Joseph Sanctified before His Birth

It is now an article of our faith that the Blessed Virgin by a singular privilege was granted prevenient grace and preserved in entire immunity from original sin. From Holy Scripture we also learn that some souls through the divine predilection, as those of Jeremias and of the Baptist, were sanctified before they saw the light of day. Now, what shall we say of Joseph? Since in dignity and holiness he is inferior to Mary, we cannot assume with any certainty that God granted to him the same privilege as to her; and the Church has never made any utterance on the subject. Still, Joseph surpasses all the other saints in dignity and sanctity; we are, therefore, free to conjecture that, although this is not signified in Scripture, he must have been sanctified before his birth earlier than any of them, for all the holy doctors agree in saying that there was no grace conceded to any other saint, except Mary, which was not granted to Joseph. As Mary, above all, was nearest to Jesus, so Joseph was nearest to Mary; and for the sake of Jesus, and also for Mary’s sake, we may justly conclude that to Joseph must have been conceded a privilege second only to hers.

We have shown what a great end God had in view in the creation of St. Joseph, who was to be associated with the mystery of the Incarnation, and was thus comprised in the decree of man’s redemption. Hence it is that he was pre-announced in Holy Scripture, and ennobled with so high a genealogy. Now, in order to correspond to so lofty a vocation, which, after that of the Virgin Mother, was superior to all others, whether of angels or saints, Joseph must needs have been sanctified in a most eminent degree, that he might be worthy to take his place in this most sublime order of the Hypostatic Union, in which Jesus held the first place and Mary the second. And, indeed, we find it to be the constant doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as of all the Fathers, that those whom God elects and designs for some great work, He also prepares and disposes so as to fit them for its performance; and the Angelic Doctor adds that God gives to each grace proportioned to the office which he is chosen to fill.¹ St. Bernardine of Siena lays down the same doctrine, and he then proceeds to say that this was verified in the person of St. Joseph, who was the reputed father of Jesus, the true spouse of the Queen of the world and Lady of angels, and was elected by the Eternal Father to be the faithful guardian of His two greatest treasures.² If, then, Joseph was elected to such an office, which, after the divine maternity, has none to equal it in Heaven or on earth, he must have received of God for its discharge a fullness of corresponding grace, superior to that vouchsafed to any other saint.

The election of God is from eternity, but sanctification takes place in time; and this sanctification is not accomplished in all at the same hour. With some it has been late, as with St. Paul. Some have been sanctified at the sixth hour, some at the third, some at the first hour, and some even before birth, as in the cases just mentioned of Jeremias and the Baptist. This is a marvelous effect of the Divine Goodness, loving to communicate Itself to a soul as early as possible and with the greatest abundance of Its gifts. But to whom more than to St. Joseph can It have loved thus to communicate Itself? In his case truly may we apply the words of the Psalmist: “Thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness; Thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stones”.³ The grace of the Holy Spirit can have tolerated no delay in him, and, since God had prepared for Joseph the greatest grace of sanctification after Mary, He would not have awaited his birth to take possession of his soul, but in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, who was to be his reputed son, would have diffused into his heart such a flood of grace even from his mother’s womb as to efface every stain of original sin and array it with the most splendid gifts, fitting it to be the abode of the Divine Majesty.

There are two ways in which this sanctification might be effected. His beautiful soul at the moment of its infusion into the body might have been guarded from contracting the stain of original sin; or at the second moment, that is, when the stain was scarcely contracted, it might have been instantaneously canceled and purged by the grace of the future Savior.

With regard to the first of these opinions, there have not been wanting pious writers who have held that Joseph was entirely exempt from original sin. The seraphic Bernardine de Bustis, a most devout doctor, who flourished about the middle of the 15th century, and therefore previous to the Council of Trent, says that among the fervent clients of St. Joseph some did not hesitate to affirm that solely for the sake of Jesus, of whom he was to be the putative father, and of Mary, of whom he was to be the most pure spouse, he was not only sanctified in his mother’s womb but, moreover, preserved from contracting original sin.⁴ The said doctor neither approves nor condemns this opinion, adding that it was known only to God, who from all men chose Joseph for His reputed father and for the spouse of His most holy Mother. A century later, Giacomo Lobbezio, of the Company of Jesus, also relates how some from their devotion to St. Joseph would maintain that the privilege conceded to his Blessed Spouse was also accorded to himself. This accomplished theologian adds that he, too, would willingly subscribe to such a belief in honor of this most holy Patriarch, but that he could not venture to do so unless he had the authority and witness of the holy Fathers and an intimation from the Church and its Sovereign Pontiffs, which as yet we have not had.⁵ In the meantime the immediate rule of our faith is the Church, the infallible teacher of truth; and, however desirous we may be to see all the singular merits and privileges of our saint exalted, we must not extend the range of even pious opinion beyond what tradition or reason warrants.

