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Saints for real life

Patron Saint of Families

St. Joseph

Catholics ask St. Joseph to pray for their families because he kept one. But this is a patronage the Church has never held to a single name, and in Alençon it did something rarer still: it canonized an ordinary married couple together, and left their house standing for pilgrims to walk through.

“The good God gave me a father and a mother more worthy of heaven than of earth.”
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, writing of Louis and Zélie Martin in Story of a Soul
Saint Joseph holding the Christ Child.
  • Primary patronage Families, fathers, the universal Church
  • Feast day March 19, and July 12 for the Martins
  • Where to visit The Martin house, Alençon
  • Best for Families traveling together, Normandy, married couples

Why Catholics turn to St. Joseph

  • The interior of the chapel built beside the Martin family house in Alençon. The household he kept Joseph is asked to pray for families because Scripture shows him doing the work of one: providing, protecting, and moving the household when it was not safe.
  • The room in the Martin house in Alençon venerated as the birthplace of Saint Thérèse. A family the Church canonized Louis and Zélie Martin lost four children and buried them. In 2015 they became the first spouses canonized together as a couple.
  • The baptismal chapel of the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Alençon. Where their daughter was baptized Thérèse was baptized in this font at Notre-Dame in Alençon on January 4, 1873, two days after she was born.
  • The river Sarthe running past greenery and rooftops at Alençon. An ordinary town Alençon is a working Normandy town on the Sarthe. Nothing about it explains what came out of it, which is rather the point.

Start with the answer

Why is St. Joseph the patron saint of families?

Saint Joseph holding the Christ Child.

St. Joseph is the saint Catholics most commonly ask to pray for their families, as guardian of the Holy Family and Patron of the Universal Church. He is not the only one. Catholics also turn to St. Monica for a family in difficulty, to St. Anne as the traditional mother of the Virgin Mary, and to St. Louis and St. Zélie Martin, the first spouses canonized together as a couple, in 2015.

Because the family entrusted to him was the one the Church has always looked at first. Joseph is called the guardian of the Redeemer, and in 1870 Pius IX declared him Patron of the Universal Church, which the Church understands as the household of God. When Catholics ask Joseph to pray for a marriage or for children, they are asking the man who held that household together in poverty, in exile and in obscurity.

There is no single exclusive patron of families, and it would be misleading to claim one. Catholics have long turned to St. Monica when a child has walked away from the faith, since she prayed for Augustine for years before he returned. St. Anne, honored in tradition as the mother of the Virgin Mary, is invoked by mothers and grandmothers. The Holy Family itself keeps a feast in the Christmas season.

What you can stand in front of is Alençon. Louis and Zélie Martin ran a watchmaking shop and a lace business there, lost four of their nine children, and raised the five who lived. Zélie died of breast cancer at forty-five. Their youngest became St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In 2015 the Church canonized Louis and Zélie together, the first time it had done that for a married couple, and their house is open. It is a small house.

Visit the Martin house Patron saint of workers
“The good God gave me a father and a mother more worthy of heaven than of earth.”
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, writing of Louis and Zélie Martin in Story of a Soul

Alençon, in Normandy

Visit the Martin family

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Plan a pilgrimage

View pilgrimage guides
  1. One day in Alençon The house, the basilica and the font, with time to sit in the chapel.
  2. Continue to Lisieux Where the family moved after Zélie died, and where Thérèse entered Carmel at fifteen.
  3. A Normandy week Alençon and Lisieux sit within easy reach of each other and of the coast.
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Photo credits
  1. Hero. Peter Potrowl / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  2. The household he kept. Peter Potrowl / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  3. A family the Church canonized. Peter Potrowl / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  4. Where their daughter was baptized. Basilique Notre-Dame - Chapelle baptistère. Patrick Monchicourt (Morio60) / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 2.0.
  5. An ordinary town. Patrick2crj / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY 4.0.
  6. The Martin house. Maison natale de Sainte Thérèse, maison de Louis et Zélie Martin. Pierre-Yves Emile / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 3.0.
  7. Basilica of Notre-Dame. Alençon (Orne) - Basilique Notre-Dame - Porche. Patrick Monchicourt (Morio60) / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 2.0.
  8. The town of Alençon. Alençon (Orne) - Basilique Notre-Dame - Nef. Patrick Monchicourt (Morio60) / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 2.0.