A Beguine convent in Amsterdam.

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion. In modern English usage, "convent" or "nunnery" almost invariably refers to a community of women, while "monastery", "priory" or "friary" are used for men; but in historical usage they are often interchangeable.

Technically, a "monastery" or "nunnery" is a community of monastics, whereas a "convent" is a community of mendicants ("friary" specifying a male community specifically), and a "canonry" a community of canons regular. The terms "abbey" and "priory" can be applied to both monasteries and canonries and distinguish those headed by an Abbot from the lesser dependent houses headed by a Prior.

See also[link]

• Abbey
• Christian monasticism
• Monastery

External links[link]

•  "Convent". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Carmelite Monastery of the Sacred Hearts —- an example of a modern-day convent
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Convent". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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John Malkovich
John Malkovich, August 2009
Born	John Gavin Malkovich (1953-12-09) December 9, 1953 (age 58) Christopher, Illinois, US
Residence	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Education	Benton Consolidated High School
Alma mater	Illinois State University
Occupation	Actor, film producer/director, fashion designer
Years active	1984–present
Home town	Benton, Illinois
Spouse	Glenne Headly (1982–88) Nicoletta Peyran (1989–present)
Children	2
Parents	Daniel Leon Malkovich, Joe Anne (née Choisser)
Awards	National Board of Review Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award

John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award nominations. He has also appeared in critically acclaimed films such as Empire of the Sun, The Killing Fields, Dangerous Liaisons, Of Mice and Men, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, and Red. He will produce the film version of the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Early life[link]

Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois. His paternal grandparents were Croats, natives of Ozalj in Croatia.^[1][2][3][4] His mother was of Scottish and German ancestry.^[5] He grew up in Benton, Illinois, in a large house on South Main Street. His father, Daniel Leon Malkovich, was a state conservation director and publisher of Outdoor Illinois, a conservation magazine. His mother, Joe Anne (née Choisser), owned the Benton Evening News (a local newspaper in Benton, Il.), as well as Outdoor Illinois.^[6][7][8] Malkovich attended Logan Grade School,^{[citation needed]} Webster Junior High, and Benton Consolidated High School, in Benton, Illinois. During his high school years, he appeared in various plays and the musical, Carousel. He was also a member of a folk/rock musical trio, and was a member of a local summer theater/comedy project in Benton in 1972, where he co-starred in Jean-Claude van Itallie's America Hurrah. Upon graduation from high school, he entered Eastern Illinois University, and then transferred to Illinois State University, where he majored in theatre.^[9]

Career[link]

In 1976, Malkovich, along with Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, and Glenne Headly, became a charter member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago.^[6] He moved to New York City in 1980 to appear in a Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play True West, for which he won an Obie Award.^[10][11] Malkovich then directed a Steppenwolf co-production, the 1984 revival of Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead, for which he received a second Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award.^[10] His Broadway debut that year was as Biff in Death of a Salesman, alongside Dustin Hoffman as Willy. Malkovich won an Emmy Award^[12] for this role when the play was adapted for television by CBS in 1985.

One of the actor's first forays into film was as an extra alongside Allen, Terry Kinney, George Wendt, and Laurie Metcalf in Robert Altman's 1978 film A Wedding. He made his feature film debut in 1984, as Sally Field's blind boarder Mr. Will in Places in the Heart; for his portrayal of Mr. Will, Malkovich received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also portrayed Al Rockoff in The Killing Fields. He continued to have steady work in films such as Empire of the Sun, directed by Steven Spielberg, and the 1987 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. A few years later, Malkovich became a star when he portrayed the sinister and sensual Valmont in the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons. He later reprised this role for the music video of "Walking on Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox.

In 1990 he recited, in Croatian, verses of Croatian national anthem Lijepa naša domovino (Our Beautiful Homeland) in Nenad Bach's song "Can We Go Higher?".^[13]

Malkovich starred in the 1992 film adaptation of John Steinbeck's award-winning novella Of Mice and Men as Lennie alongside Gary Sinise as George. In 1994, he was nominated for another Oscar, in the same category, for In the Line of Fire. Though he played the title role in the Charlie Kaufman-penned Being John Malkovich, he played a slight variation of himself, as indicated by the character's middle name of "Horatio". Malkovich has a cameo in the movie Adaptation.—also written by Kaufman—appearing as himself during the filming of Being John Malkovich. The Dancer Upstairs, Malkovich's directorial film debut, was released in 2002. Recent film roles include The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Beowulf, Burn After Reading, Changeling, Red and Secretariat.

