Righteous Righteous Joseph the Betrothed

Righteous Joseph the Betrothed was the espoused husband of the Most Holy Theotokos and foster-father of Jesus Christ. A descendant of King David through the tribe of Judah, he lived humbly in Nazareth of Galilee, working as a carpenter. Widowed after the death of his first wife, Salome, by whom he had four sons (James, Joses, Simon, and Judas) and two daughters, Joseph lived a long life of righteousness and continence.

In his advanced age — tradition says around eighty — he was chosen by the high priests as guardian of the virginity of Mary, who had vowed perpetual chastity, and became her betrothed husband. According to the Gospel of Matthew, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, revealing the mystery of the virgin conception and instructing him to take Mary as his wife.

He accompanied Mary to Bethlehem for the census, witnessed the Nativity and the adoration of the shepherds and Magi, fled with the Holy Family to Egypt to save the Christ Child from Herod, and later settled with them in Nazareth. His last Gospel appearance is the episode of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple; he is not mentioned afterward and, by tradition, died before Christ's public ministry began.