Litany of Saint Joseph: History and the New Invocations

The Litany of Saint Joseph is the Church’s official litanic prayer in honor of the spouse of Mary: it was approved by the Apostolic See in 1909, under the pontificate of Saint Pius X (cf. Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1 [1909] 290-292), and enriched on May 1, 2021, during the Year of Saint Joseph, with seven new invocations approved by Pope Francis: “Custos Redemptoris” (Guardian of the Redeemer), “Serve Christi” (Servant of Christ), “Minister salutis” (Minister of salvation), “Fulcimen in difficultatibus” (Support in difficulties), “Patrone exsulum” (Patron of exiles), “Patrone afflictorum” (Patron of the afflicted) and “Patrone pauperum” (Patron of the poor). In this article we explain the origin of the litany, its structure, the magisterial source of each new invocation and the way to pray it.

Origin and Approval: From Pius IX to Saint Pius X

The litany did not come out of nowhere. It is the prayerful fruit of a long growth of Josephology in the Magisterium of the nineteenth century. The decisive milestone was the decree Quemadmodum Deus, of December 8, 1870, by which Blessed Pius IX declared Saint Joseph patron of the Catholic Church. The Latin text is solemn: the Pope “CATHOLICAE ECCLESIAE PATRONUM solemniter declaravit” (Sacred Congregation of Rites, decree Quemadmodum Deus, in Acta Sanctae Sedis 6, pp. 193-194). Saint John Paul II recalls the gesture in Redemptoris custos:

In difficult times for the Church, Pius IX, wishing to entrust her to the special protection of the Holy Patriarch Joseph, declared him “Patron of the Catholic Church” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris custos, n. 28).

Nineteen years later, Leo XIII doctrinally consolidated that patronage with the encyclical Quamquam pluries (August 15, 1889), to which he appended a celebrated prayer to Saint Joseph. In the encyclical, the Pope teaches that the reasons for Joseph’s patronage “nacen principalmente del hecho de que él es el esposo de María y padre putativo de Jesús” (Leo XIII, Quamquam pluries, n. 3). It is from this devotional and magisterial humus that there springs, in 1909, the approval of the litany by the Apostolic See, recorded in the first volume of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1 [1909] 290-292), under Saint Pius X. From then on, the litany came to form part of the Church’s approved liturgical and devotional patrimony, alongside the litanies of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, of the Sacred Heart, of the Most Precious Blood, of Our Lady (the Loreto litany) and of the saints.

The Structure of the Litany

Like every approved litany, that of Saint Joseph follows a tripartite architecture. It opens with the Trinitarian supplication (Kyrie, eleison, and the invocations to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), passes through the invocation of Holy Mary – a sign that the figure of Joseph is theologically inseparable from his spouse – and then unfolds the series of proper invocations, to which the people respond “pray for us”. It closes with the Agnus Dei, a versicle and the concluding prayer.

The invocations of the central body may be grouped into three families. First, the biblical and theological titles, which condense Joseph’s identity: descendant of David, light of the patriarchs (Lumen Patriarcharum), spouse of the Mother of God, foster father of the Son of God. Second, the virtues: the just man of Mt 1:19, the chaste, the prudent, the obedient, the faithful. The Gospel calls him “just,” and Saint John Paul II sees in that judgment the key to his silence: “this silence of Joseph has a special eloquence: thanks to such an attitude, one can grasp perfectly the truth contained in the judgment that the Gospel gives us of him: the ‘just man’ (Mt 1:19)” (Redemptoris custos, n. 17). Third, the patronages: model of workers, glory of domestic life, terror of demons (Terror daemonum), patron of the dying (Patrone morientium), protector of the holy Church (Protector sanctae Ecclesiae). The Catechism recalls this last patronage when it exhorts the faithful “to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death” (CCC 1014).