Malkovich has hosted three episodes of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live. The first occasion was in January 1989 with musical guest Anita Baker; the second in October 1993 with musical guest Billy Joel (and special appearance by former cast member Jan Hooks); and the third was in December 2008 with musical guest T.I. with Swizz Beatz (and special appearances by Justin Timberlake, Molly Sims, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler).

In keeping with his renaissance-man image, he created his own fashion company, Mrs. Mudd, in 2002 in a partnership with Italian businessman Francesco Rulli. The company released its John Malkovich menswear collection, "Uncle Kimono," in 2003^[14] and its second clothing line, "Technobohemian," in 2010.^[15] Malkovich designed the outfits himself.^[16]

In a 2008 interview on College Hour, Malkovich revealed that he has been discussing making a motion picture adaptation of the Arnon Grünberg novel The History of My Baldness.^[17]

In November 2009, Malkovich appeared in an advertisement for Nespresso with fellow actor George Clooney. He portrayed Quentin Turnbull in the film adaption of Jonah Hex.^[18]

In 2011, Malkovich directed Julian Sands in A Celebration of Harold Pinter in the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.^[19][20]

In 2008, Malkovich portrayed the story of Jack Unterweger in a performance for one actor, two sopranos, and period orchestra entitled Seduction and Despair, which premiered at Barnum Hall in Santa Monica, CA.^[21] A fully staged version of the production, entitled The Infernal Comedy premiered in Vienna in July 2009. The show has since been performed in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 throughout Europe, North America and South America^[22].

Malkovich is known for his distinctive voice, which The Guardian describes as "a reedy, faintly orgasmic drawl".^[23]

Personal life and political views[link]

Interview at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Malkovich was married to actress Glenne Headly from 1982 to 1988. They divorced after Malkovich became involved with Michelle Pfeiffer, his co-star in Dangerous Liaisons.^[11] He later met his long-term partner Nicoletta Peyran on the set of The Sheltering Sky where she was the second assistant director, in 1989. They have two children; Amandine (born 1990) and Loewy (born 1992).

Malkovich is fluent in French, and for nearly 10 years lived and worked in a theater in Southern France. He and his family left France in a dispute over taxes in 2003,^[11][24] and since then he has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[25] In a 2008 interview on The Late Show with David Letterman, Malkovich said he had just spent five weeks that summer living in France.

Malkovich lost millions^[26] to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme when it collapsed in 2008.^[27]

Malkovich stated in a 2011 interview that "I’m not a political person actually, and I don’t have an ideology." He also said that he hadn't voted since George McGovern lost his presidential run in 1972.^[28] According to actor William Hootkins, who worked with Malkovich in BBC Television's Rocket to the Moon, Malkovich is "so right-wing you have to wonder if he's kidding."^[11]

When asked in an interview by the Toronto Star whether it was necessary to have spiritual beliefs to portray a spiritual character, he said "No, I'd say not...I'm an atheist. I wouldn't say I'm without spiritual belief particularly, or rather, specifically. Maybe I'm agnostic, but I'm not quite sure there's some great creator somehow controlling everything and giving us free will. I don't know; it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me."^[29]

In a 2002 appearance at the Cambridge Union Society, when asked whom he would most like to "fight to the death", Malkovich replied that he would "rather just shoot" journalist Robert Fisk and British MP George Galloway.^[30] Both Fisk and Galloway reacted with outrage.^[31][32]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Director[link]

• Johnny Loves Bobby (1989)
• Strap-Hanging (1999)
• The Dancer Upstairs (2002)
• Hideous Man (2002)
• Blazing Satchels (2008)
• Lady Behave

Writer[link]

• Hideous Man (2002)

Producer[link]

• The Accidental Tourist (1988) (executive producer)
• Ghost World (2001)
• The Dancer Upstairs (2002)
• The Libertine (2004)
• Kill the Poor (2006)
• Art School Confidential (2006)
• Juno (2007)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Malkovich

• John Malkovich at the Internet Movie Database
• John Malkovich at the Internet Broadway Database
• John Malkovich at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• John Malkovich on Charlie Rose
• "John Malkovich" in conversation with Jim Sharman at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney Festival, January 2011
• Works by or about John Malkovich in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• John Malkovich collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• How We Met: John Malkovich & Bella Freud – brief 2008 interview in The Independent
• John Malkovich in Mexico
• John Malkovich at Emmys.com

Walerian Borowczyk (September 2, 1923 – February 3, 2006) was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. His career as a film director was mainly in France.^[1]

Biography[link]

The house in Le Vésinet near Paris where the artist lived his last thirty years.

