Novena to St. Joseph
The Novena to St. Joseph is nine days of prayer asking the foster father of Jesus to carry our needs to God. Joseph guarded the Holy Family in Nazareth, and the Church has long trusted that the man once entrusted with Jesus and Mary will not turn away those who come to him now. Many Catholics pray this novena in the nine days leading up to March 19, his Solemnity, though it can be prayed at any time a need is pressing.
Whatever you are carrying (work, a home, a sick relative, a father who has drifted from the faith, or the hope of dying in God's friendship) St. Joseph is a patron for it. This page gives you who he was, how to pray the novena, and the prayers themselves.
Who was St. Joseph?
Joseph was a carpenter of Nazareth and a descendant of the House of David, which is why the Gospels trace Jesus' royal lineage through him. Scripture calls him a just man, meaning a man wholly faithful to God and to the Law. He was betrothed, and then married, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he became the foster father of Jesus, raising the Son of God as his own and teaching him a tradesman's work.
Joseph is often called the silent saint. The Gospels record not a single word he ever spoke. What we see instead is obedience. St. Matthew tells of four dreams in which an angel gives Joseph instructions: to take Mary as his wife, to flee into Egypt with the child, to return, and to settle in Nazareth. Each time Joseph rises and does exactly what he is told, without argument and without delay. His holiness is shown in action rather than speech.
Tradition holds that Joseph died before Jesus began his public ministry, since he disappears from the Gospel accounts after the finding of the child in the Temple. Because he is believed to have died in the presence of Jesus and Mary, the Church honors him as the patron of a happy death and of the dying.
His many patronages
Few saints are asked to help with so many things. Pope Pius IX named Joseph Patron of the Universal Church in 1870, and over the centuries the faithful have placed countless needs under his care.
- Patron of the Universal Church, who protects the whole Body of Christ as he once protected the Holy Family.
- Patron of workers and laborers, since he earned his living with his hands as a carpenter.
- Patron of fathers and of families, the model of a man who provides for and guards those in his care.
- Patron of a happy death and of the dying, trusted to be near when we come to our own final hour.
- Patron of the home, of the poor, of travelers, and of those seeking honest work.
His feast days and the Year of St. Joseph
The Church keeps two feasts of St. Joseph. The first is the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19, his principal feast, honoring him as the husband of Mary and guardian of the Redeemer. The second is the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 to place the dignity of human labor under the care of the carpenter of Nazareth.
On December 8, 2020, Pope Francis proclaimed a special Year of St. Joseph, running through December 8, 2021, to mark the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Joseph being named patron of the Universal Church. He opened the year with the apostolic letter Patris Corde ("With a Father's Heart"), a warm meditation describing Joseph as a beloved, tender, obedient, and accepting father, a father who worked and a father in the shadows. Many first met this novena during that year.
How to pray the novena
A novena is simply nine days of prayer for one intention. There is no complicated method. Pick your nine days, name what you are asking for, and pray faithfully each day.
- Choose your nine days. Many pray the nine days before March 19, so the novena ends on his Solemnity, but any nine consecutive days will do.
- Name your intention. Bring one clear request to St. Joseph and hold to it through all nine days.
- Pray the Novena Prayer each day. Add the Memorare to St. Joseph or the prayer To you, O blessed Joseph if you wish.
- Close with an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, and if you are able, attend Mass or pray a decade of the Rosary for your intention.
Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
Pray this prayer once on each of the nine days, adding your own intention where the prayer invites you to.
O glorious St. Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, to you we raise our hearts and hands to ask your powerful intercession in obtaining from the compassionate Heart of Jesus all the help and graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death and the special favor we now implore.
(Here name your request.)
O guardian of the Word Incarnate, we feel confident that your prayers on our behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God. Remember, O most pure spouse of the Virgin Mary, my well-beloved St. Joseph, that never was it known that anyone who invoked your protection and sought your aid was left unassisted.
O St. Joseph, chaste guardian of the Holy Family, watch over us with a father's love, and obtain for us that, having served Jesus and Mary faithfully in this life, we may praise them forever in the life to come. Amen.
Memorare to St. Joseph
This ancient prayer echoes the more familiar Memorare to Our Lady, turning that same confident plea toward her most chaste spouse.
Remember, O most pure spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, my beloved patron St. Joseph, that never has it been heard that anyone who invoked your protection and implored your help was left without consolation.
Filled with this confidence, I come to you, and with fervor commend myself to you. Despise not my petition, dear foster father of our Redeemer, but accept it graciously and answer it. Amen.
To you, O blessed Joseph
Known by its Latin opening, Ad te, beate Ioseph, this prayer was composed to be said after the Rosary, especially during the month of October, and it remains one of the great traditional prayers to the saint.
To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of your most holy spouse, we confidently invoke your patronage also. Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ. O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence. O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.
And as once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God's Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Shield each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.
Common intentions
People bring St. Joseph the ordinary, weighty concerns of family life. Here are some of the most common reasons to make this novena.
- Employment. As the patron of workers, Joseph is asked for honest work, for a fair wage, and for those who have lost a job or fear losing one.
- Buying or selling a home. An old custom of burying a St. Joseph statue on a property is best kept in its proper spirit: not as a good luck charm, but as an act of prayer that places the sale and the family's future home in his care.
- Fathers and family needs. Joseph is prayed to for husbands and fathers, for peace in the home, and for children who have wandered from the faith.
- A holy death. Because he is thought to have died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, Joseph is invoked for a peaceful, faithful death for ourselves and for those we love.
Spiritual benefits
More than any single favor, the fruit of praying to St. Joseph is the quiet virtue he models. He teaches trust in God's plan even when it is unclear, obedience that acts at once, patient hidden work, and a father's protective love. Nine days spent in his company settle the heart and hand our worries over to a saint who knows how to keep silence and to keep watch.
A note on the Seven Joys and Sorrows
An older devotion honors the Seven Sorrows and Seven Joys of St. Joseph, pairing the trials of his life (his doubt over Mary, the poverty of Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt) with the joys that answered each one (the angel's reassurance, the birth of the Savior, the safe return to Nazareth). Some pray these seven pairs during the novena as a way of walking through Joseph's own journey of faith.
Keep praying with the Holy Family
St. Joseph led his household in prayer. Let the Rosary hold a place in yours, so that you meditate on the same mysteries of Christ that filled the home of Nazareth.