The Seven New Invocations of 2021

On December 8, 2020, on the 150th anniversary of Pius IX’s decree, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Patris corde and proclaimed a Year of Saint Joseph, which ran until December 8, 2021. It was in this context that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, by a letter of May 1, 2021 to the presidents of the Episcopal Conferences, announced the updating of the litany: “ha parecido oportuno actualizar las Letanías en honor de san José, aprobadas en 1909 por la Sede Apostólica […], añadiendo siete invocaciones tomadas de las intervenciones de los Papas que han reflexionado sobre algunos aspectos de la figura del Patrón de la Iglesia universal” (Letter of May 1, 2021, § 2). The new invocations were presented to Pope Francis, “quien ha aprobado su inserción en las Letanías de san José” (ibid., § 3). Here is each one of them, with its magisterial source.

1. Custos Redemptoris – Guardian of the Redeemer

Taken from the very title of Saint John Paul II’s exhortation, Redemptoris custos (1989). The invocation sums up Joseph’s whole mission: “Called to protect the Redeemer, ‘Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife’ (Mt 1:24)” (Redemptoris custos, n. 1). Joseph is the guardian of the mystery in which he “‘shared’ as no other human person, with the exception of Mary” (ibid.).

2. Serve Christi – Servant of Christ

It comes from a homily of Saint Paul VI of March 19, 1966, cited both in Redemptoris custos (n. 8) and in Patris corde (n. 1). Joseph’s service is not generic: “Saint Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly, through the exercise of his fatherhood” (Redemptoris custos, n. 8).

3. Minister salutis – Minister of salvation

An expression of Saint John Chrysostom, taken up in Redemptoris custos: Joseph “‘cooperates in the great mystery of the Redemption when the fullness of time arrives,’ and is truly a ‘minister of salvation’” (n. 8). A fourth-century Father of the Church thus enters, through the mediation of a twentieth-century Pope, into the prayer of the people of the third millennium.

4. Fulcimen in difficultatibus – Support in difficulties

It comes from the prologue of Patris corde: “Everyone can find in Saint Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, the man of daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of difficulty” (Francis, Patris corde, prologue).

5-7. Patrone exsulum, afflictorum, pauperum – Patron of exiles, of the afflicted, of the poor

The last three invocations form a triad drawn from Patris corde, n. 5, where Francis meditates on the flight into Egypt: “I believe that Saint Joseph is truly a special patron for all those who must leave their land because of wars, hatred, persecution and destitution.” The carpenter who went through exile with the Child and His Mother becomes, in the prayer of the Church, the intercessor of migrants, of those who suffer and of the poor – in line with Leo XIII, who already presented Joseph as the one who “pasó su vida trabajando, y ganó con la fatiga del artesano el necesario sostén para su familia” (Quamquam pluries, n. 4).

Note the theological criterion of the choice: no invocation was invented. All were gathered from the pontifical Magisterium, from Saint John Chrysostom to Francis, by way of Paul VI and John Paul II. The updated litany is thus a small prayerful compendium of the Josephology of the Popes.

How and When to Pray the Litany of Saint Joseph

The litany may be prayed communally or individually, sung or recited. A leader (or the one praying alone) proclaims each invocation, and the response is “pray for us”. The traditionally privileged moments are the month of March, dedicated to Saint Joseph, Wednesdays, the day of the week that Catholic piety consecrates to him, the solemnity of March 19 and the memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker, on May 1 – a date chosen, not by chance, for the publication of the new invocations. It is customary to pray it at the end of the Rosary, in novenas, on the nineteenth day of each month and as preparation for the consecration and the other prayers to Saint Joseph.

To pray the litany is not to pile up devout titles: it is to travel, invocation by invocation, through the complete theological profile of the saint whom Josephology studies scientifically. Whoever prays it attentively learns that Joseph’s greatness “consists in the fact that he was the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus” (Patris corde, n. 1) and asks, at the end, for what Francis calls “the grace of graces: our conversion” (Patris corde, conclusion). May Saint Joseph, guardian of the Redeemer, servant of Christ and minister of salvation, be for each one who prays “a singular teacher in the service of Christ’s saving mission” (Redemptoris custos, n. 32).

Frequently Asked Questions