Born in Kwilcz, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, then devoted himself to painting and lithography [1], including the creation of posters for the cinema [2], which earned him a national prize in 1953. In 1959, he settled in Paris.

His early films were surreal animations, some only a few seconds long, including several comic abecedaria. His most acclaimed early films were Był sobie raz (Time Upon a Once) (1957) and Dom (House) (1958, with Jan Lenica). In 1959, he worked with Chris Marker for Les Astronautes. Major works of this period include the stop motion film Renaissance (1963), which uses reverse motion to depict various destroyed objects (a prayer book, a stuffed toy, etc.) re-assembling themselves, only to be destroyed again when the last object (a bomb) is complete, and the nightmarish Jeux des anges (1964), selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time.^[2] In 1967, he directed his first animated feature film, Théâtre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal: un film dessiné pour les adultes (Mr. and Mrs. Kabal's Theatre).

Borowczyk moved into live-action feature film with Goto, l'île d'amour (Goto, Isle of Love) (1968) and Blanche (1971), both tales of illicit love thwarted by jealous husbands, and both starring his own wife, Ligia Branice. One of his most appreciated films of this period, Dzieje grzechu (A Story of Sin) (1975), which was nominated for Palme d'or, is an adaptation of a Polish literary classic by Stefan Żeromski. Like his 1966 short film Rosalie (a Guy de Maupassant adaptation and a Silver Bear winner), Dzieje grzechu had successfully rendered the themes of seduction and infanticide. Contes immoraux (Immoral Tales) (1974) and his later work, including Interno di un convento (Behind Convent Walls) (1977) (inspired by Promenades dans Rome of Stendhal) and Cérémonie d'amour (Rites of Love) (1988) have been controversial, lauded by some for their unique surrealist vision and derided by others as contentless pornography. Especially, La bête (The Beast, 1975) (based on the novel Lokis by Prosper Mérimée and originally conceived in 1972 as a film on its own, but then in 1974 as the fifth story in Contes immoraux) was seen by many as a decline in the director's career after Dzieje grzechu, except in France, where it was hailed by prominent critics such as Ado Kyrou. His 1980 film Lulu was based on the eponymous character created by Frank Wedekind.

In 1981, he made Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (Blood of Dr Jekyll), a version of the Jekyll and Hyde story starring Udo Kier and Patrick Magee and depicting Jekyll's transformation as a violent rebellion against the Victorian morality. In his 1988 book Nightmare Movies, Kim Newman described the film as "dark, misanthropic and interestingly offensive". He made a brief return to animation with his 1984 short film Scherzo infernal. In 1987, he directed Emmanuelle 5, an installment of the Emmanuelle series, that was also released in a hardcore video-only version. He was unhappy with the project due to a dispute concerning the casting of lead actress Monique Gabrielle. In 1988 and 1990, he directed four episodes for the series Série rose: Les Chefs d’œuvre de la littérature érotique on M6.

Many of Borowczyk's films use historical settings, including Ars Amandi: l'arte di amare (The Art of Love) (1983), set in the time of Ovid (and featuring the poet as a character); Blanche, set during the Middle Ages; and three of the four episodes in Contes immoraux, set respectively in the nineteenth century, the sixteenth century, and the Borgia papacy.

A number of his films (like the "tale" La Marée (The Tide) in Contes immoraux, the 1976 La Marge (The Streetwalker), the episode Marceline in Les Héroïnes du mal: Margherita, Marceline, Marie (Immoral Women) (1979), and Cérémonie d'amour were based on stories by André Pieyre de Mandiargues. A less usual product of this cooperation was Une collection particulière of 1973, a representation of Borowczyk's collection of pornographic items, with Mandiargues having written (and read) the narration.

Borowczyk was the author of two books; Anatomia diabła (Anatomy of Devil) (1992) and Moje polskie lata (My Polish Years) (2002).

