|
QUAMQUAM PLURIES
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII
ON DEVOTION TO ST. JOSEPH
To Our Venerable Brethren the Patriarchs, Primates,
Archbishops, and other Ordinaries, in Peace and Union with
Holy See.
Although We have already many times ordered special prayers to be offered
up in the whole world, that the interests of Catholicism might be insistently
recommended to God, none will deem it matter for surprise that We consider
the present moment an opportune one for again inculcating the same duty.
During periods of stress and trial - chiefly when every lawlessness
of act seems permitted to the powers of darkness - it has been the custom
in the Church to plead with special fervour and perseverance to God,
her author and protector, by recourse to the intercession of the saints
- and chiefly of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God - whose patronage
has ever been the most efficacious. The fruit of these pious prayers
and of the confidence reposed in the Divine goodness, has always, sooner
or later, been made apparent. Now, Venerable Brethren, you know the
times in which we live; they are scarcely less deplorable for the Christian
religion than the worst days, which in time past were most full of misery
to the Church. We see faith, the root of all the Christian virtues,
lessening in many souls; we see charity growing cold; the young generation
daily growing in depravity of morals and views; the Church of Jesus
Christ attacked on every side by open force or by craft; a relentless
war waged against the Sovereign Pontiff; and the very foundations of
religion undermined with a boldness which waxes daily in intensity.
These things are, indeed, so much a matter of notoriety that it is needless
for Us to expatiate on the depths to which society has sunk in these
days, or on the designs which now agitate the minds of men. In circumstances
so unhappy and troublous, human remedies are insufficient, and it becomes
necessary, as a sole resource, to beg for assistance from the Divine
power.
2. This is the reason why We have considered it necessary to turn to
the Christian people and urge them to implore, with increased zeal and
constancy, the aid of Almighty God. At this proximity of the month of
October, which We have already consecrated to the Virgin Mary, under
the title of Our Lady of the Rosary, We earnestly exhort the faithful
to perform the exercises of this month with, if possible, even more
piety and constancy than heretofore. We know that there is sure help
in the maternal goodness of the Virgin, and We are very certain that
We shall never vainly place Our trust in her. If, on innumerable occasions,
she has displayed her power in aid of the Christian world, why should
We doubt that she will now renew the assistance of her power and favour,
if humble and constant prayers are offered up on all sides to her? Nay,
We rather believe that her intervention will be the more marvellous
as she has permitted Us to pray to her, for so long a time, with special
appeals. But We entertain another object, which, according to your wont,
Venerable Brethren, you will advance with fervour. That God may be more
favourable to Our prayers, and that He may come with bounty and promptitude
to the aid of His Church, We judge it of deep utility for the Christian
people, continually to invoke with great piety and trust, together with
the Virgin-Mother of God, her chaste Spouse, the Blessed Joseph; and
We regard it as most certain that this will be most pleasing to the
Virgin herself. On the subject of this devotion, of which We speak publicly
for the first time to-day, We know without doubt that not only is the
people inclined to it, but that it is already established, and is advancing
to full growth. We have seen the devotion to St. Joseph, which in past
times the Roman Pontiffs have developed and gradually increased, grow
into greater proportions in Our time, particularly after Pius IX., of
happy memory, Our predecessor, proclaimed, yielding to the request of
a large number of bishops, this holy patriarch the patron of the Catholic
Church. And as, moreover, it is of high importance that the devotion
to St. Joseph should engraft itself upon the daily pious practices of
Catholics, We desire that the Christian people should be urged to it
above all by Our words and authority.
3. The special motives for which St. Joseph has been proclaimed Patron
of the Church, and from which the Church looks for singular benefit
from his patronage and protection, are that Joseph was the spouse of
Mary and that he was reputed the Father of Jesus Christ. From these
sources have sprung his dignity, his holiness, his glory. In truth,
the dignity of the Mother of God is so lofty that naught created can
rank above it. But as Joseph has been united to the Blessed Virgin by
the ties of marriage, it may not be doubted that he approached nearer
than any to the eminent dignity by which the Mother of God surpasses
so nobly all created natures. For marriage is the most intimate of all
unions which from its essence imparts a community of gifts between those
that by it are joined together. Thus in giving Joseph the Blessed Virgin
as spouse, God appointed him to be not only her life's companion, the
witness of her maidenhood, the protector of her honour, but also, by
virtue of the conjugal tie, a participator in her sublime dignity. And
Joseph shines among all mankind by the most august dignity, since by
divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and reputed as His
father among men. Hence it came about that the Word of God was humbly
subject to Joseph, that He obeyed him, and that He rendered to him all
those offices that children are bound to render to their parents. From
this two-fold dignity flowed the obligation which nature lays upon the
head of families, so that Joseph became the guardian, the administrator,
and the legal defender of the divine house whose chief he was. And during
the whole course of his life he fulfilled those charges and those duties.
