Joseph was the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a descendant of David, the second king of Israel. According to the Bible, Mary was found to be pregnant after she had been betrothed (promised in marriage) to Joseph, but before they were married. Joseph was not the child’s father. Joseph took steps to break the betrothal, but in a way that would not put Mary to shame. An angel revealed to Joseph that the child was the son of God. Joseph then took Mary as his wife and legally accepted her child as his own by naming Him. See Mary .
Joseph and Mary raised Jesus according to traditional Jewish customs and rites. Jesus was circumcised and presented at the Temple for the prescribed rites of purification and dedication of the first-born.
Little is known about Joseph’s life after he and his family settled in Nazareth. Joseph was a craftsman, at least a carpenter and perhaps a contractor. The Gospel accounts seem to indicate that he was still alive when Jesus, at the age of 12, spoke to scholars in the Temple (Luke 2: 41-51), and perhaps at the start of Jesus’s public ministry (John 1: 45), and even during Jesus’s ministry (John 6: 42). But there are no later mentions of Joseph, though the Gospels mention Mary. There is no mention of Joseph at Jesus’s death and no indication of his presence among the first Christian community in Jerusalem. Jesus entrusted Mary to the care of the apostle John during the Crucifixion, indicating that Joseph had probably died before this time. For more information about Joseph’s life, see Jesus Christ (Sources of information about Jesus) .
Early Christian legends portrayed Joseph as an aged widower with children when betrothed to Mary. But based on marriage customs of the times, Joseph must have been in his midteens when he married Mary.
The Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Episcopal churches honor Joseph as a saint. Since the Middle Ages, Christian devotion of Joseph has grown. In 1962, Pope John XXIII honored Joseph by decreeing that Joseph’s name be included immediately after Mary in the list of saints in the Canon of the Mass. His main feast day is March 19.
