St.

Joseph, ‘Terror of Demons’, is a Powerful

Man Indeed
“Jesus slept with the protection of Joseph.”
Patti Armstrong

The Power of St. Joseph

How much attention to you give to the man who was the earthly adoptive father and protector of
Jesus, and the virtuous husband to Mary? Imagine how much Jesus and Mary love him. He had to be
the holiest man who ever walked the earth having been chosen to live under the same roof with God
and the Mother of God. Imagine that!

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Prayers to St. Joseph must
be very powerful and effective. The Catholic Church considers him to the Protector of the Universal
Church. He is also known as the “Terror of Demons,” and the patron of fathers and families. How
could we not call on him?

Apparitions of St. Joseph

There are two-Church approved apparitions in which Joseph appeared: Knock, Ireland, in 1879 and
Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. In Knock, on the evening of August 21, fifteen people witnessed a
vision of the Blessed Mother wearing a golden crown, St. John wearing a bishop’s mitre and holding
a Bible, and St. Joseph with a gray beard and robed in white. An altar was behind them with a cross
and a lamb on it.

On Oct. 13, during the final vision in Fatima, St. Joseph appeared holding the baby Jesus. St. Lucia
recounted: “When Our Lady disappeared in the immense distance of the sky, next to the sun we saw
Saint Joseph holding the Child Jesus and Our Lady dressed in white with a blue mantle. Saint Joseph
and the Child seemed to be blessing the world making the sign of the cross.”

St. Joseph’s protection must be great indeed for God to make him the protector of the Holy
Family. With families today under attack in so many ways, we should call on him often throughout
the day.
St. Joseph Gems

Someone who loves St. Joseph very much is Father Donald Calloway. In his most recent book, St.
Joseph Gems, he has gathered the largest collection of quotes about St. Joseph ever published in one
place. They are selected from the writings of popes, saints, blesseds, and the many venerables of the
Church, shedding light on St. Joseph's incredible example and his power as an intercessor.

Here are some of those quotes:

“If it is true that the Blessed Virgin is the keeper of all heavenly graces, that her love for the elect is
the source of their glory and happiness, what must be the glory of St. Joseph whom she was obliged
to love above all the saints, just as a good wife must lover her husband above all men. Meditate on
this.” —Blessed William Joseph Chaminade.

“There are many saints to whom God has given the power to assist us in the necessities of life, but
the power given to St. Joseph is unlimited: It extends to all our needs and all those who invoke him
with confidence are sure to be heart.” —St. Thomas Aquinas.

“Jesus and Mary themselves obey and offer their homage to St. Joseph, for they reverence what the
hand of God has established in him, namely, the authority of spouse and authority of father.” —Pope
Pius XI.

“Jesus and Mary bent their whole wills to Joseph’s, for he was the head of the Holy Family, but they
lovingly surrendered their hearts to him as well.” —St. Peter Julian Eymard.

“The angel of the Lord revealed to Joseph the dangers which threatened Jesus and Mary, forcing
them to flee to Egypt and then to settle in Nazareth. So too, in our time, God calls upon us to
recognize the dangers threatening our own families and to protect them from harm.” —Pope Francis.

“Jesus slept with the protection of Joseph.” —Pope Francis.

“To fathers of families, Joseph is a superlative model of paternal vigilance and care.” —Pope Leo
XIII

“O Blessed Joseph, be ever mindful of us; give us the benefit of your powerful prayers.” —St.
Bernardine of Siena.

“No husband and wife ever loved one another so much as Joseph and Mary.” —Venerable Fulton J.
Sheen.
“The growth of Jesus ‘in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man’ (Luke 2:52) took place
within the Holy Family under the eyes of Joseph, who had the important task of ‘raising’ Jesus, that
is, feeding, clothing, and educating him in the Law and in a trade, in keeping with the duties of a
father.” —St. John Paul II.

This article originally appeared at the Register on March 19, 2018.

Why St. Joseph is the terror of

demons (Feast: March 19)

Although detailed accounts of St. Joseph's life remains scarce, we learn from Scriptures and Sacred
Tradition about his unshakeable faith, his assiduous perseverance, his admirable purity and his
exceptional humility. The Church, in her wisdom, left the faithful with a legacy of a series of beautiful
invocations in his honor called the Litany of St. Joseph. The vivid appellations found therein draw us
closer to the saint and remind us of his many virtues. We find a particularly intriguing invocation full of
meaning and truth, "Terror of Demons." Now, one wonders why?

