May 1 is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as the Catholic response to the Communist May Day. The feast places the foster father of Jesus — the carpenter of Nazareth — as the patron of all who work, and the model of the dignity of labour. The date was chosen deliberately: the worker is not the property of the state, but a child of God whose work is a share in the Creator's work.
The cult of St. Joseph grew slowly in the West — his feast on March 19 is attested only from the 15th century — but by the 19th century he was one of the most popular saints of the Church. Pius IX proclaimed him Patron of the Universal Church in 1870, and Leo XIII dedicated an encyclical, Quamquam pluries (1889), to him as the model of the Christian worker. The May 1 feast is the modern expression of that patronage.
From Nazareth, where he worked with his hands, to Cotignac, where he appeared to the shepherd Gaspard Ricard in 1660, to the workers' chapels of every Catholic industrial city, the May 1 feast is the feast of the carpenter who taught the Son of God to work.
Connected Destinations
Nazareth
Holy Land · Asia
Nazareth is Jesus' childhood home and the site of the Annunciation, where Gabriel told Mary she would bear the Son of God.
Cotignac
France · Europe
Cotignac is the world's only village where all three members of the Holy Family appeared, making it a premier Catholic pilgrimage destination in Provence.