{"id":152634,"date":"2014-07-04T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-was-joseph-much-older-than-mary\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:23:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:23:12","slug":"ask-a-priest-was-joseph-much-older-than-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-was-joseph-much-older-than-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAsk a Priest: Was Joseph Much Older Than Mary?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<address>Q: Some friends and I are having a discussion about this. It would appear that St. Joseph was much older than Mary when they married. Was he widowed with children? -J.M.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/p>\n<p>A: There is not much definitive teaching about the life of St. Joseph. The notions that he was much older than Mary and was married before seem to be rooted in the apocrypha, a body of literature that arose in the early centuries of the Church. Apocrypha, meaning hidden or concealed, dealt with esoteric things known to a chosen few.<\/p>\n<p>The idea that Joseph was much older than Mary might have arisen in later centuries as a way to defend the belief in the perpetual virginity of Our Lady. The idea that Joseph had children from a previous marriage might have arisen to explain scriptural passages that spoke of Jesus&#8217; \u201cbrothers\u201d (see, for example,<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/mark\/6\">Mark 6:3<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p>There are arguments in favor of Joseph being young and virginal. For instance, he presumably had to be strong enough to support the Holy Family, and he was certainly perceived as being the natural father of Jesus. \u201cIs he not the carpenter\u2019s son?\u201d (<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/13\">Matthew 13:55<\/a><\/strong>). That Joseph would have been virginal seems fitting, since Jesus from the cross entrusted his Mother to the disciple whom he loved. \u201cBehold, your mother\u201d (<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/john\/19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John 19:27<\/a><\/strong>). Tradition says that that disciple was the virginal John. (For further reading see Pope John Paul II&#8217;s letter on the person and mission of St. Joseph, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/holy_father\/john_paul_ii\/apost_exhortations\/documents\/hf_jp-ii_exh_15081989_redemptoris-custos_en.html\"><em>Redemptoris Custos<\/em><\/a><\/strong> and an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicculture.org\/culture\/library\/view.cfm?recnum=9298\">article<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Gospels don\u2019t say much about the life of St. Joseph. That he was \u201ca righteous man\u201d (<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/matthew\/1\">Matthew 1:19<\/a><\/strong>) and the foster father of Jesus and the husband of the Blessed Virgin, says enough. I hope this helps. God bless!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: Some friends and I are having a discussion about this. It would appear that St. Joseph was much older than Mary when they married. Was he widowed with children? 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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith &amp; Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152634"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=152634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}