St. Joseph, Protector of the Church (VVP 09)

Here, a mature, grey-haired St. Joseph stands atop a globe in front of a red wall hanging with golden yellow trim and tassels. The tapestry is patterned with equal-armed crosses enclosed in rotated squares. How it is hung defies logical explanation because the background consists of an infinitely deep aqua-blue sky bespattered with stars. + St. Joseph is richly garbed in strong colours. His robe is red; his mantle, green with a dark aqua lining and golden yellow borders. He holds a spray of white lilies symbolising purity in his right hand and an L-shaped brown wooden carpenter’s rule indicative of his profession in his left. + Beneath St. Joseph’s sandaled feet are a small dragon, a crown, a scroll, and a globe inscribed with the names of the populated continents—Asia, Australia, (North and South) America, Africa, and Europe. The dragon and the scroll represent threats to the Church. The dragon signifies Satan; the scroll, heresies by being a précis of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s 1864 Syllabus of Errors, a document articulating 19th-century philosophical and political positions hostile to Catholicism. The scroll reads: Non serviam (“I will not serve”) / Atheismus (Atheism) / Odium Ecclesiae (Hatred of the Church) ~ S. Pontifice (The Pope) ~ Episcopi (Bishops) ~ Presbyteri (Priests) / Liberalism. The phrase “Non serviam”, that is, “I will not serve”, is attributed to Satan who rejected God and was banished from heaven. Atheism, Anticlericalism, and Liberalism are self-explanatory and were movements that shaped Pius IX’s policies, especially regarding the unification of Italy and its rise as a modern nation-state. The towering figure of St. Joseph stamps out heresy and tramples underfoot Satan’s power over the world by crushing the dragon beneath his feet toppling the crown from the dragon’s head. + A much more elaborate, near-contemporary variant was issued as a black and white lithograph. (Compare our DT 01.) Like the black-and-white litho, this chromo- or colour lithograph was published to promulgate Pope Leo XIII’s “Prayer to St. Joseph” of 1889. + Principal Feast of St. Joseph: March 19; Feast of St. Joseph the Worker: May 1 + Image Credit (VVP 09): Antique chromolithograph of Saint Joseph, Protector of the Church, Pray For Us [H. Jozef, beschermer der H. Kerk, B.V.O.] originally published by K[arel] v[an] d[er] Vyvere-Petyt, Bruges, Belgium, c. 1890, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.