He died of heart failure in Paris in 2006. He was 82 years old.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 (1994) by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs (with a chapter dedicated to Borowczyk). ISBN 0-312-13519-X
• Nightmare Movies (1988) by Kim Newman. ISBN 0-517-57366-0
• Walerian Borowczyk: Cinema of Erotic Dreams, by Jeremy Mark Robinson, Crescent Moon Publisher 2008, ISBN 1-86171-230-8

External links[link]

• Walerian Borowczyk at the Internet Movie Database
• Walerian Borowczyk's Heroines of Desire A review of the film Les Héroïnes du mal, in relation with Borowczyk cinema
• Walerian Borowczyk On Razor Reel

Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus, Guido Reni (c. 1635)
Born	Bethlehem[1], c.90 BC[2]
Died	Nazareth, July 20, 18 AD[3] (traditional)
Feast	March 19 - Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary (Western Christianity), May 1 - St Joseph the Worker (Roman Catholic Church), The Sunday after the Nativity of the Lord (Eastern Christianity)
Attributes	Carpenter's square or tools, the infant Jesus, staff with lily blossoms.
Patronage	The Catholic Church, unborn children, fathers, immigrants, workers, against doubt and hesitation, and of a happy death, Vietnam, Philippines. Many others; see [3].

Joseph (Hebrew יוֹסֵף, "Yosef"; Greek: Ἰωσήφ) is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ (in distinction to God the Father, his "heavenly father"). In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Christian traditions he is regarded as Saint Joseph.

The Pauline epistles, generally considered the earliest extant Christian records, make no reference to Jesus' father; nor does the Gospel of Mark, generally considered the first of the gospels.^[4] The first appearance of Joseph is therefore in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Each contains a genealogy of Jesus tracing his ancestry back to King David, but the two are from different sons of David; Matthew follows the major royal line from Solomon, while Luke follows a minor line from Nathan, another son of David and Bathsheba. Consequently all the names between David and Joseph are different. According to Matthew "Jacob was the father of Joseph," while according to Luke, Joseph, or possibly Jesus, is said to be "of Heli." Some scholars reconcile the genealogies by viewing the Solomonic lineage as Joseph's major royal line, and the Nathanic lineage in Luke to be Mary's minor line.^[5][6]

Matthew and Luke are also the only gospels to include the infancy narratives, and again they differ. In Luke, Joseph lives in Nazareth and travels to Bethlehem in compliance with the requirements of a Roman census. Subsequently, Jesus was born there. In Matthew, Joseph was in Bethlehem, the city of David, where Jesus is born, and then moves to Nazareth with his family after the death of Herod. Matthew is the only Gospel to include the narrative of the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt: following the nativity, Joseph stays in Bethlehem for an unspecified period (perhaps two years) until forced by Herod to take refuge in Egypt; on the death of Herod he brings his family back to Judea, and settles in Nazareth. After this point there is no further mention of Joseph by name, although the story of Jesus in the Temple, in Jesus' 12th year, includes a reference to "both his parents". Christian tradition represents Mary as a widow during the adult ministry of her son. The gospels describe Joseph as a "tekton" (τέκτων); traditionally the word has been taken to mean "carpenter",^[7] though the Greek term evokes an artisan with wood in general, or an artisan in iron or stone.^[8] Very little other information on Joseph is given in the gospels, in which he never speaks.

Joseph is venerated as a saint in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran faiths. In Catholic and other traditions, Joseph is the patron saint of workers and has several feast days. He was also declared to be the patron saint and protector of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius IX in 1870, and is the patron of several countries and regions. With the growth of Mariology, the theological field of Josephology has also grown and since the 1950s centres for studying it have been formed.^[9][10]

Paul and the canonical Gospels[link]

Holy Family with the Holy Spirit by Murillo, 1675-1682.

Joseph in the New Testament[link]

The epistles of Paul are generally regarded as the oldest extant Christian writings. These mention Jesus' mother (without naming her), but do not refer to his father - other than God (Romans 15:26 etc). The oldest gospel, that of Mark, also does not mention Jesus's father. Joseph first appears in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, generally regarded as later than Mark. Luke may name Joseph's father as Heli, although Lightfoot, Adam Clarke and others read "of Heli" as an elipsis, saying that Mary was "of Heli," while Matthew names him as Jacob, which according to Spong (2007) is in keeping with that gospel's depiction of Jesus as a second Moses.^[4] This theme is developed further in the infancy narratives, which, like the genealogies, have the function of establishing Jesus as the promised Messiah, the descendant of David, born in Bethlehem. If the Solomonic major royal line in Matthew is correct then Joseph's father was named Jacob (or James), coincidentally the name given to the James (or Jacob) oldest of the four "brothers of Jesus" mentioned later in Matthew.

