The one-sentence prayer to St. Joseph with which Bernardine closed his sermon on the saint — read in the Office of St. Joseph's feast to this day.
Memento nostri, beate Ioseph, et tuae orationis suffragio apud tuum putativum Filium intercede; sed et beatissimam Virginem Sponsam tuam nobis propitiam redde, quae Mater est Eius, qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivit et regnat per infinita saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Be mindful of us, O blessed Joseph, and intercede on our behalf with thy reputed Son; and secure for us the favour of thy most holy Virgin Spouse, the Mother of Him who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
On 19 March and 1 May; on Wednesdays, the day of St. Joseph; at the close of the Office of Readings for his feast.
Bernardine of Siena, the Franciscan preacher of the Holy Name, was one of the first great advocates of devotion to St. Joseph, and his sermon on the saint is read in the Office of Readings for 19 March. It ends with this prayer, which asks Joseph for two things: to intercede with 'thy reputed Son', and to make his Virgin Spouse propitious to us — the pattern of every prayer to Joseph since, through him to Mary, through Mary to Christ.
Leo XIII, who had just made Joseph patron of the universal Church, indulgenced the prayer on 14 December 1889. The Latin and English are the Raccolta's of 1910.
One hundred days, once a day — Leo XIII, 14 December 1889 (Raccolta, 1910, no. 309).
