Novena
The St. Joseph Novena
A novena to St. Joseph with Pope Leo XIII's prayer, March 10 to 18, for work, home, family and a happy death.
The St. Joseph novena is nine days asking St. Joseph's intercession, most often March 10 to 18, ending on the eve of his March 19 solemnity. There is no one official text; Pope Leo XIII's prayer to him, said once a day, is a sound form.
Quick facts
- Prayed to:
- St. Joseph
- Feast day:
- March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph; also May 1, St. Joseph the Worker
- When to pray:
- Begin on March 10 so that the ninth day falls on March 18, the eve of the March 19 solemnity. Those praying about work often use the May 1 feast instead and begin on April 22.
- Prayed for:
- Work and employment, providing for a family, the sale or purchase of a home, fathers, and a peaceful death.
The St. Joseph novena prayer (said on each of the nine days)
No single text is the official St. Joseph novena, and several good ones are in use. The prayer below is the one the Church has used most: Pope Leo XIII wrote it for his encyclical Quamquam pluries, dated August 15, 1889, and asked that it be added to the Rosary every October. This is the English translation printed with the encyclical on vatican.va. Name your intention, say the prayer once a day for the nine days, and add the day’s reflection below if you wish.
To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction,
and having implored the help of thy thrice holy Spouse,
we now, with hearts filled with confidence,
earnestly beg thee also to take us under thy protection.
By that charity wherewith thou wert united to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God,
and by that fatherly love with which thou didst cherish the Child Jesus,
we beseech thee and we humbly pray
that thou wilt look down with gracious eye upon that inheritance
which Jesus Christ purchased by His blood,
and wilt succor us in our need by thy power and strength.
Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family,
the chosen off-spring of Jesus Christ.
Keep from us, O most loving Father, all blight of error and corruption.
Aid us from on high, most valiant defender,
in this conflict with the powers of darkness.
And even as of old thou didst rescue the Child Jesus from the peril of His life,
so now defend God's Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity.
Shield us ever under thy patronage,
that, following thine example and strengthened by thy help,
we may live a holy life, die a happy death,
and attain to everlasting bliss in Heaven.
Amen.
Most prayer books now print a newer translation; use whichever you know. Every line is a petition: even “aid us … in this conflict with the powers of darkness” asks St. Joseph to help us, and addresses nothing else. The Memorare to St. Joseph, Pope Francis’s prayers and the full Litany are on the page of prayers to St. Joseph.
When to start the St. Joseph novena: March 10, or April 22
The Solemnity of St. Joseph is March 19. To end the novena on its eve, begin on March 10:
- Day 1: March 10
- Day 2: March 11
- Day 3: March 12
- Day 4: March 13
- Day 5: March 14
- Day 6: March 15
- Day 7: March 16
- Day 8: March 17
- Day 9: March 18, the eve of the solemnity
For work, many pray it instead before the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1: begin on April 22 and end on April 30. And like every novena it can begin on any day it is needed.
Pope Leo XIII, in the same encyclical, commended the custom of giving the whole month of March to St. Joseph with a daily act of devotion; where that could not be done, a triduum of prayer before the feast; and keeping March 19 holy even where it is not a day of obligation. The Wednesdays and the Seven Sundays kept in his honor are explained on the page of prayers to St. Joseph.
Day 1 (March 10): Renowned offspring of David
The Litany of St. Joseph begins his titles with his ancestry, and so does the angel: “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20). The first words God sent him were “don’t be afraid”. He had a decision to make and a plan already chosen, and he listened. Bring your intention today, and the fear that comes with it. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, son of David,
the angel told you not to be afraid,
and you did what God asked.
I bring you this intention: (name it),
and the fear that comes with it.
Pray that I may hear what God asks of me, and do it.
Amen.
Day 2 (March 11): Spouse of the Mother of God
“Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself” (Matthew 1:24). He took Mary into his home and did not leave her side, through the census, the stable, the exile and the long quiet years at Nazareth. Pray today for your marriage, or for the marriages you carry in your heart: the strained ones, the new ones, the ones that have ended. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, faithful husband of Mary,
you took her into your home and kept faith with her.
Pray for my marriage, and for (name them):
for patience, for tenderness,
and for the grace to begin again when we fail.
Amen.
