Today is May 1: The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

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For Catholics around the world today is the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, is the Patron Saint of workers.

Pope Pius XII decided in 1955 to add the optional feast day of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1, to counteract the Communists’ May Day holiday by Christianizing this European Labor Day.

The Holy Father assured his audience and the working people of the world: “You have beside you a shepherd, a defender and a father in Saint Joseph, the carpenter whom God in His providence chose to be the virginal father of Jesus and the head of the Holy Family. He is silent but has excellent hearing, and his intercession is very powerful over the Heart of the Savior."



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