popu- larity called for a new lustre to be added to the cult of the saint. Accordingly, one of the first acts of the pontificate of Pius IX, himself singularly devout to St. Jo.seph, was to extend to the whole Church the feast of the Patronage (1847), and in December, 1S70, acceding to the wishes of the bishops and of all the faithful, he solemnly declared the Holy Patriarch Joseph patron of the Catholic Church, and enjoined that his feast (19 March) should henceforth be cele- brated as a double of the first class (but without oc- tave, on account of Lent). Following in the footsteps of their predecessor, Leo XIII and Pius X have shown an equal desire to add their own jewel to the crown of St. Joseph: the former, by permitting on certain days the reading of the votive Office of the saint; and the latter by approving, on 18 March. 1909, a litany in honour of him whose name he had received in l)ap- tism.

Thomson. The Life and Glories of St. Joseph (Lon<lon. 1891 ), KELl.NEn. fteorloUigy (London, 1908); Acla SS.. March. Ill, 4-2a (Paris. 1S6.')): des Champs (re Vi.iesberghe). Joseph Gemma mnnili (Douai, 1621); Suaiikz, Disp. de S. Joseph li. V.

Sponso in Opera omnia, XIX (Paris, 1860); Pfdlp, Die Vereh- rung des hi. Joseph in der (leschichte in Stimmen aits Maria- Laach, XXXVIII (1890), 117; Tillemont, Mcmoires pour servir a I'hist. eccles. I., 73-79 (Paris, 1701); Calmet, Disserta- tion sur saint Joseph in Nouvelles Dissertations (Paris, 1720); BouRASSE, Histoire de S. Joseph (Tours, 1872); Ricard, St. Joseph, Sa vie et son cidte (Lille, 1896); Ddhand, L Enfancedt Jesus-Christ (Paris, 1908); Le Developpement hisloriqiu: du Culte de S. Joseph in Rerue Benedictine, XIV (1897), 106 sqq.. 145 sqq., 20.3 sqq.; Kent, Eastern Devotion to A7. Joseph in Dublin Review. CXVI (189S), 24S-56; Kinane, St. Joseph, his life, his virtues, his privileges, his power, with preface by Croker (Dublin, 1885).

C'hables L. Souvay.

Joseph (CIDV; Sept. 'Imo-^^; Vulg., in Machabees: Josephus), the eleventh son of Jacob, the first-born of Rachel, and the immediate ancestor of the tribes of Manasses and Ephraim. His life is narrated in Gen., XXX, 22-24; xxxvii; xxxix-1, wherein contemporary scholars distinguish three chief documents (J, E, P). (See Abeah.vm.) The date of his eventful career can be fixed only approximately at the present day, for the Biblical account of Joseph's life does not name the particular Pharaoh of his time, and the Egyptian cus- toms and manners therein alluded to are not decisive as to any special period in Egyptian history. His term of office in Egj'pt falls probably under one of the later Hyksos kings (see Egypt). His name, either contracted from Jehoseph (Ps. Ixxxi, 6, in the Heb.) or abbreviated from Joseph-El (cf . Karnak inscription of Thothmes III, no. 78), is distinctly connected in Gen., XXX, 23, 24, with the circumstances of his birth and is interpreted; " may God add". He was born in Haran, of Rachel, Jacob's beloved and long-barren wife, and became the favourite son of the aged pa- triarch. After Jacob's return to Chanaan, various cir- cumstances made Joseph the object of the mortal ha- tred of his brothers. He had witnessed some very wicked deed of several among them, and they knew that it had been reported to their father. Moreover, in his partiality to Joseph, Jacob gave him an ample garment of many colours, and this manifest proof of the patriarch's greater love for him aroused the jeal- ousy of Joseph's brothers to such an extent that " they could not speak peaceably to him". Finally, with the imprudence of youth, Joseph told his brothers two dreams which clearly portended his future elevation over them all, but which, for the present, simply caused them to hate him all the more (Gen., xxxvii, 1-11). In this frame of mind, they seized upon the first opportunity to get rid of the one of whom they spoke as " the dreamer ". .A-S they fed their father's flocks in Dothain (now Tell Dothan, about fifteen miles north of Sichcm), they saw from afar Joseph, who had been sent by Jacob to inquire about their welfare, coming to them, and they at once resolved to reduce to naught all his dreams of future greatness. At this point the narrative in Genesis combines two distinct accounts of the manner in which the brothers of Joseph actually carried out their intention of avenging themselves upon him. These accounts present shght variations, which are examined in detail by recent commentators on Genesis, and which, far from destroying, rather con- firm the historical character of the fact that, through the enmity of his brothers, Joseph was brought tlown to Egypt. To protect themselves they dipped Jo- seph's fine garment into the blood of a kid, and sent it to their father. .\t the sifjht of this blood-stained garment, Jacoli nutiually believed that a wild beast had devoured his beloved son, and he gave himself up to the most intense grief (xxxvii, 12-35).

While thus bewailed as dead by his father, Joseph was sold into Egypt, and treated with the utmost con- sideration and the greatest confidence by liis Egyptian master, to whom Gen., xxxvii, 36. gives the name of Putiphar ["He whom Ra (the sun-god) gave"] and whom it describes as Pharaoh's eunuch and as the captain of the royal body-guard (cf. xxxix, 1). Quick and trustworthy, Joseph soon became his master's