St. Joseph Feast Day: March 19 Traditions and Prayers

The feast day of St. Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, is March 19, a solemnity of the Church. A second feast, St. Joseph the Worker, is kept on May 1. On St. Joseph’s Day, Italian and Italian-American families build St. Joseph’s Tables piled with bread and sweets for the poor, bakeries fill with zeppole, and in Italy, Spain and Portugal it is also Father’s Day. Below are the dates for 2027, the meaning of the feast, how to celebrate it, the St. Joseph’s Table tradition, and the classic prayers to St. Joseph.

When is St. Joseph’s Day?

St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary: March 19, a solemnity. In 2027 it falls on Friday, March 19. Because it is a solemnity, the usual Lenten Friday abstinence from meat does not apply that day (canon 1251).
St. Joseph the Worker: May 1, an optional memorial, added by Pope Pius XII in 1955. In 2027 it is a Saturday.
If March 19 falls on a Sunday of Lent, the solemnity moves to Monday, March 20; if it falls in Holy Week, it moves to the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

The whole month of March is traditionally dedicated to St. Joseph, as May is to Mary and June to the Sacred Heart. Wednesdays are also his day of the week.

What the feast celebrates

St. Joseph was the just man of Nazareth chosen by God to be the husband of Mary and the guardian of Jesus. He received the angel’s message in dreams and obeyed at once: he took Mary into his home, named the child Jesus, protected the family on the flight into Egypt, and raised Jesus in Nazareth as a carpenter. The Gospel of the feast:

Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately.
But while he thought on these things, 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.
And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name JESUS. For he shall save his people from their sins.
Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying:
Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife.

In 1870 Blessed Pius IX declared St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church, and Pope Francis dedicated a Year of St. Joseph from December 2020 to December 2021. In the Old Testament, when Egypt was starving, Pharaoh told the people, “Go to Joseph,” words the Church applies to St. Joseph:

And when there also they began to be famished, the people cried to Pharao for food. And he said to them: Go to Joseph: and do all that he shall say to you.

The St. Joseph’s Table

The tavola di San Giuseppe comes from Sicily. According to tradition, during a terrible drought and famine in the Middle Ages the people prayed to St. Joseph for rain, promising to honor him with a feast if he saved them. The rain came, the fava bean crop survived, and they kept their promise by preparing a table of food and giving it to the poor.

Today parishes and families still build St. Joseph altars or tables in Sicily, New Orleans and Italian-American communities:

The table has three tiers, for the Holy Trinity, with a statue or image of St. Joseph at the top, flowers, candles and palms.
It is covered with breads baked in symbolic shapes (a staff, a beard, a cross, a heart), cookies, cakes and zeppole, fruit, fish and vegetable dishes. Because the feast falls in Lent, the food is meatless.
A fava bean (the “lucky bean”) is given to guests; keep it in your wallet or pantry as a reminder that you will never lack what you need.
The priest blesses the table, and the food is shared with everyone and given to the poor. In some places, children dressed as the Holy Family knock on the door (tupa tupa) and are welcomed to eat first.

Other ways to celebrate

Go to Mass. March 19 is not a holy day of obligation in the United States, but it is a solemnity worth attending.
Bake or buy zeppole or sfinci di San Giuseppe, the cream-filled pastries of the day.
Honor fathers. In Italy, Spain and Portugal, March 19 is Father’s Day; bless your father or pray for him.
Pray the novena to St. Joseph from March 10 to 18, or the litany of St. Joseph on the day. See the St. Joseph novena and the Litany of St. Joseph.
On May 1, pray for workers, the unemployed and those who need a job.

Prayers for St. Joseph’s Day

To thee, O blessed Joseph

The prayer Pope Leo XIII asked Catholics to add to the Rosary in October, from Father Lasance’s With God (1911):

To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction and, after imploring the help of thy most holy spouse, we confidently invoke thy patronage also.
By that affection which united thee to the immaculate virgin Mother of God, and by the fatherly love with which thou didst embrace the infant Jesus, look down, we beseech thee, with gracious eyes on the precious inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by His blood, and help us in our necessities by thy powerful intercession.
Protect, O most provident guardian of the Holy Family, the elect children of Jesus Christ;
ward off from us, O most loving father, every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
be propitious to us from heaven, O most powerful protector, in this our struggle with the powers of darkness;
and as thou didst once rescue the child Jesus from the greatest peril to His life, so now defend God’s holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity.
Finally, shield every one of us with thy patronage, that, imitating thy example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting happiness in heaven.
Amen.

Memorare to St. Joseph

Remember, O most pure spouse of the blessed Virgin Mary, my sweet protector, St. Joseph!
that no one ever had recourse to thy protection or implored thy aid without obtaining relief.
Confiding therefore in thy goodness, I come before thee, and humbly supplicate thee.
Oh, despise not my petitions, foster-father of the Redeemer, but graciously receive them.
Amen.

Prayer to St. Joseph the Worker (May 1)

Glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in a spirit of penance for the expiation of my many sins;
to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my inclinations;
to work with gratitude and joy, considering it an honor to employ and develop, by means of labor, the gifts received from God;
to work with order, peace, moderation, and patience, without ever recoiling before weariness or difficulties;
to work, above all, with purity of intention, and with detachment from self, having always death before my eyes and the account which I must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God.
All for Jesus, all for Mary, all after thy example, O patriarch Joseph.
Such shall be my watchword in life and in death.
Amen.

A family prayer for St. Joseph’s Day

Written for this page:

St. Joseph, guardian of the Holy Family,
on your feast we thank God for your faithful love for Jesus and Mary.
Watch over our family as you watched over yours.
Bless the fathers among us, provide for our needs,
protect us in danger and keep us close to Jesus.
Teach us to welcome the poor at our table as you welcomed the Son of God into your home. Amen.

Frequently asked questions

When is St. Joseph’s feast day?

March 19. St. Joseph the Worker is also celebrated on May 1.

Is St. Joseph’s Day a holy day of obligation?

Not in the United States, but it is a solemnity of the universal Church and a holy day of obligation in some countries.

Do Catholics have to abstain from meat on St. Joseph’s Day?

No. When March 19 falls on a Friday of Lent, the solemnity takes precedence and the Friday abstinence does not apply, though many families keep the traditional meatless St. Joseph’s Table anyway.

What is the St. Joseph’s Table?

A Sicilian tradition of a three-tiered altar of meatless food, breads and sweets in honor of St. Joseph, blessed by a priest and shared with the poor.

More about St. Joseph

Texts and sources

Prayers: F. X. Lasance, With God (1911), Devotions to St. Joseph, public domain (Wikisource).
Scripture: Matthew 1:19–24; Genesis 41:55, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner), public domain.
Code of Canon Law, canon 1251 (Friday abstinence and solemnities); calendar dates from the General Roman Calendar.
The family prayer was written for this page.