Blessed Joseph Vaz, (Konkani: Bhoktivont Zuze Vaz, Sinhala: Bhagyawantha Jose Vaz Piyathuma) (21 April 1651, Benaulim – 16 January 1711, Kandy) was a Catholic Oratorian priest from Goa. He is known as the 'Apostle of Ceylon'.

Fr. Vaz entered Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) during the Dutch occupation, when Calvinism was the official religion. He travelled throughout the island bringing the Eucharist and the sacraments to clandestine groups of Catholics. Later in his mission, he found shelter in the Kandyan kingdom where he was able to work freely. At the time of his death, Fr. Vaz managed to rebuild the Catholic church on the island. On 21 January 1995, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Colombo.

The third of six children, Joseph Vaz was born in 1651 at Benaulim, his mother's village. His parents, Cristóvão Vaz and Maria de Miranda, were devout Roman Catholics. Cristóvão belonged to a prominent Goud Saraswat Brahmin Naik family of Sancoale. He was baptised on the eighth day of the parish church of St. John the Baptist, Benaulim by Fr. Jacinto Pereira. Joseph attended the elementary school in Sancoale. He learned Portuguese in Sancoale and Latin in Benaulim. Joseph was a bright pupil and respected by his teachers and fellow students. He made such rapid progress in his studies that his father decided to send him to the city of Goa for further studies; where he did a course in rhetoric and Humanities at the Jesuit college of St. Paul. He further studied philosophy and theology at the College of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Goa city.

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. 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.