Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church: Quamquam pluries and the Patronage

The one who declared Saint Joseph patron of the Church was Blessed Pius IX, on December 8, 1870, by means of the decree Quemadmodum Deus of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, which solemnly proclaimed him “Patron of the Catholic Church”. Nineteen years later, Leo XIII gave that declaration its theological foundation in the encyclical Quamquam pluries, of August 15, 1889. The reason for the patronage, the pope will teach, is not an arbitrary privilege: it arises from the fact that Joseph is the spouse of the Mother of God and the putative father of Jesus, the head of that house of Nazareth which contained within itself the nascent Church. This article goes through the two documents and situates them within the Josephology path of this portal.

1870: the declaration of Pius IX in the decree Quemadmodum Deus

The context was dramatic. On September 20, 1870, Italian troops had taken Rome, putting an end to the Papal States, and the First Vatican Council had been suspended. It was in that dark hour that Pius IX, heeding the wishes of the bishops, had the decree Quemadmodum Deus (ASS 6, pp. 193-194) published on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The decree opens with the typology of the patriarch of Egypt: just as God set the Joseph of the Old Testament over all the land of Egypt to keep the grain of the people, so, in sending His only-begotten Son into the world, “alium selegit Iosephum, cuius ille primus typum gesserat” – He chose another Joseph, of whom the first had been the type – and made him lord and prince of His house and guardian of His chief treasures (ASS 6, p. 193). The solemn provision follows:

«Sanctissimus Dominus Noster Pius Papa IX nuperrima ac luctuosa rerum conditione commotus, ut potentissimo Sancti Patriarchae Iosephi patrocinio Se ac Fideles omnes committeret, Sacrorum Antistitum votis satisfacere voluit, eumque CATHOLICAE ECCLESIAE PATRONUM solemniter declaravit» (Quemadmodum Deus, ASS 6, pp. 193-194).

In a literal translation: Our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX, moved by the most recent and sorrowful condition of events, in order to entrust himself and all the faithful to the most powerful patronage of the Holy Patriarch Joseph, willed to satisfy the wishes of the bishops and solemnly declared him Patron of the Catholic Church. The same decree raised the feast of March 19 to the rite of a double of the first class. More than a century later, John Paul II summed up the gesture:

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, Redemptoris custos, n. 28)

The encyclical of Leo XIII: the theological foundation of the patronage

The declaration of 1870 was a brief juridical-liturgical act. It fell to Leo XIII, in the encyclical Quamquam pluries (August 15, 1889), to turn it into doctrine. Written to ask that during the month of October a prayer to Saint Joseph be joined to the rosary, the encyclical sets out with precision the reasons for the patronage. There is no Portuguese version on the website of the Holy See, and so we quote the official Spanish version:

“Las razones por las que el bienaventurado José debe ser considerado especial patrono de la Iglesia, y por las que a su vez, la Iglesia espera muchísimo de su tutela y patrocinio, nacen principalmente del hecho de que él es el esposo de María y padre putativo de Jesús” (Quamquam pluries, n. 3).

The reasons for the patronage therefore arise from his being the spouse of Mary and the putative father of Jesus: “De estas fuentes ha manado su dignidad, su santidad, su gloria” – from these sources flowed his dignity, his holiness, his glory (n. 3). The decisive step is the ecclesiological argument. Joseph was “el custodio legítimo y natural, cabeza y defensor de la Sagrada Familia” (n. 3), and Leo XIII concludes:

“Ahora bien, el divino hogar que José dirigía con la autoridad de un padre, contenía dentro de sí a la apenas naciente Iglesia” (Quamquam pluries, n. 3).

The divine household that Joseph governed with the authority of a father contained within itself the nascent Church. For this reason, the pope continues, it is fitting and supremely worthy of blessed Joseph that, just as he once watched over the family of Nazareth in holiness, so now he should protect and defend the Church of Christ with his heavenly patronage (n. 3). The patronage is not an honorific title added from outside: it is the ecclesial prolongation of the office that Joseph exercised historically in Nazareth. The head of the Holy Family becomes the protector of the Mystical Body because the Church is the extension of that house. Leo XIII appended to the encyclical a prayer to Saint Joseph, which he ordered to be prayed together with the rosary throughout the month of October and repeated each year, and which still today implores: “Asístenos propicio desde el cielo, en esta lucha contra el poder de las tinieblas” – assist us favorably from heaven in this struggle against the power of darkness (Prayer to Saint Joseph, appended to the encyclical).

