Saint Joseph

The Gospels say very little about Joseph, and that very little is everything. Matthew defines him with a single word: a righteous man. He was betrothed to Mary when he realized she was expecting a child that wasn’t his. The law gave him a way out, and it wasn’t a gentle one; he chose to divorce her quietly, so as not to expose her. Then an angel spoke to him in a dream, and he changed his mind: he married her, and legally recognized that child as his own son. That is why tradition calls him the putative father — from the Latin puto, “I believe”: the one who was believed to be his father. By trade he was a téktōn. The Greek word is almost always translated as carpenter, but it’s broader: it meant someone who worked with heavy materials, in building, with his hands. Not a single word he spoke has come down to us: in the Gospels Joseph never speaks. He only does things — he gets up in the night, takes the child and his mother, sets out for Egypt, comes back. Pius IX declared him patron of the Catholic Church on December 8, 1870. He is also the patron of workers and fathers, and in Italy March 19 is Father’s Day precisely for that reason. In Naples his day has a very particular flavor: zeppole di San Giuseppe, fried, with pastry cream and an amarena cherry. The recipe is written down in an 1837 book, the Cucina teorico-pratica by Ippolito Cavalcanti, Duke of Buonvicino, and ever since, on March 19 you can tell what day it is in the city by the smell of the fry shops. If your name is Joseph or Josephine, today is your name day — and in its Italian form, Giuseppe, it’s one of the most common names in Italy.