Like the two differing genealogies the infancy narratives appear only in Matthew and Luke, and take different approaches to reconciling the requirement that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem with the tradition that Jesus came from Nazareth. In Matthew, Joseph, already living in Bethlehem, obeys the direction of an angel to marry Mary and then to flee to Egypt to escape the massacre of the children of Bethlehem planned by Herod the Great, the tyrant who rules Judea.^[11] Once Herod has died, the angel tells him to return to Galilee instead of to Bethlehem, and so Joseph takes his wife and the child to Nazareth and settles there.^[12] Thus in Matthew, the infant Jesus, like Moses, is in peril from a cruel king, like Moses he has a (fore)father named Joseph who goes down to Egypt, like the Old Testament Joseph this Joseph has a father named Jacob, and both Josephs receive important dreams foretelling their future.^[4] In Luke, Joseph already lives in Nazareth, and Jesus is born in Bethlehem because Joseph and Mary have to travel there to be counted in a census. Luke's account makes no mention of angels and dreams, the Massacre of the Innocents, or of a visit to Egypt.

The last time Joseph appears in person in any Gospel is the story of the Passover visit to the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus is 12 years old, found only in Luke. Like the infancy narratives the story is didactic, emphasising Jesus' awareness of his coming mission: here Jesus speaks to his parents (both of them) of "my father," meaning God, but they fail to understand.(Luke 2:41-51).

None of the Gospels mentions Joseph as present at any event during Jesus' adult ministry. The synoptic Gospels, however, share a scene in which the people of Nazareth, Jesus' hometown, doubt Jesus' status as a prophet because they know his family. In Mark 6:3, they call Jesus "Mary's son" instead of naming his father. In Matthew, the townspeople call Jesus "the carpenter's son," again without naming his father, and again he has brothers named James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:53-58). In Luke 3:23 "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was [the son] of Heli," and Luke makes no mention of any brothers (Luke 4:16-30). In Luke the tone is positive, whereas in Mark and Matthew it is disparaging.^[13] This incident does not appear at all in John, but in a parallel story the disbelieving Jews refer to "Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know" (John 6:41-51).

Joseph is not mentioned as being present at the Wedding at Cana at the beginning of Jesus' mission, nor at the Passion at the end. If he had been present at the Crucifixion, he would under Jewish custom have been expected to take charge of Jesus' body, but this role is instead performed by Joseph of Arimathea. Nor would Jesus have entrusted his mother to John's care had her husband been alive.^[14]

Gospel harmony[link]

A sample Gospel harmony of the episodes of the life of Saint Joseph in the canonical Gospels, in summary form of harmonies for the four gospels.^[15][16][17] See the gallery below for artistic depictions of some of these events.

Professional life[link]

St. Joseph the Carpenter, by Georges de La Tour, 1640s.

Jesus is identified in the Gospel of Matthew 13:55 as the son of a τέκτων (tekton) and the Gospel of Mark 6:3 states that Jesus was a tekton himself. Tekton has been traditionally translated into English as "carpenter", but is a rather general word (from the same root that gives us "technical" and "technology") that could cover makers of objects in various materials, even builders.^[18] But the specific association with woodworking is a constant in Early Christian tradition; Justin Martyr (d. ca. 165) wrote that Jesus made yokes and ploughs, and there are similar early references.^[19]

John Dominic Crossan puts tekton into a historical context more resembling an itinerant worker than an established artisan, emphasizing his marginality in a population in which a peasant who owns land could become quite prosperous. Other scholars have argued that tekton could equally mean a highly-skilled craftsman in wood or the more prestigious metal, perhaps running a workshop with several employees, and noted sources recording the shortage of skilled artisans at the time.^[20] Geza Vermes has stated that the terms 'carpenter' and 'son of a carpenter' are used in the Jewish Talmud to signify a very learned man, and he suggests that a description of Joseph as 'naggar' (a carpenter) could indicate that he was considered wise and highly literate in the Torah.^[21]

