Prayer to Saint Joseph

Prayer · Saints & Angels

Prayers to St. Joseph

Foster father of Jesus, patron of fathers

The best-known prayer to St. Joseph is Pope Leo XIII’s, written in 1889 to follow the Rosary: “To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction” (full text below). The shortest is the prayer Pope Francis gave the Church in 2020: “Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To you God entrusted his only Son; in you Mary placed her trust; with you Christ became man. Blessed Joseph, to us too, show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life. Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage, and defend us from every evil. Amen.” Below: the Memorare to St. Joseph, the Litany of St. Joseph, and prayers for work, family, fathers and a happy death.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus, husband of Mary, faithful guardian of the Holy Family, I come to you tonight with the trust of a child to a strong and silent father.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter one, tells us that you were a righteous man. When you discovered Mary was pregnant before you were married, you did not want to expose her to public disgrace. You decided to divorce her quietly. But an angel appeared to you in a dream. Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

You did not say a single recorded word in all of Scripture. You just obeyed. You took Mary as your wife. You named the Child Jesus. You protected them from Herod by fleeing to Egypt. You taught Jesus the carpenter's trade. You provided. You watched over. You loved.

Saint Joseph, teach me your silent strength. The world is loud with men who talk too much and do too little. You did the opposite. Help me be a man, or to honor the men in my life, who do the work without needing the credit.

Saint Joseph, protect my family the way you protected the Holy Family. From every evil that would harm us. Cover us with your mantle.

Saint Joseph, patron of fathers, intercede for fathers everywhere. The ones doing well. The ones struggling. The ones absent. The ones being torn apart by divorce. The ones who never knew their own fathers and are trying to build something new.

Saint Joseph, patron of workers, intercede for everyone whose work is hard tonight. The ones whose hands ache from manual labor. The ones whose minds are exhausted from intellectual work. The ones unemployed and longing for purposeful labor. The ones overworked and longing for rest.

Saint Joseph, patron of a happy death, you who died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, intercede for me when my time comes. May I die in their arms too. May the last face I see be the face of Christ.

I pray now the prayer to Saint Joseph that has been prayed for centuries.

Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, obtain for me a pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resignation to the divine will. Be my guide, my father, and my model through life that I may merit to die as you did, in the arms of Jesus and Mary.

Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saint Joseph, protect us. Saint Joseph, teach us your silent fidelity.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Go deeper

The prayer to St. Joseph after the Rosary (Leo XIII, 1889)

3 min readPope Leo XIII wrote this prayer for his encyclical on devotion to St. Joseph, Quamquam pluries, dated August 15, 1889, and asked that it be added to the Rosary throughout October, every year.

Pope Leo XIII wrote this prayer for his encyclical on devotion to St. Joseph, Quamquam pluries, dated August 15, 1889, and asked that it be added to the Rosary throughout October, every year. Pius IX had proclaimed St. Joseph patron of the Catholic Church in 1870, and Leo gave the reason: Joseph was the spouse of Mary and was reputed the father of Jesus Christ, so the man who guarded the Holy Family is the natural protector and defender of the Church. This is the English translation printed with the encyclical on vatican.va:

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 modern translation, which begins “To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation”. The U.S. bishops note that it carries a partial indulgence and may also close other Marian devotions, not only the Rosary. Nothing in it is addressed to evil spirits: “aid us from on high … in this conflict with the powers of darkness” asks St. Joseph to help us, the same shape as every other line. The Latin, Ad te, beate Ioseph, and the reason the Litany calls him the Terror of Demons, are on St. Joseph, Terror of Demons.

The Memorare to St. Joseph

1 min readThis prayer follows, line for line, the shape of the Memorare to Our Lady: remember; no one who came to you was left unaided; I come to you; hear me.

This prayer follows, line for line, the shape of the Memorare to Our Lady: remember; no one who came to you was left unaided; I come to you; hear me. EWTN and most prayer books print it without an author. This is EWTN’s text:

Remember, O most chaste spouse of the Virgin Mary,

that never was it known that anyone who implored your help

and sought your intercession were left unassisted.

Full of confidence in your power I fly unto you

and beg your protection.

