The Most Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

August 9, 2021 • 4 min

From St. Joseph’s Life, Virtues, Privileges, Power, page 310
By Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P.

St. Joseph the Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin.

“And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ … When as His Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. … behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. i. 6-20.)

Reflect on the intimate union between husband and wife, and consider then the purity and sanctity of St. Joseph, who was chosen by God to be the spouse of Mary Immaculate. It is from Jesus and Mary we learn the glories of Joseph.

According to the Old Testament the Blessed Virgin was “all fair,” “without spot,” “beautiful,” “sweet and comely,” “the Perfect One,” “the only one.” The Gospel styles her “full of grace,” and proclaims that she had “found grace with God,” that the “Lord is with her,” and in no fewer than in four passages pronounces her “blessed.”

The Precious Blood of the Sacred Heart of Jesus had its source in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Mary is the Mother of God; and hence she is the purest, the holiest, the most immaculate soul ever created by the hands of the Almighty. In one word, Mary is nearer and dearer to God than all the Saints and Angels put together.

God was so delighted, if we may so speak, with the work of His hands, and so jealous of Mary’s honour and privileges, that He would choose none to be her spouse but the purest, the chastest, the most holy man that ever saw the light of day. This man was St. Joseph. Let us hear the sayings of the Saints on St. Joseph as the spouse of Mary.

St. Thomas of Aquin says: “If the Saviour, in dying on the cross, wished to leave His Blessed Mother under the protection of His virgin disciple how could He allow her spouse to be anything but the purest of men?” (In. Epes. ad. Gal.)

“Husband of Mary,” writes St. John Damascene, “than which nothing else greater can be said.”

St. Bernard, writes: “Joseph was made like unto Mary, his spouse. Spouse of Mary, that is, of the most sublime of creatures, the delight of the Father and the Son. Spouse of Mary, one heart and one soul with that soul, who bore in her heart the soul of the Son of God. Spouse of Mary, chief of the Queen of the world, for “the man is the woman’s chief.” Spouse of Mary, master of this august Mistress, who understood this precept of Genesis, “Thou shalt be under the power of man.” … What more can we say when we declare that he is like unto Mary his virginal spouse.”

The Bollandists write: "The Evangelist St. Matthew seems to have accumulated on St. Joseph all praise that can be conceived or spoken when he said “Husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”

St. Leonard of Port Maurice writes: “The Evangelists say very little of the virtues of St. Joseph, but when they call him the spouse of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, they give him the most glorious title possible, for he was nearest in every way to Mary, the purest creature ever made by God Almighty. It is thus from Mary we learn the glories of St. Joseph.”