At the time of Joseph, Nazareth was an obscure village in Galilee, about 65 km from the Holy City of Jerusalem, which is barely mentioned in surviving non-Christian texts and documents.^{[4][22][23][24][25]} Archaeology over most of the site is made impossible by subsequent building, but from what has been excavated and tombs in the area around the village, it is estimated that the population was at most about 400.^[26] It was, however, only about 6 kilometres from the city of Tzippori (ancient "Sepphoris"), which was destroyed by the Romans in 4BC, and thereafter was expensively rebuilt. Analysis of the landscape and other evidence suggest that in Joseph's lifetime Nazareth was "oriented towards" the nearby city,^[27] which had an overwhelmingly Jewish population although with many signs of Hellenization,^[28] and historians have speculated that Joseph and later Jesus too might have traveled daily to work on the rebuilding. Specifically the large theatre in the city has been suggested, although this has aroused much controversy over dating and other issues.^[29] Other scholars see Joseph and Jesus as the general village craftsmen, working in wood, stone and metal on a wide variety of jobs.^[30]

Modern appraisal[link]

The name of Joseph is found almost exclusively in the genealogies and the infancy narratives.^[31][32] The variances between the genealogies given in Matthew and Luke are explained on the basis that Matthew's genealogy traces his legal descent, according to Jewish religious law, through St. Joseph; while Luke's genealogy traces his actual physical descent through Mary.

Modern positions on the question of the relationship between Joseph and the Virgin Mary vary. The Eastern Orthodox Church, which names Joseph's first wife as Salome, holds that Joseph was a widower and merely betrothed, but never married, to Mary,^[33] and that references to Jesus' "brothers" are to children of Joseph and Salome. The position of the Catholic Church, derived from the writings of Saint Jerome, is that Joseph was the husband of Mary, but that references to Jesus' "brothers" should be understood to mean cousins or step-brothers. In both cases, the church doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity means that Joseph and Mary never had sexual relations. The Protestant churches, following the tenet of Virgin Birth but not that of Perpetual Virginity, hold no strong views on the subject.^[34]

Later apocryphal writings[link]

Christ in the House of his Parents, by John Everett Millais

The canonical gospels created a problem: they stated clearly that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus, and that Joseph was not his father; yet Joseph's paternity was essential to establish Jesus' Davidic descent, and he and Mary were so much husband and wife that only divorce could dissolve their union (Matthew 1:19).^[35] The theological situation was complicated by the gospel references to Jesus' "brothers and sisters" (repeated in Paul, where James is called the "brother of Christ"), and by the fact that he was described unambiguously by John and Mark as "Joseph's son" and "the carpenter's son."^[35] From the 2nd century to the 5th writers tried to explain how Jesus could be simultaneously the "son of God" as well as the "son of Joseph".^[35]

The first to offer a solution was the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, written about 150 AD. The original gospels never refer to Joseph's age, but James presents him as an old man chosen by lot (i.e., by God) to watch over the Virgin. Jesus' brothers are presented as Joseph's children by an earlier marriage, and his years and righteousness explain why he has not yet had sex with his wife: "I received her by lot as my wife, and she is not yet my wife, but she has conceived by the Holy Spirit."^[36]

The Protoevangelium was extremely popular, but it leaves open the possibility that Joseph might have had relations with Mary after the birth of Jesus ("she is not yet my wife..."). A few centuries later the developing doctrine that Mary was a virgin not only at the time of the conception and birth of Christ, but throughout her life, meant that this possibility had to be excluded. The apocryphal History of Joseph the Carpenter, written in the 5th century and framed as a biography of Joseph dictated by Jesus, describes how Joseph, aged 90 (the Protoevangelium had not given Joseph a specific age), a widower with four sons and two daughters, is given charge of the twelve year old Mary, who then lives in his household raising his youngest son James the Less (the supposed author of the Protoevengelium) until she is ready to be married at age 14½. Joseph's death at the age of 111, attended by angels and asserting the perpetual virginity of Mary, takes up approximately half the story.^[37]

Sainthood[link]

Together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus Joseph is one of the three members of the Holy Family; since he only appears in the birth narratives of the Gospels, Jesus is depicted as a child when with him. The formal veneration of the Holy Family began in the 17th century by Mgr François de Laval.

Pope Pius IX proclaimed Saint Joseph the patron of the Universal Church in 1870, the unofficial patron against doubt and hesitation, as well as the patron saint of fighting communism, and of a happy death^{[citation needed]}. Having died in the "arms of Jesus and Mary" according to Catholic tradition, he is considered the model of the pious believer who receives grace at the moment of death, and prays especially for families, fathers, expectant mothers (pregnant women), travelers, immigrants, house sellers and buyers, craftsmen, engineers, and working people in general.

