Guardian of the Redeemer

An apostolic exhortation 'on the person and mission of Saint Joseph in the life of Christ and of the Church', dated 15 August 1989, the Solemnity of the Assumption, and issued for the centenary of Leo XIII's encyclical on Saint Joseph, Quamquam Pluries (1889). It is one of the few papal documents given wholly to Joseph. It begins with the Gospel portrait of Joseph in Matthew and Luke, then presents him as the 'guardian of the mystery of God', the first after Mary to share in the mystery of the Incarnation. A chapter on Joseph as 'a just man' and husband treats his marriage to Mary as a true marriage; another presents his work as a carpenter as an expression of love and links it to the dignity of human work; a further chapter speaks of the primacy of the interior life in a man of whom the Gospels record no words. The last chapter commends Joseph as patron of the Church in the present day.