St. Vincent de Paul held St. Joseph in high regard and referenced him frequently in his writings. He recommended images of the Holy Family featuring St. Joseph for churches and foundling homes. St. Vincent also encouraged praying to St. Joseph for laborers for the missions and the protection of the Congregation. He advised modeling one's life after the submission of Jesus to St. Joseph and Mary.

1. References to
St. Joseph
in the writings of St. Vincent de Paul

2. TO SAINT LOUISE
[1638, around February]
“I think the painting of the Virgin and
Saint Joseph holding the Child Jesus
by the hand is best for the little
foundlings.”*
(I:446)
*The image shown here is from a painting by
Saint Louise. It is possible that St. Vincent
was writing about this painting.

3. “I thank God for the special devotions you [Genoa
superior] are planning in order to ask God, through
the intercession of blessed Saint Joseph, for the
spread of the Company. I ask His Divine Goodness
to accept them. For more than twenty years I have
not dared to ask this of God, thinking that, since the
Congregation is His work, its preservation and
growth should be left to His Providence alone.
Reflecting, however, on the recommendation given
us in the Gospel to ask Him to send laborers into His
harvest, I have become convinced of the importance
and usefulness of this devotion.”
(V: 468-9) To Étienne Blatiron, 12 November, 1655
Page from a prayer to St. Joseph,
printed around the time of St. Vincent

4. “Since obedience improves all our
ministries, there must always be one
among you who acts as the Superior.
Sometimes it will be one Sister,
sometimes another. That's what we
do on the missions. Don't you think
this is necessary? May God be
pleased with your submission to her
in honor of His Son's submission to
Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin!”
(IX: 7)
School of Seville (unknown artist) -
The Holy Family in the Carpenter Shop
Detroit Institute of Arts

5. “On rising, I shall adore the majesty of God and thank Him for
His glory, the glory He has given to His Son, to the Blessed
Virgin, to the Holy Angles, to my Guardian Angel, to Saint
John the Baptist, to the Apostles, to Saint Joseph, and to all
the saints in paradise. I will thank them also for the graces He
has given to the holy Church, and especially for those I have
received from Him, particularly for having preserved me
during the night. I will offer Him my thoughts, ask Him to keep
me from offending Him and to grant me the grace of carrying
out faithfully whatever will be most pleasing to Him.”
Pierre Collet, author of “La vie de Saint Vincent de Paul”
states that Saint Vincent had written previously to M. Blatiron
(August 14, 1654) to "congratulate the Superior in Genoa for
seeking the mediation of that glorious Patriarch in finding
workers capable of cultivating the Lord’s vineyard. He advised
him to say Mass, or have Mass said, every six months in the
chapel dedicated to [Saint Joseph]."
(XIIIa: 160)
The Nativity (detail), by Master of Flémalle, 1425

6. TO LOUIS RIVET. SUPERIOR, IN SAINTES
January 9, 1654
“Vincent de Paul urges Louis Rivet to ask
God, through the intercession of Saint
Joseph, for the success of a matter involving
the salvation of the neighbor.”
(V:68)

7. “To be true Daughters of Charity you
must do what the Son of God did
when He was on earth. and what did
He do mainly? After submitting His
Will and obeying the Blessed Virgin
and Saint Joseph, He worked
constantly for his neighbor, visiting
and healing the sick and instructing
the ignorant for their salvation.”
(IX: 14) The Vocation of Daughter of
Charity, 19 July, 1640
"Holy Family" (1889) — by Italian painter
Giuseppe Riva. In the Mission Santa Clara
de Asís, Santa Clara, California, U.S.

8. “…in future, instead of calling the Sister in charge by the title of
'Superior,' we should use the expression ‘Sister Servant.’ "What do
you think?” said our very dear Father to some of the Sisters. And his
proposal was accepted. […] So then, my very dear Sisters, you owe
obedience to whichever one of you will have this duty, in all that
concerns the service of the poor and the practice of your Rules. […]
But let's see, Sisters, what reasons we have for obeying. The first is
that obedience is so pleasing to God that He told us by the holy
Fathers of the Church that obedience is better than sacrifice. […] from
the beginning of time God has had sacrifice offered to Him to appease
the Divine Justice, justly incensed against man on account of his sins.
Since God tells us by the voice of the Church that obedience is worth
much more, you see what respect you must have for it. Another
reason is that the Son of God willed to subject himself to it and
practiced it perfectly for thirty years; and the Blessed Virgin did so all
her life with Saint Joseph. It's also said of the Son of God that He was
obedient even to death on the Cross. What more powerful motive
would you want to love and practice holy obedience, Sisters?”
(IX 58-59)
Federico Barocci - Saint Joseph. created 1580s

