{"id":9545,"date":"2026-03-19T08:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/7-popes-who-strengthened-devotion-to-st-joseph\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:34:18","slug":"7-popes-who-strengthened-devotion-to-st-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/7-popes-who-strengthened-devotion-to-st-joseph\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Popes Who Strengthened Devotion to St. Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Modern Popes of the last two centuries \u2013 from Pius IX to Francis \u2013 have sought the protection and intercession of St. Joseph in times of personal and social need, enhancing his status as the patron of all Catholics.<\/p>\n

Here is how some of the Popes of the past have contributed to the Church’s devotion to the Holy Patriarch.<\/p>\n

pius ix<\/h2>\n

According to theologian and church historian Veronica Seifert, Pope Pius IX witnessed a growing devotion to St. Joseph among the Catholic faithful throughout Europe and abroad at the beginning of his papal tenure.<\/p>\n

“(He) welcomed the growing spirituality toward St. Joseph and fostered these seeds,” he told EWTN News. “There were many religious congregations and dioceses that chose him as their protector and many brotherhoods were formed with strong devotion to him.”<\/p>\n

This encouragement of Catholic communities led Pius IX to approve the decree of 1870 QUEMADMODUM DES<\/em><\/a>Which declared St. Joseph to be the universal patron of the Church at the end of the First Vatican Council.<\/p>\n

Leo XIII<\/h2>\n

Quamquam Pluriese<\/em><\/a>The first encyclical dedicated to St. Joseph was published by Pope Leo XIII in 1889, nearly two decades after Pius IX declared the earthly father of Jesus the Patron of the Universal Church.<\/p>\n

Seifert said, “Practically every Pope has added a little piece of what was missing from Pius’s 1870 order”.<\/p>\n

Known for his devotion to the Virgin Mary, Leo XIII’s personal devotion to St. Joseph was later linked to the Mother of God. Although his encyclical, he encouraged Catholics to jointly seek the assistance of the two holy husbands.<\/p>\n

He wrote, “Joseph shines with the most eminent dignity among all mankind, because, by the divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and was as revered among the people as his father.”<\/p>\n

pius x<\/h2>\n

Pope Pius Litany of St. Joseph<\/a> In 1909.<\/p>\n

Seeing in him a virtuous model for families and workers, he encouraged Catholics to emulate the example of Joseph as head of the Holy Family and as a laborer in his workshop in Nazareth.<\/p>\n

Pius XII<\/h2>\n

Devotion to St. Joseph the Worker grew further when Pope Pius XII instituted a religious feast day in his honor in 1955.<\/p>\n

Seifert said, “Pius XII introduced the feast day that Pius XI wanted to celebrate on the third Sunday after Easter. Pius XII moved it to May 1 \u2013 a date we all now know.”<\/p>\n

To counter the influence of communism on the Church and its faithful, Pius XII wanted to emphasize a Christian view of work that saw labor as a means of participating in God’s creative power.<\/p>\n

May 1 is “Laborer’s Day” or “International Workers’ Day” in over 80 countries, including most of Europe.<\/p>\n

john twenty third<\/h2>\n

Describing Pope John XXIII as a “great devotee” of St. Joseph, Seifert said he was the first pope to order his inclusion in the Mass.<\/p>\n

He said, “They inserted the name of St. Joseph into the (Roman) Canon, right in the first eucharistic prayer, placing it immediately after that of the Virgin Mary.”<\/p>\n

The theological change to the Roman Canon was the first since the seventh century, just a month after the opening of the Second Vatican Council on November 13, 1962. the new York Times<\/a> Informed.<\/p>\n

John Paul II<\/h2>\n

Pope John Paul II wrote about the life and mission of St. Joseph when he published his apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos<\/a> <\/em>To mark the centenary of the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII in 1989 Quamquam Pluriese<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He wrote, “May St. Joseph be an extraordinary teacher for all of us in the service of the saving mission of Christ, a mission that is the responsibility of every member of the Church: husbands and wives, parents, those who live by the work of their hands or by any other kind of work, those called to the contemplative life and those called to apostolate.”<\/p>\n

Seifert said that the joyful and tragic experiences of the Holy Family are not far from the human realities of the present day.<\/p>\n

The theologian and church historian said, “By paying attention to the feelings of St. Joseph, we can learn a lot and perhaps even do something right in our own lives.”<\/p>\n

francis<\/h2>\n

After inaugurating his pontificate on the Feast of Saint Joseph on March 19 in 2013, Pope Francis popularized the devotion to the “Sleeping Saint Joseph” following his apostolic visit to the Philippines in 2015.<\/p>\n

During the Pope’s visit, Francis expressed his love for Jesus’ foster father, saying: “Even when he is sleeping, he is taking care of the Church! … So when I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and put it under St. Joseph, so he can dream about it!”<\/p>\n

Pope Francis also announced the Church’s first Year of St. Joseph through his 2020 apostolic letter Patrice Corday<\/em><\/a> (“With the Heart of a Father”) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Holy Patriarch being named Patriarch of the Universal Church by Pope Pius IX.<\/p>\n

See “Devotion to St. Joseph Throughout the Centuries” at Vaticano Here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Modern Popes of the last two centuries \u2013 from Pius IX to Francis \u2013 have sought the protection and intercession of St. Joseph in times of personal and social need, enhancing his status as the patron of all Catholics. Here is how some of the Popes of the past have contributed to the Church’s devotion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[163,616,4224,4225],"class_list":["post-9545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-news","tag-devotion","tag-joseph","tag-popes","tag-strengthened"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9547,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9545\/revisions\/9547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}