www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Icons & Iconography St. Joseph the Natural Father of the Lord?

Here is an interesting blog post:

http://www.franciscanfocus.com/2006/08/josephology-on-josephs-age-at-his.htm

In trying to better understand the life and person of Joseph it's necessary to address the misunderstandings that're still floatin' around about him -- namely, 1) he was old, and 2) he was previously married and had kids. Happily, we have access to tons of serious Josephological resources (books, articles, videos, etc.) to help us out.

Let's kick things off by dealin' with Joseph's age: He wasn't an old, decrepit man. Studies show that he was most likely only a few years older than Mary.

Back in 2002, I dipped my toe into the Web waters when I designed 'n' launched my first personal web site about cats. While I enjoyed that, it was ultimately a bit unsatisfying to limit myself to cat- and animal-related issues. So, after much ponderin', I figured I'd start this site.

So, what'll ya find here? Franciscany things, cats, St. Joseph, book and article reviews, silly things I stumble 'pon ... pretty much whatever enters my noggin'. Y'know, Typical Blog Stuff, with a Franciscan flavor. Hopefully, you won't curse the time ya wasted pokin' around here. :-)

No offense at all. I perfectly agree that too much has been changed. My only plea is that, perhaps, the case for the young St. Joseph should be studied as carefully. If it is really unacceptable, then let there be explanations as to why it should not be accepted.

I agree. One of my country's senior Archbishops once complained to me that some priests now preach that St. Joseph and the Holy Mother of God had marital relations because "they were young, so young, and could not have been chaste".

We are free to pray to any saint for any need we may have, whether or not they have a particular cult of intercession for a particular intention associated with them or not.

For instance, if a man is seeking employment, one can pray to St. Joseph, since he was a provider for the Theotokos and our Lord, to St. Nektarios, to St. Xenia of Petersburg, or the Panaghia, etc. Who is to say, except the Lord and His saint, and our own hearts and feeling of closeness to the saint's life, which one should be prayed to over the other?

For marriage, who is one to say that we cannot beseech St. John Kronstadt (married though not a consummated union), Sts. Peter and Fevronia, St. Xenia of Petersburg or the Holy Royal (Romanoff) passion-bearer/martyrs Nicholas and Alexandra, for their help and example as persons having been married while on earth?

St. Joseph the betrothed is one of the few examples of fatherhood we have in the communion of saints, so what is wrong with looking to him, as my very Orthodox priest does, as a good example?!?

Alice, I suggest you read over your comments again. We in the Orthodox Church have traditions with a small "t". I find this individualism unhelpful.

I see a theme here of the dangers of not knowing our own Orthodox traditions.

I did not gather that from Byzantine TX post. It sounded more like a projection of his own very personal reaction to the image.

The first of these Icons, "by [or, more properly, ‘by the hand of’—Editor] Fr. Luke Dingman" and entitled "ST. JOSEPH—Western Version," depicts St. Joseph the Betrothed holding the Christ Child in one hand and a lily in the other. While at face value this depiction may seem innocent enough, such an Icon displays a lack of attention to essential matters of Orthodox doctrine. It is not a traditional Orthodox portrayal of Saint Joseph, as the painter admits, but rather a "Western [read: ‘Roman Catholic’] Version" of the Betrothed of the Mother of God. It evokes the Latin image of "the Holy Family," one of the many theological and liturgical innovations of the Papacy which have adversely influenced Orthodoxy, and an especially recent innovation at that. As one Roman Catholic scholar has remarked, in contrasting the Papist feast centered on the Holy Family to the Christian Feasts of antiquity, "[The Feast of the Holy Family]...is a product of our modern age, the times to which we belong." [2] This familial aspect of the Icon is only enhanced by a caption which proclaims, "Just in time for Father’s Day!" While there is, of course, nothing objectionable per se about a holiday honoring fathers, to connect this secular event with an Icon of this sort is to imply wholly inappropriate things about the relationship between Saint Joseph and Christ. In traditional—i.e., imitative—Orthodox iconography, the Christ Child is properly portrayed, not alone with Saint Joseph, but rather alone with His Mother, thereby stressing the dogma that He is "a Son without a father, Who was begotten of the Father without a mother before the ages." [3] In the final analysis, were we to associate St. Joseph with fatherhood, it would technically be with fathers who are celibate widowers!

