Free Republic

The feast of St Joseph the Worker falls on May 1, this Saturday (also a First Saturday), following the Solemnity of St. Joseph, which we celebrated on March 19. This is a relatively modern feast day since it was only instituted in 1955, during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. The intention was that it should be a Christian alternative to the celebration of what was known as International Worker’s Day. This was originally promoted by the International Labor movement as a celebration of the working classes, and the date was chosen in 1889, in Paris, by the Second or...