Day 3 (March 12): Guardian of the Redeemer
This is one of the seven titles added to the Litany in 2021, taken from St. John Paul II’s letter on St. Joseph, Redemptoris Custos. The Gospel shows what it meant: “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13). Pray today for children: your own, the ones in danger, the ones no one is guarding. For more, see the prayer of protection over my children. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, guardian of the Redeemer,
you rose in the night to keep the Child safe.
Watch over my children, and over (name them).
Pray for every child in danger tonight,
and for everyone charged with keeping them safe.
Amen.
Day 4 (March 13): Joseph most just
Matthew’s first description of him is a single word, and it is a verdict: “Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly” (Matthew 1:19). Righteous, and merciful in the same breath: he would keep the law without shaming anyone. Pray today about a decision you have to make where honesty and kindness seem to pull in different directions. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, most just,
you would not do wrong, and you would not shame anyone.
Pray for me in this decision: (name it).
Ask God to make me honest and kind at once,
and to show me the way through.
Amen.
Day 5 (March 14): Model of workers
His neighbors knew Jesus as “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55). The Catechism explains why work belongs in prayer: “By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work” (CCC 2427). Pray today for your work, or for the work you are looking for, and for everyone out of work. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, worker of Nazareth,
you earned your family’s bread with your hands.
Pray for me in my work, or in my search for it.
Ask God for honest work that is enough,
and for everyone who has none today.
Amen.
Day 6 (March 15): Support in difficulties
Another of the 2021 titles, this one from Pope Francis’s Patris Corde. On the way home from Egypt, Joseph learned who was ruling Judea, “he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth” (Matthew 2:22–23). He was afraid, and he found another way. Pope Francis calls this Joseph’s “creative courage”: the difficulty did not stop him, it made him think. Ask today for that courage in your own difficulty. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, support in difficulties,
you were afraid, and you did not give up;
you found another road home.
Pray for me in this difficulty: (name it).
Ask God to give me courage, and a way through.
Amen.
Day 7 (March 16): Patron of exiles
Also added in 2021. “He arose and took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod” (Matthew 2:14–15). The Holy Family knew what it is to have no room, “because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7), and then to live as foreigners. Pray today for refugees and migrants, for anyone without a home or looking for one, and for anyone who has to leave a home behind. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, patron of exiles,
you led your family into a foreign land and home again.
Pray for everyone far from home tonight,
for everyone looking for a place to live,
and for me in this: (name it).
Amen.
Day 8 (March 17): Pillar of families
When Jesus was twelve, Joseph and Mary lost him for three days in Jerusalem. Mary’s first words when they found him were for both of them: “Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you” (Luke 2:48). Then Jesus “went down with them and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them” (Luke 2:51). Pray today for your family, and for any son or daughter who feels lost to you, in whatever sense. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, pillar of families,
you searched for Jesus until you found him.
Pray for my family, and for (name them).
Where one of us is lost, help us keep looking;
where we are divided, bring us home to one another.
Amen.
Day 9 (March 18, the eve of the solemnity): Patron of the dying
Tradition holds that St. Joseph died with Jesus and Mary beside him, and the Church asks us, in preparing for our own death, “to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death” (CCC 1014). “Precious in the LORD’s sight is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). End the novena by asking for a good death, for yourself and for anyone dying tonight. Tomorrow is his solemnity; if you can, go to Mass and give thanks there. Say the novena prayer, then:
St. Joseph, patron of the dying,
pray for me, that when my hour comes
I may be ready, at peace with God,
with Jesus and Mary near.
Pray tonight for everyone who is dying,
and especially for (name).
Amen.
A St. Joseph novena for a job, or to sell a house
More people pray this novena about work than about anything else, and it suits him. Pope Leo XIII wrote in 1889 that for workers and artisans, recourse to St. Joseph is “a special right”, and Pope Francis, writing during the pandemic in Patris Corde, asked St. Joseph the Worker to help us see that no family “should be without work”.
Pray it concretely. Name the job, the interview, the sum you need, and keep the same words for nine days. And do the work alongside the prayer: the applications, the calls, the advice you have been avoiding. The Catechism quotes the old rule, “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you” (CCC 2834).
To sell a house, pray the nine days for it by name. A short prayer for a home, and what the Church says about burying a statue of St. Joseph, are on the page of prayers to St. Joseph.
Many pair the novena with a morning prayer for the workday, or, when money has run short, a prayer for financial breakthrough.