Despise not O Guardian of the Redeemer my humble supplication,

but in your bounty, hear and answer me.

Amen.

“Never was it known” is the prayer’s confidence, not a guarantee the Church attaches to it: it says what those who pray it have found, and it asks rather than demands. The title in its last line, Guardian of the Redeemer, is the one St. John Paul II gave his 1989 apostolic exhortation on St. Joseph, Redemptoris Custos; since 2021 it is also a line of the Litany.

Pope Francis’s prayers to St. Joseph (Patris Corde, 2020)

2 min readOn December 8, 2020, the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph’s proclamation as patron of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Patris Corde, “with a father’s heart”.

On December 8, 2020, the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph’s proclamation as patron of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Patris Corde, “with a father’s heart”. It ends with the short prayer quoted at the top of this page. In a footnote he shares another: every day for over forty years, after Lauds, he has prayed a prayer to St. Joseph from a nineteenth-century French prayer book, one that in his words “even poses a certain challenge to Saint Joseph”:

Glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph,

whose power makes the impossible possible,

come to my aid in these times of anguish and difficulty.

Take under your protection

the serious and troubling situations that I commend to you,

that they may have a happy outcome.

My beloved father, all my trust is in you.

Let it not be said that I invoked you in vain,

and since you can do everything with Jesus and Mary,

show me that your goodness is as great as your power.

Amen.

It is a bold prayer, and deliberately so: the boldness of a child who trusts his father, not the terms of a contract. It asks for “a happy outcome” and leaves the outcome to God. People bringing an impossible situation to St. Joseph often pair it with the prayer to St. Jude, the Church’s other saint of hard cases.

The “ancient prayer to St. Joseph” and the claim that it “has never been known to fail”

2 min readThis prayer circulates on holy cards and online as the “ancient” or “unfailing” prayer to St. Joseph.

This prayer circulates on holy cards and online as the “ancient” or “unfailing” prayer to St. Joseph. The prayer itself is a good one. This is the wording EWTN prints, under the title “Prayer for St. Joseph’s Protection”:

Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so prompt, so strong,

before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession,

and obtain for me from your Divine Son

all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power,

I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of fathers.

Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms;

I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart.

Press him in my name and kiss his fine head for me

and ask him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath.

St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for me.

Amen.

The claims that travel with it are another matter. The printed versions usually add that the prayer was found in the fiftieth year of Our Lord; that in 1505 the Pope sent it to the Emperor Charles as he went into battle; that whoever reads it, hears it or carries it will never die a sudden death, drown, be poisoned, or be overpowered in battle; that it should be said for nine mornings; and that it has never been known to fail. Aleteia, which publishes the prayer, notes that there is very little historical evidence it dates back to the first century; it appears in prayer books of the early twentieth century.

The Church makes none of those promises about any prayer. To treat a prayer’s effect as depending on reading it, carrying it or saying it a set number of times is what the Catechism calls superstition (CCC 2111). What the Church does ask of St. Joseph is a good death, and she asks it openly: she encourages us “to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death” (CCC 1014). Pray the prayer. Leave the guarantees on the holy card.

Prayer to St. Joseph the Worker, for a job, and to sell a house

2 min readSt. Joseph earned his family’s bread with his hands; his neighbors knew Jesus as “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55).

St. Joseph earned his family’s bread with his hands; his neighbors knew Jesus as “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55). Leo XIII wrote in 1889 that for workers and artisans, recourse to Joseph is “a special right”, and Pope Pius XII proposed him as patron of workers in an address on May 1, 1955; May 1 is now kept as the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. The Catechism explains why work belongs in prayer at all: “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).

St. Joseph, carpenter of Nazareth,

you knew long days and honest tiredness,

and what it is to provide for a family.

Pray for me in my work (or: in my search for work).

Ask God to give me work that is honest and enough,

the patience to do it well,

and the humility to ask for help when I need it.

And when the day is done, let me rest, as you did,

in the company of Jesus and Mary.

Amen.

