City’s saintly namesake celebrated with feast day on Wednesday

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Christians celebrated a saint with some special significance locally on Wednesday.

Lent coincides with the feast day of St. Joseph on March 19. In the Catholic Church, the two occasions illustrate different aspects of religious customs that are complementary, said Cathedral of St. Joseph’s pastor, The Rev. Stephen Hansen.

“Lent, it’s a time of preparation for Easter, recognition of our sinfulness and gratefulness for god’s mercy,” St. Joseph Seminarian Xavier Schmidt said. “But St. Joseph’s feast day is kind of right in the midst of it is just a reminder, like, OK, it’s not all drab and mourning and weeping and ashes. It’s actually quite delightful. And the lord surprises us very often with his mercy and his gifts, and he wants to shower those upon us kind of unexpectedly.”

The feast honors Joseph, the husband to Mary and the earthly father who watched over Jesus.

“In a special way, St. Joseph could be considered a kind of a model for Lent,” The Rev. Hansen, said. “Lent is a time to adjust ourselves by following Jesus more closely. Joseph raised Jesus, he protected him. But there’s not a lot written about him. We could say that the silence was both exterior and interior so that we can hear our Lord speaking to our hearts.”

The feast day is significant historically to the city. The town’s founder, Joseph Robidoux, was a Catholic fur trader, who founded the first settlement here in 1826, which originally was known as Black Snake Hills.

The name of the town was supposed to be changed to Robidoux but was instead named St. Joseph in 1846 to honor the saint.

In later years, the city added the church which is now known as the Cathedral of St. Joseph.

“Back in 1868, Pope Pius the Ninth created what is now the diocese will create the Diocese of St. Joseph,” Hansen said. “And its first bishop was John Joseph Hogan, who bought the land which is now Cathedral Hill. So we the church came from the lower side.”

The church hosted a “St. Joseph’s Feast” on Wednesday night in honor of the day.