The world is suffering from a terrible crisis of masculinity. Many young men go through life adrift, unsure of themselves and their role in society. In the United States and the United Kingdom, fewer and fewer men are reaching the traditional milestones of adulthood, such as graduating high school and college, entering the workforce, getting married, and starting families. Many men lack both a sense of purpose and the desire to pursue one. Instead, they have “checked out” of society, living off parents or girlfriends and spending their time taking drugs or playing video games. It wasn’t always like this.
But there is one man in history whose life is both a rebuke to woke, feminist lies about true masculinity and a supreme model of holy, Catholic masculinity: Saint Joseph, the stepfather of the Divine Infant Jesus and the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The following are five ways that Saint Joseph can help young men acquire true, Catholic masculinity and reach sanctity.
1. After Our Lady herself, Saint Joseph is the most powerful intercessor before God
In his encyclical Quamquam pluries of August 15, 1889, Pope Leo XIII stated that the Blessed Virgin Mary has the highest dignity of any creature, both angels and men. “But as Joseph has been united to the Blessed Virgin by the ties of marriage,” he wrote, “it may not be doubted that he approached nearer than any to the eminent dignity by which the Mother of God surpasses so nobly all created natures.” The Pontiff explains that marriage imparts a community of gifts between the spouses. As Saint Joseph, as the true husband, protector, and companion of Our Lady, was “by virtue of the conjugal tie, a participator in her sublime dignity.”
Other Popes have promoted devotion to Saint Joseph, including Blessed Pope Pius IX, Saint Pius X and Pope Pius XI. In our times when vice, Satanism, and apostasy are found everywhere, we need every help we can get. Saint Joseph is not any ordinary saint, but the highest saint of history after Our Lady. It pleases her and her Divine Son very much that we honor him and have recourse to his intercession.
2. Saint Joseph is the patron saint of purity
Sexual immorality has never been so widespread. It is among the most common sins, and the one that takes the most souls to Hell, according to Our Lady of Fatima.
Saint Joseph provides the perfect example of a strong man who was also chaste. Many Church Fathers and Doctors, including Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, taught that Saint Joseph, who protected the virginal integrity of Our Lady, was himself a virgin and a man of spotless purity.
According to Catholic tradition, Our Lady spent her childhood serving God in the Temple in Jerusalem until her fourteenth year, when she was presented with several suitors for marriage. Each suitor was of the house of David and held a staff during prayers. When they stood before her, the Saint Joseph’s staff blossomed with white flowers (usually portrayed as lilies), indicating to the priest that he was the man chosen by God to be her spouse. Our Lady is the Queen of Virgins and the purest of God’s creatures, and therefore it is only fitting that the man called to be her spouse and protector would also be the most chaste of men.
3. Saint Joseph is the protector of the Holy Family and the Church
Even though Saint Joseph was less than Our Lady in grace and virtue, as her husband and stepfather of her son, he was by nature the head and the true authority of the Holy Family. If God chose Our Lady from among all women to be His Mother, it stands to reason that God chose Saint Joseph from among all men. Sacred Scripture refers to him as “a just man,” and God would only choose for the stepfather of the Word Incarnate the most manly, most prudent, most courageous, most upright, most virtuous, and most excellent man who ever lived.
It was Saint Joseph who faithfully fulfilled his role as protector of the Holy Family. He provided for them through his labor as a carpenter and protected them from danger during the flight to Egypt. As Leo XIII wrote: “It is, then, natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection, he should now cover with the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend the Church of Jesus Christ.”
In our times, the Church is assaulted from without and betrayed from within. Devotion to Saint Joseph is more necessary than ever in our times of confusion.
4. Saint Joseph is a model of true, Catholic manliness
Saint Joseph was the epitome of manly virtues. He was a true father, not of the flesh, but Our Lord’s legal stepfather. He was the model of self-sacrifice, strength, authority, goodness, and virtue put at the service of those under his care. Most importantly, he was a man of great love of God. He didn’t live for himself but was full of zeal for God’s great plan of salvation unfolding before his eyes. He was undoubtedly a loving spouse and father, full of goodness and compassion. At the same time, he was a man of total intransigence against evil, sin, and the enemies of God and of His Church. In a word, Saint Joseph was the perfect knight. For these reasons, Saint Joseph is a perfect model for men in a society that has forgotten true Catholic manliness.
5. Saint Joseph was a man of obedience and confidence
A false model of manliness today affirms that a real man is like a Hollywood actor who obeys only his own whims and vices. This type of man depends on no one except himself and his own strength and qualities. Submission to another is only for the weak and foolish.
Nothing could be further from true Catholic manliness. The Scriptures don’t record any words spoken by Saint Joseph. Instead, God sent angels to communicate with him in dreams. But what stands out in his life was his spirit of obedience. He did not presume to question or demand further explanation of God’s commands; he simply obeyed them, immediately and completely. It takes manly courage and love of God to obey lawful authority and sacrifice one’s own will to that of another.
Saint Joseph was also a man of confidence in God. When he saw that Our Lady was with child, he confided in God even though he did not yet understand the mystery of the Incarnation. When he could not find any better shelter than the stables of Bethlehem for the birth of the Infant Jesus, he never doubted Divine Providence. When the angel told him to flee into Egypt, he never hesitated for a moment. Men today—who often swing between proud self-confidence and paralyzing insecurity—would do well to imitate Saint Joseph’s obedience to and confidence in God.
Saint Joseph was truly a man for all times, a model husband, father, protector, provider, and saint. May men today grow in devotion to him and fight back against the lies of the sexual revolution.