Why Joseph is patron: spouse of Mary and head of the Holy Family

Later theology made the Leonine logic explicit in two inseparable titles. The first is the marriage to the Virgin: “marriage to Mary is the juridical foundation of the fatherhood of Joseph. It was in order to ensure fatherly protection for Jesus that God chose Joseph as the spouse of Mary” (Redemptoris custos, n. 7). The second is the real fatherhood of Saint Joseph, which follows from that marriage and which is neither apparent nor merely substitutive, but a true and proper human fatherhood (cf. Redemptoris custos, n. 21).

The Gospel condenses this mission into a single verse. As the opening of the exhortation of John Paul II recalls, called to protect the Redeemer, “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife” (Mt 1:24, quoted in Redemptoris custos, n. 1). That silent and obedient doing, which the same document describes as a most pure “obedience of faith” (Redemptoris custos, n. 4), is the biblical foundation of the confidence of the Church: he who guarded the Head can guard the Body. Hence the unique dignity that Leo XIII acknowledges in him, in the Portuguese translation of Redemptoris custos:

Among all, he stands out for his sublime dignity, since, by divine disposition, he was the guardian and, in the opinion of men, the father of the Son of God. From this it followed, therefore, that the Word of God should be subject to Joseph, should obey him and render him that honor and that reverence which children owe to their own parents. (Leo XIII, Quamquam pluries, quoted in Redemptoris custos, n. 8)

The encyclical also takes up the Old Testament typology: “El José de los tiempos antiguos, hijo del patriarca Jacob, era tipo de San José” (n. 4). Pharaoh had said to the famished people, according to the Nova Vulgata of Gen 41:55, ite ad Ioseph et, quidquid vobis dixerit, facite – go to Joseph and do all that he tells you. This typology, present from ancient tradition onward and taken up by the Magisterium, is no mere devotional ornament: the dreams, the descent into Egypt and the salvation of the people prefigure the mission of the New Testament Joseph, and the 1870 decree itself builds its entire argument upon it.

The patronage today: from Redemptoris custos to Patris corde

The contemporary Magisterium confirmed and deepened the patronage. On the exact centenary of Quamquam pluries, John Paul II published the apostolic exhortation Redemptoris custos (August 15, 1989), which presents Joseph as guardian of the Redeemer and “a singular teacher in the service of the saving mission of Christ” for every state of life in the Church (n. 32). On the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Pius IX, Francis published the apostolic letter Patris corde (December 8, 2020) and proclaimed an entire year dedicated to the saint. In it he recalls the singular place of the patron: “After Mary, the Mother of God, no Saint occupies as much space in the papal Magisterium as Joseph, her spouse” (Patris corde, prologue). And he describes the patronage in an existential key:

All can find in Saint Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, the man of a discreet and hidden daily presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in moments of difficulty. (Francis, Patris corde, prologue)

A direct fruit of that anniversary was the updating of the Litany of Saint Joseph: on May 1, 2021, the Congregation for Divine Worship added seven invocations drawn from the papal Magisterium, namely Custos Redemptoris, Serve Christi, Minister salutis, Fulcimen in difficultatibus and Patrone exsulum, afflictorum, pauperum (Letter to the Conferences of Bishops, May 1, 2021).

The permanent meaning of the patronage is thus summed up in three lines. Joseph intercedes: the Church implores his “interventum in rebus anxiis”, his intervention in situations of anguish, as the 1870 decree says. Joseph protects: what he did for the nascent Church in Nazareth he continues to do for the Body of Christ in history. Joseph teaches: his obedience of faith is a model for spouses, fathers, workers, contemplatives and apostles (Redemptoris custos, n. 32). To continue the path, see who Saint Joseph was and the consecration to Saint Joseph.

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