Devotion, The Society of Jesus, and the Idea of St. Joseph

Michael W. Maher, S.J.

In this study, Michael W. Maher, S.J., assistant professor of History at Saint Louis University and a member of the Jesuit Historical Institute in Rome, explores the Jesuits’ contribution to the evolution of veneration of St. Joseph. Fr. Maher sees this contribution as closely linked to the spiritual practices and methods found in St. Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, as well as to the congregations or sodalities founded by the Jesuits. The former encouraged using the imagination to fill in the scarcity of information about Joseph in the Gospels, while the latter promoted the saint as a model of Christian living to be imitated by husbands and fathers and as the patron of Christian dying since he died in the presence of and comforted by Jesus and Mary.

Fr. Maher’s current research focuses on the role of Jesuit-directed congregations in Rome and the part they played in the dissemination of Jesuit spirituality. His publications include essays in Confraternities and Catholic Reform in Italy, France and Spain (Kirksville, Missouri: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1999), Penitence in the Age of the Reformations (Ashgate Press, 2000), and Archive for Reformation Studies. His reflection “An Exploration of the Ignatian roots of the Ratio Studiorum ” was published in the Fall 1999 issue of Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education.

“A very appealing and very readable reflection.”
- Teófanes Egido, O.C.D., Estudios Josefinos

2001 24 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-916101-38-1 (Paper) $8.00