An aid to “read” an icon of the Holy Patriarch. Through the profound “language” of that ancient Christian art, the hidden figure appears of Joseph and his message
by Anna Rita Farolfi
A Forlì, at the church of San Martino in Villafranca, the parish priest Don Stefano Vasumini blessed and displayed to the faithful the icon of the Redemptoris Custos, which the faithful like to call “Saint Joseph the educator”. It reproduces an ancient miniature, taken from a 13th century French psalter, interpreted by the iconographer Mara Zanette and re-proposed by Anna Rita Farolfi from Forlì.
This icon shows Saint Joseph reciting the prayer called Shema Israel, from the opening words: "Hear, O Israel", as we read in the scroll next to Saint Joseph. The well-known prayer is composed of two texts, respectively from the book of Deuteronomy (6, 4-9; 11,13-21) and from the book of Numbers (15, 37-41. It is one of the prayers dearest to Jewish piety, recited in the synagogues in the morning and in the evening.
In the icon, Saint Joseph is depicted as a just man, because he is willing to faithfully obey the Word of God. In his protective attitude he shows himself to be the guardian of the existential origins of Christ, because only a truly humble and just person like Joseph ("Joseph, husband of Mary, who was just", cf. Mt 1:19) could sustain the mission of educating the same Son of God made man, without falling into discouragement due to his own smallness.
In the Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos of August 15, 1989, Pope Saint John Paul II writes that
the Fathers of the Church, inspired by Van-
frost, since the first centuries have emphasized that Saint Joseph dedicated himself with joyful commitment to the education of Jesus Christ (see Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, IV, 23,1) and that the growth of Jesus "in wisdom, age and grace" (Lk 2, 52) took place within the Holy Family under the eyes of Joseph, who had the high task of nourishing, clothing and instructing Jesus in the Mosaic Law and in a trade, in accordance with the duties assigned to every Jewish father.
Jesus for his part "was obedient to them" (Lk 2:51), reciprocating with respect the attentions of his parents. In Jesus' submission to his mother and his legal father the perfect observance of the fourth Commandment is achieved, but in this submission the incarnate Son offers the image in time of his filial obedience to the heavenly Father; at the same time the permanent respect of Jesus towards Joseph and Mary announces and anticipates the submission of the Garden of Olives: "Not my will..." (cf. Lk 22:42).
For this reason the Church, if it "venerates first of all the memory of the glorious ever Virgin Mary", as the First Eucharistic Prayer proclaims, equally honors that of Saint Joseph, because "he nourished the one whom the faithful were to eat as the bread of eternal life", as we read in the decree Quemadmodum God, dated December 8, 1870, with which Blessed Pius IX wanted to proclaim Saint Joseph universal patron of the Church.
Looking at the icon, we notice that in the upper left corner we see the blessing hand that indicates the presence and intervention of God the Father. This is inserted in a fragment of an almond, a symbol of eternity, which indicates the place where the divinity is found. The almond has a color that goes from white to intense blue, to express the celestial world, through golden rays that indicate the irradiation of divine light: the heavens of heavens (see 2 Cor 5:1; Phil 3:20).
In iconography, the anatomy of the figures represented does not appear photographically, but in a so-called two-dimensional vision, to show a physicality in accordance with the nature created by God. Thus the image of Joseph appears with an elongated body, with a spiritual, but always concrete appearance, with a noble, hieratic, elegant, fine bearing, always understanding these terms in a religious sense. The figure of Joseph is characterized by the colors of his clothes: the green of the suit and the yellow of the cloak. The head is inclined and turned towards Jesus, the left hand holds the text of the "Shema" and the raised right hand seems to invite the little Jesus, the Emmanuel, to raise his gaze and thoughts to God the Father, who makes himself present with the blessing hand.
The term “Emmanuel”, which in Hebrew means “God with us” (see Mt 1:23 and Rev 21:3), refers to the adolescent Christ, as depicted in a mosaic in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. Christ Emmanuel is depicted with the physical features of an adolescent, radiant with youth. He wears the clothes of an adult: the chiton or tunic and the imation or cloak, very large, which leaves the neck bare, covers the shoulders and wraps almost the entire body in large drapes, leaving the feet covered in sandals bare. The clothes of Emmanuel are orange, covered with golden lights of the asist, a kind of spiderweb of gold threads that emphasizes his divinity. He is the bearer of light (Jn 3:19-20; Jn 8:12), signifying that Christ, the new Adam, took on the old Adam to restore the image disfigured by sin and make it shine in his holy light. The halo is cruciferous, in memory of the instrument of our salvation, and in the arms of the cross is written the expression from Rev 1:8: "He who is". Next to the halo are the abbreviations of Jesus Christ, always obligatory and written in Greek. Emmanuel is seated in a listening position and with his gaze turned towards God the Father, while his feet rest on a dais, as a sign of royalty.
The “writer” of this icon of Saint Joseph is Anna Rita Farolfi, from Forlì, a mathematics teacher in high schools, who attended iconography courses, directed by national and international teachers, and “wrote” some icons, which can be admired and prayed in the parish churches of her city..