FEAST DAY: MAY 1
Though his principal feast is March 19, St. Joseph also is honored for his labors as a carpenter in providing for his family’s needs in Nazareth. The carpentry trade in first-century Palestine covered building houses, which were mostly made of wood; by tradition, Jesus joined the family business. Throughout church history, Joseph was honored as a craftsman, but this feast was set in 1956 to give Christian meaning to what had become a secular association of May 1 with labor.
Photo: A depiction of St. Joseph holding a carpenter’s square is seen in a stained-glass window in the chapel of St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue, N.Y., in this 2020 photo. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)