Upper Torso of St. Joseph (Detail; VVP 09) Postcard

In this detail of a 19th-century Belgian devotional print, a mature, gray-haired St. Joseph stands in front of a red wall hanging with golden yellow trim. 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 colors. His robe is red; his mantle, green with a dark aqua lining and golden yellow borders. He holds a spray of white lilies symbolizing 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 in the full-length image that appears, for example, on our greeting cards and posters in this COLLECTION are additional attributes--a small dragon, a crown, a scroll, and a globe inscribed with the names of the populated continents—that speak to his role as protector of The Church. + This chromo- or color lithograph was originally 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): Detail of an 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.