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Eric S's avatar

Like I said he already had a liturgical Feast before the New World was evangelized. And for my money it was in the 19th century that the real propagation of what we think of as the modern devotion to Saint Joseph took off. And this was likely because of the introduction of divorce post French Revolution and the passage of laws that portended the destruction of the family.

There are a lot of saints who didn't have liturgical expression at Rome in the earliest centuries. People like Saint Justin Martyr, Saint Irenaeus, etc. didn't find their way onto the calendar until fairly recently even though they were very ancient and very well celebrated in the ancient world. The earliest liturgical celebrations, outside of the Feasts of Our Lord, were of the martyrs and usually fairly local martyrs.

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C Kokenes's avatar

Sure. No objection to all of that.

My point was not that but rather the rapid *ascendancy* of his cultus, if you read my comments again. Pope Sixtus IV approved the feast in 1480 and inside of 100 years (a remarkably short time in ecclesiastical history) St Joseph was declared patron of the New World. Why the ‘New World’?

There is a reason, which I have already given. It’s not my original idea, I read it in a scholarly study. I cannot remember where but the pieces all fit.

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Eric S's avatar

In all honesty I don't really have any experience of Saint Joseph as 'patron of the New World'. I'd never actually heard of it until you mentioned it here. Who did it I'm not sure but to me that is no one of his titles that has ever really gained any traction in the Church or if it did it has fallen out of use. Much more prominent is that of his wife, Our Lady of Guadalupe, as patroness of the Americas

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C Kokenes's avatar

And you’re quite right about Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is the patroness of Latin America and much beloved & venerated. As she should be.

I don’t think though that her importance negates the relative importance of St Joseph in the evangelization of the New World. If anything, they are complimentary.

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C Kokenes's avatar

“Devotion to St. Joseph was firmly established in the New World within the first decade of the conquest of Mexico (begun in 1518 and completed in 1521). It became so widespread that in 1555 Joseph was proclaimed patron of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (present-day Mexico, Central America, and the Philippines). In 1524, New France (Canada) followed suit and chose Joseph as its patron. St. Joseph is indeed the "Patron Saint of the New World."

In ‘Patron Saint of the New World; - Spanish American Colonial Images of St. Joseph’

St Josephs University Press

The book goes into greater detail on how this happened with the evangelization of the indigenous.

Considering that his feast day was only approved by Pope Sixtus IV in 1480, I believe it safe to say that the New World was the start of his rapid ascent to the title of ‘Patron of the Universal Church’ bestowed on him in 1870 by Pope Pius IX.

I don’t doubt that Patron of the New World is not used much in our day ~ we don’t call the Americas that very often anymore and it may have been more of a regional title anyway.

It is pretty clear to me but this is not a hill I’m willing to die on. You seem dead set against the very possibility of it, and that’s fine. The cultus of St Joseph was very important in the New World, it took hold very quickly and very soon after his feast day was formally established ~ that much at least, I hope we can agree on. 😊

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Eric S's avatar

I'm not sure even on a Catholic timescale that 1480 to 1870 is exactly rapid. And it isn't like he was exactly an unknown figure before 1480, he does appear in the first pages of the New Testament after all. But I'll leave it there. Be well.

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C Kokenes's avatar

For clarification, I was referring to 1480 to 1555.

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