MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Prayer — Prayers of the Saints

Prayer to St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church

Indulgenced by Leo XIII, March 1882

Written for a Church that had just lost the Papal States and seen its Pope shut inside the Vatican: 'let it move thy paternal heart to see the mystical Spouse of Christ and His Vicar weakened by sorrow.'

The Prayer
English · Original
O most powerful Patriarch, St. Joseph, Patron of that universal Church which has always invoked thee in anxieties and tribulations; from the lofty seat of thy glory lovingly regard the Catholic world. Let it move thy paternal heart to see the mystical Spouse of Christ and His Vicar weakened by sorrow and persecuted by powerful enemies. We beseech thee, by the most bitter suffering thou didst experience on earth, to wipe away in mercy the tears of the revered Pontiff, to defend and liberate him, and to intercede with the Giver of peace and charity, that every hostile power being overcome and every error being destroyed, the whole Church may serve the God of all blessings in perfect liberty. Amen.
When the Prayer is Said

For the Pope and the Church; on 19 March and 1 May; in time of persecution.

History & Background

Pius IX declared St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church by the decree <em>Quemadmodum Deus</em> on 8 December 1870 — three months after Italian troops took Rome and the pope became, in his own phrase, a prisoner in the Vatican. This prayer belongs to those years and does not disguise it: it asks Joseph to look on 'the Catholic world', to wipe away the tears of the Pontiff, and to defend and liberate him.

It is a period piece, and it is also durable, because the Church is never without the trouble it describes. Leo XIII indulgenced it in 1882. The text is the Raccolta's of 1910.

Indulgences Attached

One hundred days, once a day — Leo XIII, March 1882 (Raccolta, 1910, no. 305).

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