It
is a fact, which is far from insignificant, that there is no place in the world
claiming to possess the relics of Satin Joseph. (We mean relics of the body. In
some places, objects are kept that are believed to have been his property; for
example, the ring of Saint Joseph is kept at Perugia, while his staff is at the
Camaldolese in Florence, and so on) This is remarkable, since the local Church have
always “competed” to obtain the relics of the saints. In certain eras, this has
also led to the trade, and in some cases, the creation of false relics. Why did
no one come to think of seeking or “creating” the relics of Saint Joseph,
despite the fact that the devotion to the putative faith of Jesus has always
been so strong in the Church? This argument was used by Saint Francis de Sales,
Doctor of the Church, who believed in the assumption of Joseph:
What
remains to be said now, if not that we must not think that this glorious Saint
does not have much credit in Heaven to the One who has favored him to much to
raise him in Heaven in body and soul; which seems to me to be all the more likely,
since here on earth we have no relic, and it seems to me that no one can doubt
this truth; in fact, how could He have refused this grace to Saint Joseph, the
One [Jesus] who had been so obedient to him in His life? . . . How could we
doubt that our Lord did not bring to Heaven with Him, in body and soul, the
glorious Saint Joseph, who had the honor and grace to carry Him so often in his
blessed arms, arms in which our Lord was so pleased? . . . Therefore, Saint Joseph
is undoubtedly in Heaven in body and soul. (Saint Francis de Sales, Les vrais
entretiens spirituels, appendix III, “Sermon on the Virtues of Saint Joseph”
[our translation]). (Mauro Gagliardi, Truth is a Synthesis: Catholic Dogmatic
Theology [Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Academic, 2020], 539)
Commenting on other witnesses to this teaching, Gagliardi notes that:
Other
authors that have spoken in this regard, include Saint Bernardino of Siena, Sermo
de Sancto Joseph Sponso Beatae Virginis, P. Poquet (d. 1408), Dictamen
de laudibus beati Joseph; Blessed Bernardine of Feltre (d. 1494); Isidore
of Isolanis (d. 1528), Summa de donis Sancti Joseph, year 1522. The theologian
Jean Charlier de Gerson (d. 1429) on September 8, 1416, spoke in the presence
of the Fathers of the Council of Constance the Sermo de nativitate gloriosae
Virginis Mariae et de commendatione virginei sponsi eius Joseph, in which
he argued for the sanctification of Saint Joseph in his mother’s womb, his immunity
from concupiscence, his resurrection with Jesus, and his assumption into
Heaven. (Ibid., 539 n. 132)
