The United States celebrates Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June. Many countries with a Catholic heritage, however, such as Portugal and Spain, have already honored fathers on March 19: the feast of St. Joseph, husband of Mary and patron saint of fathers.
Joseph is easy to overlook. None of his words were included in the Christian Bible. In Islam, the Quran omits him entirely, though it does include Jesus and Mary by name; in fact, it refers to Mary more than the Christian Gospels do. And while Catholic tradition gives the highest veneration to the Virgin Mary, it gives less emphasis to Joseph’s significance – there is even a joke that a Sunday school student thought Jesus’ parents names were “Verge ‘n Mary,” after hearing her name so much more than his.