9. TO Saint Louise, Saturday morning [Between 1639 and 1641j
“It would be well for you to continue with the usual
meditations and to give a special one to that fine young
woman concerning her entrance into the married state:
[First,] Reasons that a wife has to live well with her
husband […] The second point… in what the good life of
a woman with her husband consists. Now, it consists in
loving her husband more than anything after God; in the
second place, in pleasing and obeying him in everything
that is not sin. The third point is some means for a woman
to obtain the grace to live well with her husband: (I) to ask
it of God; (2) not to allow in her heart any thought that
might lessen her esteem for him; (3) never to say or do
anything that might displease him; (4) to propose to
herself the example of some married woman who lives
well with her husband; (5) to have devotion to honoring
the marriage of Saint Joseph and the holy Virgin.
You do not trust enough. Have confidence that Our Lord
will do as He pleases with your son. […] Good day,
Mademoiselle, I am your servant. - Vincent Depaul”
(II: 184-185)
Holy Family by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

10. TO CHARLES OZENNE, SUPERIOR, IN WARSAW.
Paris, March 20, 1654
We have no bad news here, thank God.
True, almost everyone in the Genoa house
has been sick, in one way or another, but
they are all getting better now, although a
few are not completely cured. They are
going to open an Internal Seminary again
and continue a devotion they began— and
we along with them— to ask God, through
the merits and prayers of Saint Joseph,
whose feast we celebrated yesterday, to
send good workers to the Company to
work in His vineyard. We have never felt the
need of this so strongly as we do now
because several Cardinals and Bishops of
Italy are pressuring us to give them
Missionaries.
(V:108-109)
Gerrit van Honthorst - Childhood of Christ. circa 1620

11. Everything indicates that this letter was written before the institution of the
Daughters of Charity. Might not the emphasis with which the Saint speaks of
Saint Joseph indicate that he wrote it on March 19?
TO ST. LOUISE
[I write to] request you not to go to the poor today.
In that way you will honor the inactivity of the Son of God and
that of Saint Joseph, who, although he had the power of heaven
and earth in his care and under his authority, nonetheless, wished
to appear powerless. Send Madame Richard to them. Perhaps
God will then impart to her some grace that she needs, and to
you, some degree of humility, of compassion for the sick, or of self
knowledge…
Vincent Depaul
(I: 155-156)
Saint Joesph with the Baby Jesus, Caspar Jele

12. TO MONSIEUR DE SAINT-MARTIN
Monsieur,
I am sending you, through M. Touschard who is on his way to
Dax, the little picture I asked Monsieur Brentel to paint for you.
The gift is of little consequence, but I hope you will consider it
of some worth, coming from a person who has for such a long
time been so obligated to your family. When you look at it, do
not forget in your prayers the most humble of your servants.
Vincent Depaul
Paris, August 16, 1636
(I: 332)

13. About the painting St. Vincent gave to M. de Saint-Martin:
"This very delicately painted picture was executed on
parchment by an artist named François Brentel*. It depicts
the Flight into Egypt. The Virgin, seated in the shade of some
large trees, is nursing the Child Jesus, while Saint Joseph
contemplates them. Farther away, the donkey is grazing. In
the background there is a town with some fine buildings,
built in the middle of an austere looking site. The top section
of the picture is occupied by two angels at prayer, borne
upon clouds. [The inscription] 'Love God and Your neighbor,'
summarizes the teaching of the donor." - from Revue des
Provinces de l’Ouest by Firmin Joussemet, p. 230
The original artwork is no longer available but Arthur Loth reproduced
the painting in his Saint Vincent de Paul et sa mission sociale (Paris:
Dumoulin, 1880), p. 74. That is the version that’s shown here.
*It is thought that the artist whom Firmin-Joussemet calls François Brentel is
probably actually Frédéric Brentel of Strasbourg, who died in 1651.

14. Source:
All quotes are from Saint Vincent de Paul / Correspondence, Conferences,
Documents; Brooklyn, NY: New City, 1999; Pierre Coste, Editor.
The numbers in parentheses indicate the Volume and Page.
Cover art of St. Joseph: Sagrada Família (detail) by António Vieira