The earliest records of a formal devotional following for Saint Joseph date to the year 800 and references to him as nutritor Domini (educator/guardian of the Lord) began to appear in the 9th century, and continued growing to the 14th century.^[38][39][40] Saint Thomas Aquinas discussed the necessity of the presence of Saint Joseph in the plan of the Incarnation for if Mary had not been married, the Jews would have stoned her and that in his youth Jesus needed the care and protection of a human father.^[41][42]

In the 15th century major steps were taken by Saint Bernardine of Siena, Pierre d'Ailly and Jean Gerson.^[38] Gerson wrote Consideration sur Saint Joseph and preached sermons on Saint Joseph at the Council of Constance.^[43] In 1889 Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Quamquam Pluries in which he urged Catholics to pray to Saint Joseph, as the patron of the Church in view of the challenges facing the Church.^[44]

Josephology, the study of the theology of Saint Joseph, is one of the most recent theological disciplines.^[45] In 1989, on the occasion of the centenary of Quamquam Pluries Pope John Paul II issued Redemptoris Custos, i.e. Guardian of the Redeemer which presented Saint Joseph's role in the plan of redemption, as part of the "redemption documents" issued by John Paul II such as Redemptoris Mater to which it refers.^{[46][47][48][49]}

Feast days[link]

Holy Family by Raphael, 1506.

March 19, Saint Joseph's Day, has been the principal feast day of Saint Joseph in Western Christianity,^[50][51] since the tenth century, and is celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, many Lutherans and other denominations.^[52] In Eastern Orthodoxy, the feast day of Saint Joseph is celebrated on the First Sunday after the Nativity of Christ.

In 1870, Pope Pius IX declared Joseph patron of the universal Church and instituted another feast, with an octave, to be held in his honour on Wednesday in the second week after Easter. This was abolished by Pope Pius XII, when in 1955 he established the Feast of "St. Joseph the Worker", to be celebrated on 1 May. This date counteracts May Day, a union, workers and socialists holiday and reflects Joseph's status as what many Catholics and other Christians consider the "patron of workers" and "model of workers." Catholic and other Christian teachings and stories about or relating to Joseph and the Holy Family frequently stress his patience, persistence, and hard work as admirable qualities which believers should adopt.

Pope John XXIII added the name of Joseph to the Canon of the Mass. The 19 March feast is a solemnity and is transferred to another date if impeded (for instance, if it falls on a Sunday within Lent). The 1 May celebration is an optional memorial, and so is omitted if impeded. (However, the 1 May celebration is 1st class in the Tridentine calendar, so in it St. Joseph the Worker was celebrated on 2 May in 2008 because 1 May was Ascension Thursday.)

Places, churches and Institutions[link]

Saint Joseph's Oratory, Montreal.

Many cities, towns, and locations are named after Saint Joseph. According to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Spanish form, San Jose, is the most common place name in the world. Probably the most-recognized San Joses are San José, Costa Rica, and San Jose, California, United States, given their name by Spanish colonists. Joseph is the patron saint of the New World; of the countries China, Canada, Korea, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Peru, Vietnam; of the regions Carinthia, Styria, Tyrol, Sicily; and of several main cities and dioceses.

Many churches, monasteries and other institutions are dedicated to Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph's Oratory is the largest church in Canada, with the largest dome of its kind in the world after that of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Elsewhere in the world churches named after the saint may be known as those of San Giuseppe, e.g. San Giuseppe dei Teatini, San José, e.g. Metropolitan Cathedral of San José or São José, e.g. in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The Sisters of St. Joseph were founded as an order in 1650 and have about 14,000 members worldwide. In 1871, the Josephite Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church were created under the patronage of Joseph, intending to work with the poor. The first Josephites in America re-devoted their part of the Order to ministry within the newly-emancipated African American community. The Oblates of St. Joseph were founded in 1878 by St. Joseph Marello. In 1999 their Shrine of Saint Joseph the Guardian of the Redeemer was named after the Apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos.^[53]

Prayers and devotions[link]

Altar of St. Joseph, Billafingen, Germany.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, during the feast day of Saint Joseph the following hymn is chanted:

Verily, Joseph the betrothed, saw clearly in his old age that the foresayings of the Prophets had

been fulfilled openly; for he was given an odd earnest,

receiving inspiration from the angels,

who cried, Glory to God; for he hath bestowed peace on earth.

