In 1802, the month of the lily, that is, the month of June consecrated to Saint Joseph, was printed in Venice for the use of a Confraternity of the parish of Sant'Agostino, in Modena.
The month chosen is strange, the title less strange, however the start of a pious practice that has consolidated over time and which has now exceeded two hundred years. It was Giuseppe Marconi who published in Rome, in 1810, The month of March consecrated to the glorious patriarch St. Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary, to obtain his patronage in life and in death, an edition which was also successful in other languages ​​and established itself as title and month.
Saint Gaspare Bertoni was enthusiastic about it, so much so that, in 1844, he edited an edition of it in Verona, reprinted in photocopy by the Stigmatine Fathers in 1990. One of his biographers writes: "He soon began to read and enjoy those holy meditations, and practicing the acts of those virtues which are proposed every day and he faithfully continued the exercise and affection of them until his last years. He nor he made them for himself alone; but he highly commended and celebrated the practice as holy and very useful to all the people directed or dependent on him".
Among these, his spiritual daughter Leopoldina Naudet, to whom Bertoni attributed the credit for the spread of the pious practice in Italy.
The practice of the Month of St. Joseph was later approved and indulged. On 12 June 1855, Pius IX made explicit reference to the book, published in Rome, Considerations on the virtues of the holy patriarch Joseph, dedicating the month of March to him. On 27 April 1865, "so that devotion towards such a celestial patron may increase more and more and that method of prayer may spread more easily and more widely", he extended the indulgences to all the faithful who "also practice an exercise of prayers and virtues throughout month of March on the model of those usually done in the month of May in honor of the BVM".
Pius IX himself, on 4 February 1877, allowed the month of Saint Joseph to begin on 16 or 17 February, so as to end it on 19 March, "the day on which the feast of the glorious Patriarch is celebrated throughout the Church". Leo XIII, in the Encyclical Quamquam pluries (15 August 1889), after having ordered that the prayer To you, O Blessed Joseph, be added to the recitation of the Rosary throughout the month of October, continued: "In some places, moreover, it has become the laudable and healthy custom of dedicating the month of March to the honor of the Holy Patriarch with daily exercises of piety. Where this practice cannot be easily established, it is at least desirable that before the day of his feast a triduum of prayers be made in the main church of the individual places."
On 25 July 1920, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of Saint Joseph as patron saint of the universal Church, Benedict Apostolic See, with which the Holy Patriarch can be venerated, especially on every Wednesday of the year and in the entire month proper to him, we want that, at the request of each bishop, all these devotions, as far as possible, be in every diocese practiced". Finally, John XXIII recalled this in the general audience of 28 February 1962: "We are on the eve of the beginning of the month of March: and this month is dedicated, in a particular way, to devotion towards the great Saint Joseph, the most pure guardian of Mary Most Holy and foster father of the Redeemer... Now since all the faithful are invited several times to accompany the preparation and therefore the carrying out of the Council with fervent prayers, so that its results of life and healthy renewal are abundant, here is a propitious occasion to follow with assiduity and devotion the pious practice of the month of March in honor of Saint Joseph".
Devotees of Saint Joseph know that John Paul II inserted the Apostolic Exhortation Guardian of the Redeemer into the context of the great encyclicals on "Redemption", thus making it clear that Saint Joseph is much more than a "pious presence" within a “popular devotion”.
In the mystery of the incarnation and redemption he had the role of "directly serving the person and mission of Jesus through the exercise of his fatherhood: precisely in this way he cooperates in the fullness of time in the great mystery of redemption and is truly 'minister of salvation' (n.8).
Since the month of March presents itself as a good opportunity to learn about the "theology of Saint Joseph", Editrice Shalom has recently published the book Il Mese di Marzo dedicated to Saint Joseph, in which the "part" is developed day after day that Saint Joseph had in the mysteries of the hidden life of Jesus as "husband" of Mary and "father" of Jesus. Aren't marriage and fatherhood the most discussed and urgent topics today?
How can we not seize, then, this opportunity to get to know these doctrinal and pastoral themes well in the light of a character who was involved in them beyond belief?
At the end of each reflection, the book also reports a "testimony", which corresponds to the pleasant custom of the "example", followed by a "foil" and an "ejaculatory", taken entirely from Sacred Scripture. Since piety and doctrine meet, faithful and pastors will not be disappointed.