Roman Canon
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Saint Joseph’s name was inserted into the Roman Canon of the mass. What is the Roman Canon? We are not talking here about a roman cannon, but we are speaking here of the ancient Eucharistic prayer that is used by the priest at mass. For hundreds of years this was the only Eucharistic prayer used at mass. After the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the church began to use four Eucharistic prayers with Eucharistic prayer one retaining the name of “Roman Canon.”
Devotion to St. Joseph took many hundreds of years to develop in the life of the church. It wasn’t until December 8, 1870, that St. Joseph was proclaimed Patron of the Universal Church by Blessed Pope Pius IX. In the litany of St. Joseph he is called “Mirror of Patience” which indeed he is. How St. Joseph’s name became included into the Canon of the mass is very inspiring.
*Pope St. John the XXIII had a great devotion to St. Joseph. He opened the Second Vatican Council in 1962. On November 10, 1962, at one of the sessions of the Council, a bishop named Petar Cule, offered a presentation on St. Joseph to the bishops at the council. During his lengthy presentation he requested that the name of St. Joseph be included into the Canon of the Mass (Roman Canon). Unfortunately, Bishop Cule was not very well known, and the presentation did not go well. He had trouble articulating things and was very repetitive as well as being very nervous. The moderator of the session at one point asked him to conclude his “eloquent and holy sermon”. Bishop Cule shuffled his aged body back to his seat in apparent defeat.
Meanwhile Pope John XXIII had been watching all of this unfold on closed circuit television. He was not happy with the way he had been treated. Pope John XXIII knew Bishop Cule personally. He knew that this bishop from Yugoslavia had suffered much under the Communist regime. He was persecuted and interrogated frequently and eventually sentenced to 11 years of hard labour in a concentration camp. The government attempted to kill the bishop by placing him on a train that was deliberately wrecked in order to kill everyone on board. He survived, but his hips were shattered. After he was released from prison he suffered from PTSD for the rest of his life. Pope John XXIII knew that it had taken much effort for him to be there, and that Bishop Cule wanted to go to the council to testify that he had been spared from death through the intercession of St. Joseph.
This event caused Pope John XXIII to act, and on November 13, three days after his presentation to the council, the pope decreed that the name of St.
Joseph was to be included into the Roman Canon. It took effect on December 8,1962.
Today, the name of St. Joseph appears in all four Eucharistic prayers. This did not come about until the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Francis. Pope Benedict XVI intended to insert his name into the other 3 Eucharistic prayers, but he resigned before he could do so. Pope Francis fulfilled Pope Benedict XVI’s intentions by placing the name of St. Joseph in all the Eucharistic prayers on May 1, 2013. * Only 12 years ago.
Then from December 8,2020 until December 8, 2021, Pope Francis declared the Year of St. Joseph. And the Patron Saint of Canada is, you guessed it, St. Joseph. We are also blessed that we belong to St. Joseph’s parish.
So next time you go to Mass, listen to hear the name of our spiritual father and pray that he may intercede for us, our country and the world.
St. Joseph… Mirror of Patience Pray for us.
*From Consecration to St. Joseph The Wonders of our Spiritual Father by Fr. Donald H. Calloway MIC