For a home, or to sell a house. People ask St. Joseph’s help with a house because he knew what it was to need one: in Bethlehem “there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7), and he took his family into Egypt and home again. You may have heard of burying a small statue of St. Joseph in the garden to sell a house. It is a folk custom, not a practice of the Church, and Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence names it among the ways Catholics can let an outward sign take on a life of its own. Keep a statue if it helps you remember to pray, ask him plainly, and list the house well. A line for it: St. Joseph, who found a home for Jesus and Mary, pray that we find the right home, and the right people for this one.

For the start of the workday there is a morning prayer for the workday; to pray about a job over nine days, see the St. Joseph novena.

Prayer to St. Joseph for family protection, and for fathers

1 min readGod entrusted his Son and the Virgin Mary to Joseph’s care, and he kept them safe.

God entrusted his Son and the Virgin Mary to Joseph’s care, and he kept them safe. Warned in a dream, “he arose and took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt” (Matthew 2:14). That is why families ask for his protection. Leo XIII wrote that “fathers of families find in Joseph the best personification of paternal solicitude and vigilance”, and the Catechism grounds every human fatherhood in God’s: “The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood” (CCC 2214).

St. Joseph, guardian of the Holy Family,

you kept Jesus and Mary safe in danger and in exile.

Watch over our home and everyone in it: (name them).

Keep us from harm, from bitterness, and from giving up on one another.

Pray for the fathers in this family:

that they may be strong without being hard,

and present, patient and faithful, as you were.

And for anyone whose own father was absent or unkind,

be the father they did not have,

and lead them to the Father who never leaves them.

Amen.

More prayers for the household are in the prayer for family protection and the prayer of protection over my children.

Prayer to St. Joseph for a happy death

1 min readSt. Joseph is the patron of a happy death because tradition, not Scripture, which does not record his death, holds that he died with Jesus and Mary beside him.

St. Joseph is the patron of a happy death because tradition, not Scripture, which does not record his death, holds that he died with Jesus and Mary beside him. The Church takes the patronage seriously. Teaching how to prepare for death, the Catechism names the Litany of the Saints’ “From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord”, the Hail Mary’s “at the hour of our death”, and the practice of entrusting 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).

St. Joseph, who by tradition died in the arms of Jesus and Mary,

pray for me, that when my hour comes

I may be ready: at peace with God,

strengthened by the sacraments,

and surrounded by love.

Pray tonight for everyone who is dying,

and especially for (name),

that Jesus and Mary may be near them as they were near you.

Amen.

For someone who is dying now, ask a priest to come; the sacraments are the Church’s own preparation for death. After a death, the Church’s prayer continues in the prayers for the dead.

The Litany of St. Joseph, with the seven invocations added in 2021

3 min readThe Litany of St. Joseph was approved by the Holy See in 1909.

The Litany of St. Joseph was approved by the Holy See in 1909. On May 1, 2021, marking the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph’s proclamation as patron of the Church, the Congregation for Divine Worship added seven invocations drawn from the popes’ teaching on him, with Pope Francis’s approval: Guardian of the Redeemer, Servant of Christ, Minister of salvation, Support in difficulties, Patron of exiles, Patron of the afflicted, and Patron of the poor. The Holy See published the Latin text and left the translations to each bishops’ conference. The English below is our own close translation of that Latin, with the seven new invocations marked (2021). The versicle is Psalm 105:21, said first of Joseph in Egypt.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Renowned offspring of David, pray for us.

Light of Patriarchs, pray for us.

Spouse of the Mother of God, pray for us.

Guardian of the Redeemer (2021), pray for us.

Chaste guardian of the Virgin, pray for us.

Foster father of the Son of God, pray for us.

Diligent defender of Christ, pray for us.

Servant of Christ (2021), pray for us.

Minister of salvation (2021), pray for us.

Head of the Holy Family, pray for us.

Joseph most just, pray for us.

Joseph most chaste, pray for us.

Joseph most prudent, pray for us.

Joseph most strong, pray for us.

Joseph most obedient, pray for us.

Joseph most faithful, pray for us.

Mirror of patience, pray for us.

Lover of poverty, pray for us.

Model of workers, pray for us.

Glory of home life, pray for us.

Guardian of virgins, pray for us.

Pillar of families, pray for us.

Support in difficulties (2021), pray for us.