In fact, to protect the Faithful from an improper understanding of his fatherly rôle and his relationship to the Theotokos, traditional Orthodox iconography downplays the figure of Saint Joseph (without, of course, denigrating his person). For example, in the Icon of the Nativity of Christ, as Professor Constantine Cavarnos comments, "he is not shown at the central part of the composition, like the Theotokos and the Child, but away, at a corner, in order to emphasize the Scriptural account and the teaching of the Church that Christ was born of a Virgin." [4] Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, in their pivotal work on iconographic theory, make a similar observation: "Another detail emphasis[z]es that in the Nativity of Christ ‘the order of nature is vanquished’—this is Joseph. He is not part of the central group of the Child and His Mother; he is not the father and is emphatically separated from this group." [5] Likewise, in Icons with similar themes, such as the Meeting of the Lord or the Flight into Egypt, Orthodox iconology does not understand Saint Joseph to be the head of some sort of "Holy Family"; rather, he is seen as the Providentially-ordained guardian of the Theotokos and her Divine Child. His humble acceptance and virtuous fulfillment of this rôle are precisely the points of focus in his veneration by the Orthodox Church.

This straightforward, Orthodox characterization of Saint Joseph reflects the spirit of the Eastern Fathers, who are laconic in their references to him. And while the Western Fathers, by contrast, evidence a greater preoccupation with his person, their chief concern is nonetheless the same as that of their Eastern counterparts: viz., the defense of the Ever-Virginity of the Mother of God. Thus, Saint Augustine of Hippo, for example, while noting that, "Joseph...might be called the father of Christ, on account of his being in a certain sense the husband of the mother of Christ...," [6] qualifies this admission by insisting that, in their spousal relationship, "there was no bodily connec tion." [7] Elsewhere he elaborates on this point: "And because of this conjugal fidelity [i.e., their mutual celibacy] they are both deservedly called ‘parents’ of Christ (not only she as His mother, but he as His father, as being her husband), both having been such in mind and purpose, though not in the flesh. But while the one was His father in purpose only, and the other His mother in the flesh also, they were both of them, for all that, only the parents of His humility, not of His sublimity; of His weakness [see II Corinthians 13:4—Editor], not of His divinity." [8] It is in this sense, then, that we must understand the Scriptural statement, "And [He] was subject unto them," [9] concerning Christ’s relationship to Saint Joseph and His Mother.

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/icon_innovate.aspx

St Joseph, according to the Tradition of the Church was a very old man, while the Mother of God was quite young, perhaps thirteen or fourteen, at their betrothal and marriage. And since the Mother of God is ever-virgin, and no marital relations ever took place between her and St Joseph ...

When King David was old and advanced in years, though they spread covers over him he could not keep warm.
His servants therefore said to him, "Let a young virgin be sought to attend you, lord king, and to nurse you. If she sleeps with your royal majesty, you will be kept warm."
So they sought for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunamite, whom they brought to the king.
The maiden, who was very beautiful, nursed the king and cared for him, but the king did not have relations with her. (1Kings 1:1-4)

Let me centre on your idea of using St. Joseph the Betrothed as an example of father in the Orthodox Church. This is not part of our tradition and I see no need for this straying from our real Orthodox traditions.

Can iconographic style or convention necessarily be entrenched as theology?

succumb[ing] to a kind of Christian Kamasutra, whether "baptized" by overt sectarians or by those coming from a sectarian background.

Yes. That is the point of iconography to present theology. Look at the icons of the Mother of God and then look at the Akathist to the Mother of God. Many of the themes of these icons are taken from images/symbols in the Akathist.

The statments apply not just to iconography but also to your desire to have St. Joseph the Bethrothed as an "example of fatherhood."