A Noble Vocation
Given the grandeur of his vocation – the protection, sustenance and care of the Blessed Mother and Our
Lord Jesus Christ as head of the Holy Family - we can expect that God also endowed him with an equally
proportional grace to carry out such a lofty mission in life. And certainly we can picture him as a sublime
icon of manliness and a pillar of strength that would sow terrible fear among the powers of darkness given
the noble task under his watch.

Commitment to Purity
In the writings of the venerable Mary of Agreda detailed in the City of God, we read that St. Joseph was a
native of Nazareth, was of comely figure and agreeable countenance, very modest and incomparably
genteel in appearance. He was related to the Blessed Virgin in the third degree, made a vow of perpetual
chastity at age twelve, renewed and kept it in marriage much to the delight and joy of the Most Holy Virgin
who vowed the same. He was thirty-three years old at that time.
It is beautiful to note here that when the holy priest Simeon gathered all the young men of Jerusalem from
the house of David at the temple to choose who would be the rightful spouse of Our Lady, he was
inspired by God to give each man a dry rod. After a period of prayer asking for the manifestation of the
Divine Will, pure white lilies - the symbol of purity - blossomed from St. Joseph's staff and a white dove,
most pure and brilliant, hovered over his head giving Simeon the sign that he was the chosen one.
Hence, St. Joseph is the epitome of a pure man: pure in thought, pure in heart; pure in body and soul –
destined to be the most chaste spouse of Mary Most Holy conceived without sin. In face of such sublime
purity and holiness, it would not be farfetched to believe that the ugly, filthy infernal spirits would cower in
petrified fear in his presence.

The success of Christ's mission depended on St. Joseph

And in his hands lay the unenviable yet most exalted duty of protecting the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, the pinnacle of all creation. God became Man to redeem mankind and to endow it with the
most perfect and ultimate gift of Eternal Life through His Sacred Body and Blood. To fulfill His Divine
mission, God the Father deigned to entrust His Son to the paternal care of St. Joseph. What a formidable
and powerful man St. Joseph must have been!
We can certainly attribute this plan to God's Eternal Wisdom which has predestined us for Eternal Life
through His Son. For this holy cause, He granted His Son to be born of a most pure Mother unblemished
by the stain of Original Sin. And to ensure and preserve the integrity of that Immaculate Mother, He
betrothed her to a beloved and most chaste spouse: Joseph.

Protector of the Church

And as the protector and guardian of Our Lord and Our Lady, St. Joseph is also invoked as the Patron of
the Universal Church in apt recognition of his prowess and fortitude. The Catholic Church, born from the
water that gushed forth from Jesus' side, and nurtured by the maternal love of Our Lady, sought comfort
and protection from the snares and malice of Satan and his followers in the hands of St. Joseph, indeed,
the terror of demons!. In recognition of this special place, Holy Mother Church honors him with the highest
veneration called protodulia, higher than any given to angels and saints except for Mary who receives a
special veneration called hyperdulia.

Patron of a Good Death

While Our Lady enjoyed the most singular privilege of perfect beauty of complexion and form even when
she reached the age of seventy by virtue of her sinless body, God denied this favor to St. Joseph. Thus,
he suffered bodily deterioration, pain and suffering with advancing age. Ultimately, he ceased from
working and accepted his fate with resignation. Henceforth, he gave himself up entirely to the
contemplation of the mysteries of which he was the depositary, and to the heroic practice of virtues.
Sacred Tradition tells us that Our Lord and Our Lady assisted him in his dying moments and his death
was surpassed in holiness by no other saint – save by Jesus and Mary. By virtue of this, St. Joseph came
to be known as the Patron of the Dying. Through the ages, the Catholic faithful lovingly prayed to him for
the grace of a good and holy death. St. Joseph died at the age of sixty years.

Signal Graces obtained through St. Joseph's intercession

Finally, again citing Mary of Agreda's City of God, we learn the following consoling revelations:
• "First, those who invoke him shall obtain from God, by his intercession, the gift of chastity, and shall
not be conquered by the temptation of the senses;
• Secondly, they shall receive particular graces to deliver them from sin;
• Thirdly, they shall obtain a true devotion to the Blessed Virgin;
• Fourthly, they shall have a good and happy death, and in that all-decisive moment be defended
against the assaults of Satan;
• Fifthly, they shall be delivered when expedient for them, from bodily sufferings, and shall find help in
their afflictions;
• Sixthly, if married, they shall be blessed with offspring;
• Seventhly, the demons shall have extreme dread of the glorious name of St. Joseph.
With so many graces to be obtained through his powerful intercession, let us not tarry nor hesitate in
asking humbly for the protection and aid of dear St. Joseph, Terror of demons!