Coming now to the other way in which Joseph’s sanctification in his mother’s womb may have been effected, namely, at the second moment after his conception, as theologians would say—the Blessed Virgin having been sanctified at the first—it seems reasonable to believe it; because it was not becoming that the putative father of Him who came to take away the sins of the world should remain for any considerable space of time with the stain of sin upon him; it was not becoming that he who was to bear in his arms, to tend, and feed Him who came to vanquish Hell, should have himself remained long under the yoke and slavery of Satan. It seems only reasonable to believe that the Divine Savior bestowed on him His prevenient grace. The mind of the Doctors of the Church has been so freely expressed on this point that it may be reckoned as a common opinion. Gerson, who was most devout to St. Joseph, and who exerted himself so vigorously for the extinction of the schism which afflicted the Church during his time, used loudly to assert that in order to remove this tribulation it was above all things necessary to honor and glorify in the highest possible degree the great Patriarch, St. Joseph. In the beautiful discourse which he delivered before the Council of Constance on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,⁶ he made the most splendid eulogium of her holy spouse, Joseph. In this sermon he openly professed that the Blessed Virgin was by a singular privilege granted prevenient grace in such wise as to preserve her from the least stain of original sin, so that she thus crushed the head of the old serpent, without having ever been trodden under foot by him. Then, referring to Joseph, he uses these words: “As Mary before her birth was sanctified in her mother’s womb, so may we believe was also her virginal spouse, Joseph”; from which observation it might have been concluded that he claimed the same immunity from original sin for St. Joseph as for the Blessed Virgin, except for the qualification which he subjoined: “although not in an altogether similar manner—quamvis non omnino similiter”. The similarity and the difference may be noted in this—that Joseph after the contraction of original sin was sanctified in the womb by the baptism of charity, baptismo flaminis, as was the Baptist and as others have been; for so we read in the Jerusalem Office of St. Joseph. From these expressions we may gather that the learned preacher was persuaded that, if Joseph was not, like the Blessed Virgin, entirely preserved from the original stain, he must nevertheless have been speedily withdrawn from the hard slavery of Satan, so that his beautiful soul, enriched with every gift, shone resplendently before God from the first moments of his life. This doctrine was preached by Gerson at the Council of Constance, in presence of the very Fathers who had deputed him to place on record the conciliar decrees; and not only had these Fathers not a word to say in opposition, but they greatly applauded his discourse and ordered it to be published, accompanied by a notice that it had been delivered before them. This commendation served to promote the support of the doctrine by the most learned theologians.

In 1522 Isidoro Isolano, a Milanese Dominican Father, who had a very great devotion to the Saint, published his Summary of the Gifts of St. Joseph, dedicating it to the Sovereign Pontiff, Adrian VI. In the 9th chapter of this work he demonstrates that the opinion that St. Joseph was sanctified in his mother’s womb may be held and piously believed.⁷ Every sanctification of this nature, he says, either is accorded on account of the future exalted dignity of the sanctified, or is ordained with a special reference to the Saint of Saints. Now, both causes eminently existed in St. Joseph, who was to be perfectly just, and was ordained, above all men, to be nearest to the Saint of Saints, Jesus. If Jeremias was sanctified before his birth because he was to prophesy expressly of Jesus, and the Baptist also because he was to point Him out present among men, who can suppose that Joseph, on account of the close knowledge he had of Jesus above all others, Mary alone excepted, and his paternal education of Him, was not also similarly privileged? If God was pleased thus to sanctify His servants, how much more His putative father, in order that he might be so reputed, and be worthy of the name! Isolano adds that, if all the world believes that the Mother of Jesus was raised to the highest degree of sanctity in the womb on account of the dignity of her Divine Son (and it is now an article of faith that she was preserved from the stain of original sin from the very first moment of her conception), why may we not believe that Joseph was likewise raised to a certain degree of sanctity in his mother’s womb, since he was chosen by God to be called His father? This, he adds, was also befitting the parity of the marriage between the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph.

Cornelius à Lapide treats of the same question, and after having noticed that several of the Fathers were of opinion that this privilege was accorded, not only to our saint, but to others whom he names, he comes to this conclusion—that God might concede this privilege to more than one, if He were so pleased, but, if to any of those specified He did in fact grant it, then, assuredly, it would seem that He would not have denied it to St. Joseph, the spouse of His Blessed Mother.⁸

St. Joseph, then, we see, is always, in the opinion of the Doctors of the Church, held to be, next to the Blessed Virgin, the purest and the most holy among creatures, and worthy, for the sake of the Divine Son and His Mother, to be liberated and purged from original sin immediately after his conception. And this doctrine, professed by great doctors, and tacitly approved by the Church—a doctrine become familiar to preachers in their pulpits, to theologians in their academies, and to sacred writers in their works—may be considered as generally held and believed by devout Christians.