The Espousals of Mary and Joseph, an oft-forgotten feast

In the past, January 23 was celebrated as the feast of the marriage, or espousals, of Our Lady. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the celebration was first proposed by Peter d’Ailly and his disciple Jean Charlier, known as Gerson, at the University of Paris in the 15th century. Gerson wrote prayers for the celebration, but it failed to gain sufficient support to be officially recognized.

Over the years, certain religious communities were granted permission to celebrate various incarnations of this feast. Little by little it was adopted by more dioceses, but remained strictly local, not being adopted by the Universal Church.

This celebration started gaining more widespread traction after Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I's 1663 victory over the Turks, who were threatening the Hungarian city of Buda. The Habsburg sovereign invoked the help of Our Lady and St. Joseph in this perilous situation. His prayers were heard, and the Holy Roman Empire’s forces repulsed the Ottoman forces, saving the city. 

Leopold then asked Rome to ratify his vow of gratitude and allow the feast of the holy spouses to be added to the calendar in his empire. The Pope granted permission for Austria first, then Spain, and eventually the entire empire, and beyond.

This choice reflected the great devotion to St. Joseph in the 17th century, and a desire to honor him in every possible way. The feast was in the liturgical calendar until a reform of the Catholic liturgical calendar in 1961.

In 2022, a note from the Vatican to the US bishops clarified that there are no current plans to reinstate the feast universally.

However, as explained by The Pillar, it may be offered in places or institutes which have a special devotion to St. Joseph, or in places like the Diocese of Fresno, where the feast has gotten particular support from the diocesan bishop.

The mystery of the marriage of Joseph and Mary has been a subject of meditation and interest since the very beginnings of the Church, and continues to be relevant today, despite the removal of the feast from the calendar.

The Gospels, which do not record a single word from Joseph — so much so that he has been known especially for his silence — scarcely speak of the event. St. Matthew writes soberly that “Mary had been engaged to Joseph” (Mt 1:18-20), but the bride and groom were not cohabiting.  This explains the young man's amazement at discovering that the woman he cherished and esteemed was pregnant — inevitably by someone other than himself.

It was only after an angel appeared to him in a dream, telling him not to be afraid to take Mary home as his wife, that Joseph officially celebrated their marriage and brought his wife back to his home.

The Church Fathers were quick to justify this marriage. Mary needed a husband descended from David, as she was, to ensure Christ's royal heritage. Further, it was necessary to protect the Virgin's reputation from attack and slander, by implying Joseph's biological paternity. “Is this not the son of the carpenter of Nazareth?”, his fellow townfolk would later say. Also, according to St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Ambrose, a marriage was needed to mislead the devil into believing that the Child was like all the others, and not the expected Son.

The Church was also quick to defend Mary's perpetual virginity, insisting that Joseph did not have carnal relations with his wife, either before or after Jesus' birth. This implies the predestination of Joseph, who enters fully into the mystery of a union and paternity that Saint Augustine affirms to be real, though not according to the flesh. St. Jerome, in Against Helvidius, says as much, and describes Joseph as a young man, which is common sense.

However obvious this opinion may seem, it will not be readily accepted by many, for whom the perpetual chastity of a man in the prime of life seems hard to sustain. In their desire to defend the dogma of Mary's virginity, some—who can draw on the apocryphal gospels for support—describe Joseph as an old man.

In this view he would be a widower and the father of many children, the famous “brothers and sisters of Jesus”—a misinterpretation of a term which, in Aramaic, covers all relatives, i.e. nephews and cousins. The Apocrypha are also responsible for the most famous account of this marriage.

In the account of these texts, Mary was entrusted to the Temple of Jerusalem from infancy, to be raised there. This would be according to a pious custom that allowed certain young girls to grow up in the holy place and work there weaving the veil that protects the Holy of Holies. However, as consecrated virginity does not exist in Judaism, at puberty they had to leave the Temple to avoid defiling it.

According to the apocrypha, the priests, aware of Mary's exceptional quality, decided to look for a husband worthy of her. To this end, they summoned the most pious men. In order to decide between them, they asked them to plant their walking sticks in the ground. Whichever of these dead pieces of wood came to life and bloomed would designate God's chosen one. Joseph's staff was then covered with white flowers.

This is, of course, a charming legend that bears no relation whatsoever to the reality of the far less glamorous nuptials of the carpenter from Nazareth to the daughter of Anne and Joachim.

This certainty in no way has prevented the veneration of that miraculous staff, or its fragments, in Florence, Rome, Ariccia, and Anagni, as well as in Annecy; these relics have a well-founded reputation for working miracles. However, it is in Perugia's cathedral, whose clergy commissioned Perugino to paint the famous Marriage of the Virgin, that Mary's wedding ring can be venerated, although Siena and Semur-en-Auxois also claim to possess it...