He set himself to protect with a mighty love and a daily solicitude
his spouse and the Divine Infant; regularly by his work he earned what
was necessary for the one and the other for nourishment and clothing;
he guarded from death the Child threatened by a monarch's jealousy,
and found for Him a refuge; in the miseries of the journey and in the
bitternesses of exile he was ever the companion, the assistance, and
the upholder of the Virgin and of Jesus. Now the divine house which
Joseph ruled with the authority of a father, contained within its limits
the scarce-born Church. From the same fact that the most holy Virgin
is the mother of Jesus Christ is she the mother of all Christians whom
she bore on Mount Calvary amid the supreme throes of the Redemption;
Jesus Christ is, in a manner, the first-born of Christians, who by the
adoption and Redemption are his brothers. And for such reasons the Blessed
Patriarch looks upon the multitude of Christians who make up the Church
as confided specially to his trust - this limitless family spread over
the earth, over which, because he is the spouse of Mary and the Father
of Jesus Christ he holds, as it were, a paternal authority. It is, then,
natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the
needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection,
he should now cover with the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend
the Church of Jesus Christ.
4. You well understand, Venerable Brethren, that these considerations
are confirmed by the ,opinion held by a large number of the Fathers,
to which the sacred liturgy gives its sanction, that the Joseph of ancient
times, son of the patriarch Jacob, was the type of St. Joseph, and the
former by his glory prefigured the greatness of the future guardian
of the Holy Family. And in truth, beyond the fact that the same name-a
point the significance of which has never been denied-was given to each,
you well know the points of likeness that exist between them; namely,
that the first Joseph won the favour and especial goodwill of his master,
and that through Joseph's administration his household came to prosperity
and wealth; that (still more important) he presided over the kingdom
with great power, and, in a time when the harvests failed, he provided
for all the needs of the Egyptians with so much wisdom that the King
decreed to him the title "Saviour of the world." Thus it is
that We may prefigure the new in the old patriarch. And as the first
caused the prosperity of his master's domestic interests and at the
same time rendered great services to the whole kingdom, so the second,
destined to be the guardian of the Christian religion, should be regarded
as the protector and defender of the Church, which is truly the house
of the Lord and the kingdom of God on earth. These are the reasons why
men of every rank and country should fly to the trust and guard of the
blessed Joseph. Fathers of families find in Joseph the best personification
of paternal solicitude and vigilance; spouses a perfect example of love,
of peace, and of conjugal fidelity; virgins at the same time find in
him the model and protector of virginal integrity. The noble of birth
will earn of Joseph how to guard their dignity even in misfortune; the
rich will understand, by his lessons, what are the goods most to be
desired and won at the price of their labour. As to workmen, artisans,
and persons of lesser degree, their recourse to Joseph is a special
right, and his example is for their particular imitation. For Joseph,
of royal blood, united by marriage to the greatest and holiest of women,
reputed the father of the Son of God, passed his life in labour, and
won by the toil of the artisan the needful support of his family. It
is, then, true that the condition of the lowly has nothing shameful
in it, and the work of the labourer is not only not dishonouring, but
can, if virtue be joined to it, be singularly ennobled. Joseph, content
with his slight possessions, bore the trials consequent on a fortune
so slender, with greatness of soul, in imitation of his Son, who having
put on the form of a slave, being the Lord of life, subjected himself
of his own free-will to the spoliation and loss of everything.
5. Through these considerations, the poor and those who live by the
labour of their hands should be of good heart and learn to be just.
If they win the right of emerging from poverty and obtaining a better
rank by lawful means, reason and justice uphold them in changing the
order established, in the first instance, for them by the Providence
of God. But recourse to force and struggles by seditious paths to obtain
such ends are madnesses which only aggravate the evil which they aim
to suppress. Let the poor, then, if they would be wise, trust not to
the promises of seditious men, but rather to the example and patronage
of the Blessed Joseph, and to the maternal charity of the Church, which
each day takes an increasing compassion on their lot.
6. This is the reason why - trusting much to your zeal and episcopal
authority, Venerable Brethren, and not doubting that the good and pious
faithful will run beyond the mere letter of the law - We prescribe that
during the whole month of October, at the recitation of the Rosary,
for which We have already legislated, a prayer to St. Joseph be added,
the formula of which will be sent with this letter, and that this custom
should be repeated every year. To those who recite this prayer, We grant
for each time an indulgence of seven years and seven Lents. It is a
salutary practice and very praiseworthy, already established in some
countries, to consecrate the month of March to the honour of the holy
Patriarch by daily exercises of piety. Where this custom cannot be easily
established, it is as least desirable, that before the feast-day, in
the principal church of each parish, a triduo of prayer be celebrated.
In those lands where the 19th of March - the Feast of St. Joseph - is
not a Festival of Obligation, We exhort the faithful to sanctify it
as far as possible by private pious practices, in honour of their heavenly
patron, as though it were a day of Obligation.
7. And in token of heavenly favours, and in witness of Our good-will,
We grant most lovingly in the Lord, to you, Venerable Brethren, to your
clergy and to your people, the Apostolic blessing.
Given from the Vatican, August 15th, 1889, the 11th year of Our Pontificate.
LEO XIII
|
