Human Flower Project
Joseph’s Saintly Walking Stick
First among suitors, St. Joseph won Mary’s hand with the miracle of a flowering staff.
San Jose, retablo
Photo: Nuevo Santander Gallery
March 19th is the Feast of St. Joseph, the adoptive father of Christianity.
Joseph, who was part of the story even before Jesus appears, straggled into the community of saints rather late. This excellent essay by Sandra Miesel, a medievalist, explains, “The early Church was anxious to defend the Virgin Birth and the perpetual virginity of our Lady. It seemed to many Christians that minimizing St. Joseph magnified Mary. The Church fathers remained studiously incurious about his life.”
Joseph is hardly mentioned in the Bible. But in the Protevangelium of James, one of the apocryphal gospels, he gets a bigger—if not so flattering—role. He’s depicted as a old widower with several grown children, who first shies away from betrothal to Mary despite a heavenly sign he’s to be her husband.
In James’ gospel, “Mary’s many suitors left their staffs in the temple one night so that God could indicate who(m) she should marry. The next morning, Joseph’s staff blossomed with white flowers and leaves and sent forth a white dove, indicating that he was the chosen one.”
This miraculous (and phallic) image recalls the almond, peach and cherry blossoms that in March appear on bare branches, before the leaves have sprouted. And the white flower matches the lily that the Angel Gabriel brought Mary at the time of her Annunciation.
Saint Joseph and the Christ Child
El Greco (1597)
In Miesel’s article, we learn that the calamities of 14th Century Europe—famine, disease and civil war—“propelled Joseph to saintly stardom…. The horrors inflicted on families and communities needed heavenly healing.” And Joseph, the long-suffering family man, was culturally resurrected. Theologians of the time revised the Joseph story—portraying him no longer as a grumpy old codger but a vigorous young virgin, “well able to care for the Holy Family.”
St. Francis took a strong interest in Joseph and in one of his spiritual conferences specially celebrated “the chastity, humility, courage, constancy, and strength of St. Joseph—virtues that are envisioned as flowers embroidered on his heavenly garments.” Miesel notes that in early Spanish-American folk paintings, Joseph’s garments are often flecked with blossoms—a trope that carried over in later retablos.
Our favorite image of St. Joseph is El Greco’s painting from 1597. Tumbling angels hover around his head, dropping carnations and roses, ready to loop-on a wreath of greenery. It prefigures Joseph’s final crowning with flowers on his ascent to heaven, an image painted by Zurbaran.
Today, in parts of the Catholic world, St. Joseph will be honored with sumptuous altars. Or so they’re called: they’re more like banquet tables, heavy-laden with vegetable dishes, decorative breads, cookies, sprouts, and flowers—though no meats. It is still Lent, after all.
St. Joseph’s Altar
Grahan-Ginestra House Museum
Rockford, IL
Photo: Anthony Parente
Here’s a story about how the feast day is observed in and around Shreveport, Louisiana, complete with several seasonal recipes. This piece contends that the altar tradition arose when “a drought enveloped Sicily, leaving the people with only fava beans—cow fodder—to eat. So they appealed to St. Joseph to pray for them and the rains came.” The Sicilians built an altar in thanks, and oh how they do cook!
Miesel writes that parents in Medieval days avoided the name of Joseph: “Only one Giuseppe appears on a list of 53,000 Tuscan householders collected before 1530, whereas that name is now one of the most popular Italian names.” In our family, Josephs and Josés abound—great-grandfather, grandfather, uncle, brother, nephew, and several cousins. All good family men.
We learn that the name Joseph means “God adds” or “God gathers.” So, in that spirit, gather up the fennel, pine nuts, raisins and anchovies, and try this recipe for meatless spaghetti sauce. And don’t forget to add a vase of flowering branches to the table, too.
(By the way, drought-stricken Texas is receiving a fine rain today.)
For the recipe…
St. Joseph Spaghetti Sauce
from St. Joseph’s Family Life Center
Shreveport, Louisiana
Serves 8
2 bunches fennel greens
2 large onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Tbsps. oil
12-oz. can tomato paste
1 can anchovies
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts
Salt and pepper to taste
Boil fennel in large pot of water until tender. Chop fennel finely, or put in blender. Use water from fennel to make sauce. Fry onions and garlic in oil; add tomato paste. Add water, about 4 cans. Add anchovies, raisins, pine nuts and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until thick. Boil spaghetti and serve with sauce. Approximate values per serving: 188 calories, 6 g fat, 3 g protein, 35 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 340 mg sodium.