Is there a St. Joseph novena that “never fails”?
You will find one advertised: the so-called ancient prayer to St. Joseph, printed with the promise that it “has never been known to fail”. The prayer is a good one; its text, and why the Church attaches no such promise to any prayer (CCC 2111), are on the page of prayers to St. Joseph.
Boldness in asking is another matter, and it is welcome. Pope Francis has prayed every day for over forty years a prayer that tells St. Joseph, “Let it not be said that I invoked you in vain”. That is the boldness of a child with a father, not the terms of a contract. Ask like that, for nine days, and leave the outcome with God.
“Who arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt…”
Go deeper
What is this novena?
The St. Joseph Novena is nine days of prayer asking the foster father of Jesus to intercede. Joseph is one of the most heavily invoked saints in the Church and one of the quietest men in Scripture: he is given no recorded words at all. What he is given is a series of decisions, each made under pressure and each made correctly, and that is why people bring him practical problems. His patronage follows directly from his life. He is patron of workers because he was one, of fathers because he raised a son who was not his own, of the universal Church because he was charged with protecting what mattered most, and of a happy death because tradition holds he died with Jesus and Mary beside him. People pray his novena about employment, about providing for a household, about selling a house, and about their own fathers. There are several St. Joseph novenas in circulation rather than one official text, which is worth knowing before you go looking. Some are tied to the March 19 solemnity, some to St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, and some are prayed at any time. None of them is more valid than another. What they share is the character of the man they address. Joseph novenas tend to be plain and undramatic, which suits him. If you are bringing him something ordinary and heavy, a job, a mortgage, a father who is ill, you are using this novena exactly as generations have used it.
Keeping the nine days
Choose one text and stay with it for the nine days rather than switching between versions. Your parish, a Catholic publisher, or your own missal will have one. Pick a fixed time and keep it. Name your intention on the first day and keep it unchanged. If you are praying about work or money, be specific with the request rather than general. Joseph’s whole record is a series of concrete decisions, and vagueness is not a virtue here. If you miss a day, continue rather than restarting. The discipline is perseverance, not an unbroken chain.
Joseph worked with his hands every day of his life. For the start of yours: a morning prayer for the workday — offering the day’s work before it begins.
Praying the novena over money that has run short? Many pair it with a prayer for financial breakthrough — asking God for what the household needs.
Questions people ask
When is the St. Joseph novena prayed?
Most commonly in the nine days before the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19, which means beginning on March 10 and ending on March 18, the eve. Those praying about employment often use the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1 instead and pray from April 22 to April 30.
What is the 9-day novena prayer to St. Joseph?
There is no one official text. The prayer used most is Pope Leo XIII’s “To thee, O blessed Joseph”, from his 1889 encyclical Quamquam pluries, said once a day for nine days with the same intention. It is printed in full on this page, with a short reflection for each day.
How do I pray the St. Joseph novena?
Choose one intention and name it on the first day. Each day, say the novena prayer once, add the day’s reflection if you wish, and keep the same words for all nine days. If you miss a day, continue rather than restarting; the discipline is perseverance, not an unbroken chain.
What is the St. Joseph novena for?
Work and employment, providing for a family, buying or selling a home, fathers, and the grace of a peaceful death. His patronage comes directly from his life as a working man who was given responsibility for a household.
Can I pray the St. Joseph novena for a job or to sell a house?
Yes; those are the intentions it is most often prayed for. Name the job or the house concretely, and do your part alongside the prayer. Burying a statue of St. Joseph to sell a house is a folk custom, not a practice of the Church, and nothing depends on it.
Is there a St. Joseph novena that never fails?
No. The “ancient prayer to St. Joseph” is often printed with the claim that it has never been known to fail and with promises of protection from sudden death, but the Church attaches no guarantee to any prayer, and its claimed first-century origin has very little historical evidence behind it.
Is there one official St. Joseph novena?
No. Several versions are in circulation, some tied to the March solemnity and some to the May feast, and none is more valid than another. Choose one and stay with it for the nine days rather than switching between texts.
Why is St. Joseph invoked for a happy death?
Tradition holds that he died with Jesus and Mary at his side, which the Church has long treated as the image of a peaceful death. The patronage follows from that rather than from anything recorded in Scripture, and the Catechism asks us to entrust ourselves to him, “the patron of a happy death” (CCC 1014).