Comfort of the wretched, pray for us.

Hope of the sick, pray for us.

Patron of exiles (2021), pray for us.

Patron of the afflicted (2021), pray for us.

Patron of the poor (2021), pray for us.

Patron of the dying, pray for us.

Terror of demons, pray for us.

Protector of Holy Church, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

V. He made him lord of his house,

R. and ruler of all of his possessions.

Let us pray.

O God, who in your inexpressible providence

were pleased to choose blessed Joseph

to be the spouse of your most holy Mother,

grant, we pray, that we who revere him as our protector on earth

may be worthy to have him as our intercessor in heaven.

Who live and reign for ever and ever.

R. Amen.

Pray it whole, or take one line for the day. The St. Joseph novena gives one day to each of nine of these titles. “Terror of demons” names the protection he gave the Holy Family, not a formula aimed at spirits: like every other line, it asks him to pray for us.

St. Joseph’s feast days: March 19, May 1, and his Wednesdays

1 min readMarch 19 is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

March 19 is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The St. Joseph novena is traditionally prayed in the nine days before it, March 10 to 18. Leo XIII urged Catholics to keep the day holy even where it is not a day of obligation, and commended the custom of giving him the whole month of March.

May 1 is the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, and many pray a novena from April 22 to 30 for work.

Wednesdays are his through the week: Pope Francis notes in Patris Corde that special prayers are offered to him each Wednesday, and especially during March.

The Seven Sundays of St. Joseph are an older devotion: Holy Communion received in his honor on seven consecutive Sundays, most often the seven before March 19, with prayers each week on his seven sorrows and seven joys, from his doubt and the angel’s message (Matthew 1:19–20) to the loss and finding of the child Jesus in the Temple.

Questions

What is the most powerful prayer to St. Joseph?

The Church does not rank prayers by power. The best-known and most official is Pope Leo XIII’s “To thee, O blessed Joseph”, which he added to the Rosary in 1889 and which carries a partial indulgence. The Memorare to St. Joseph and the Litany of St. Joseph are the other two most widely prayed; all three are on this page.

What is the prayer to St. Joseph after the Rosary?

Pope Leo XIII’s prayer from his 1889 encyclical Quamquam pluries, which he asked to be added to the Rosary every October. It begins “To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction”, or in the modern translation “To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation”. The full text is above.

What is a prayer to St. Joseph for family protection?

Leo XIII’s prayer asks him to “defend” the Church and shield us under his patronage, and many families pray it for their home. The prayer for family protection on this page asks him, as guardian of the Holy Family, to watch over your household by name and to pray for its fathers.

What is the 3 day miracle prayer to St. Joseph?

The label is attached online to prayers to St. Joseph that come with a promise of a result within a few days. The Church attaches no timetable or guarantee to any prayer, and the Catechism calls it superstition to attribute a prayer’s effect to its mere external performance (CCC 2111). Pray any of the prayers on this page for as long as the need lasts.

What is the prayer of Joseph?

Scripture records no words of St. Joseph at all. What it records is obedience: “Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Matthew 1:24). When people speak of “the prayer to St. Joseph” they usually mean Pope Leo XIII’s prayer, given in full above.

Is there a prayer to St. Joseph that never fails?

No prayer comes with a guarantee. 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; the prayer is good, but those promises are not the Church’s, and its claimed first-century origin has very little historical evidence behind it.

What was added to the Litany of St. Joseph in 2021?

Seven invocations, approved by Pope Francis and published by the Congregation for Divine Worship on May 1, 2021: Guardian of the Redeemer, Servant of Christ, Minister of salvation, Support in difficulties, Patron of exiles, Patron of the afflicted, and Patron of the poor. The full litany is above.

When is the feast of St. Joseph?

March 19 is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and May 1 is the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. The St. Joseph novena is traditionally prayed from March 10 to 18, and Wednesdays are traditionally dedicated to him.

Many fathers ask St. Joseph to pray for their boys, in the words of a father’s prayer for his son — one of several prayers for a son at every age.

Wives ask the carpenter of Nazareth to pray for their husbands at work, too: a prayer for my husband — for his work, his health and his faith.

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