Saint Joseph the Betrothed

Commemorated Sunday after Nativity

      Saint Joseph the Betrothed was descended from the lineage of King David. In his first marriage, he had four sons and two daughters. Having become a widower, Saint Joseph led a life of strict temperance. As an eighty year old elder Saint Joseph was chosen by the high-priests as a protector of the virginity of the MostHoly Mother of God, Who had taken a vow of virginity. An Angel announced to him about the Incarnation through Her of the Son of God. Saint Joseph was present during the worship of the NewBorn Divine-Infant by the shepherds, and also by the Magi. On the orders of the Angel he fled with the Mother of God and the God-Infant Jesus into Egypt, saving them from the wrath of king Herod. In Egypt he lived with the Virgin Mary and the God-Infant, earning his livelihood by work as a carpenter. Saint Joseph died at about one hundred years old (a 2nd Commemoration of Saint Joseph is on the Sunday of the Holy ForeFathers).

 

© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.