December 8, 2020, In his apostolic letter “Patris Corde” (“With a Father’s Heart”) Pope Francis marked the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as the Patron of the Universal Church by proclaiming a “Year of Saint Joseph” beginning on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2020, and concluding on the same feast day in 2021.

Additionally, “Patris Corde” (PC) highlights the characteristics St. Joseph exemplified in his role as the foster father of Jesus Christ. Below are quotations taken from the declaration wherein Joseph is described as:

1. “A beloved father…making his life a sacrificial service to the mystery of the incarnation and its redemptive purpose” (PC 1).
2. “A tender and loving father…[teaching Jesus] to walk, taking him by the hand” (PC 2).
3. “An obedient father…Joseph did not hesitate to obey, regardless of the hardship involved…In every situation[,] Joseph declared his own ‘fiat’…” (PC 3).
4. “An accepting father…Joseph accepted Mary unconditionally. He trusted the angel’s words…set aside his own ideas in order to accept the course of events…to embrace them, take responsibility for them and make them part of his own history” (PC 4).
5. “A creatively courageous father…the carpenter of Nazareth, who was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting always in divine providence” (PC 5).
6. “A working father…a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity[,] and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labor” (PC 6).
7. “A Father in the shadows…In him, we never see frustration but only trust. His patient silence was the prelude to concrete expressions of trust. Joseph…always knew that his child was not his own but had merely been entrusted to his care” (PC 7).

Find additional information on the year of Saint Joseph.