WASHINGTON — With Pope Francis having declared this the Year of St. Joseph through Dec. 8, fresh interest has been generated in the foster father of Jesus.
Louise Perrotta is putting the finishing touches on a new book on the saint that she says her publisher, The Word Among Us Press, hopes to make available by May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
Perrotta, who can remember adding “JMJ” for “Jesus, Mary, Joseph” after her own name on schoolwork in grade and high school, said St. Joseph, Tender Father: His Life and His Care for Us will be full of enlightening details about the man some refer to as “the silent saint” as he is not quoted in any of the Gospels.
One of 11 children, Perrotta grew up in a French-Canadian family in Maine. “French-Canadians have a real devotion to St. Joseph,” she said. “All of my brothers have Joseph as their middle name.” St. Joseph, Tender Father includes the tale of St. Andre Bessette, the Canadian Holy Cross brother who wanted to build a memorial to St. Joseph. He succeeded grandly with the Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal, which Perrotta has visited.
Perrotta noted that “in the early days of the Church,” there were heresies denying Christ’s divinity and the virgin birth. “It wasn’t seen as wise by the early Church fathers to talk about Jesus’ earthly father so much.”
St. Joseph, she added, was “portrayed in art as old, bald and much older than Mary” prior to St. Teresa of Avila.
“Teresa really had a really loving relationship with St. Joseph. She saw herself as part of the holy family,” Perrotta said. “Teresa’s mother died when she was 11. In her 20s, she had a debilitating illness and she experienced healing through the intercession of St. Joseph. She took Mary as her mother and Joseph as her father when she was healed.”
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