In the Catholic tradition, just as there are prayers for the Seven Joys of Mary and Seven Sorrows of Mary, so there are also prayers for the seven joys and seven sorrows of Saint Joseph; these include prayers for daily protection, vocation, happy marriage, happy death, and hopeless cases;^[54] specific prayers, novenas and devotions include the Prayer to Saint Joseph and the Novena to Saint Joseph.^[55] St. Francis de Sales included Saint Joseph along with Virgin Mary as saints to be invoked during prayers in his Introduction to the Devout Life,^[56] Saint Teresa of Avila attributed her recovery of health to Saint Joseph and recommended him as an advocate,^[57] and Saint Therese of Lisieux stated that for a period of time, every day she prayed to "Saint Joseph, Father and Protector of Virgins..." and felt safe and protected from danger as a result,^[58] and Pius X composed a prayer to Saint Joseph which begins:^[59]

Glorious St. Joseph, pattern of all who are devoted to toil,

obtain for me the grace to toil, in the spirit of penance,

in order to thereby atone for my many sins...

There is a belief that planting a statue of St. Joseph on a house will help sell the house.^[60] This belief is held by some theists as well as atheists, but traditional Christian teachings view it as superstition and not a devotion.^[61]

In art[link]

Nativity by Martin Schongauer (1475-80)

Up to about the 17th century Joseph tends to be depicted as a man advanced in years, with grey hair, often balding, occasionally frail and with arthritic fingers and a sharp nose, a comparatively marginal figure alongside Mary and Jesus if not entirely in the background, passive other than when leading them on their flight to Egypt. Joseph is shown mostly with a beard, not only in keeping with Jewish custom, but also because – although the Gospel accounts do not give his age – later literature tends to present him as an old man at the time of his wedding to Mary. This depiction arose to allay concerns about both the celibacy of the newly wedded couple,^[62] the mention of brothers and sisters of Jesus in the canonical Gospels,^[63] and Joseph's other children spoken of in apocryphal literature – concerns discussed very frankly by Jean Gerson for example, who nonetheless favoured showing him as a younger man.^[64] In recent centuries – in step with a growing interest in Joseph's role in Gospel exegesis – he himself has become a focal figure in representations of the Holy Family. He is now often portrayed as a younger or even youthful man (perhaps especially in Protestant depictions), whether going about his work as a carpenter, or participating actively in the daily life of Mary and Jesus as an equal and openly affectionate member.^[65]

Saint Joseph sleeping, Nativity by Gentile da Fabriano

Full cycles of his life are rare in the Middle Ages, though the scenes from the Life of the Virgin or Life of Christ where he is present are far more often seen. The Mérode Altarpiece of about 1425, where he has a panel to himself, working as a carpenter, is an early example of what remained relatively rare depictions of him pursuing his métier. Some statues of Joseph depict his staff as topped with flowers, recalling the non-canonical Protoevangelion's account of how Mary's spouse was chosen by collecting walking sticks of widowers in Palestine, and Joseph's alone bursting into flower, thus identifying him as divinely chosen. Several Eastern Orthodox Nativity icons show Joseph tempted by the Devil (depicted as an old man with furled wings) to break off his betrothal, and how he resists that temptation. There are some paintings with him wearing a Jewish hat.

Gallery of life in art[link]

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  Joseph and Joachim, Dürer, 1504

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  At work in the Mérode Altarpiece, 1420s

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  Joseph's dream, Rembrandt, c. 1645

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  Marriage to the Virgin, Perugino, c. 1448

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  Nativity of Jesus, Marten de Vos 1577

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  The Adoration of the Magi, Hans Memling, c. 1480

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  Temple presentation, di Fredi, 1388

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  Dream of Flight, Daniele Crespi, c. 1625

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  Flight to Egypt, Giotto, 14th c.

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  Finding in the Temple, Book of Hours, 15th c.

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  Death of Joseph, St. Martin's at Florac

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  Coronation of Joseph, Valdés Leal, c, 1670

In music[link]

• Nicolas Chadeville (1696 - 176?): Joseph est bien Marié, a choral composition (1755)
• The Killers: Joseph, Better You Than Me (2007)

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saint Joseph

• Joseph, the name
• Solemnity of Saint Joseph
• History of Joseph the Carpenter
• Prayer to Saint Joseph
• Genealogy of Jesus
• The Gospel According to Jesus Christ