Customer Reviews

The Life and Glories of St. Joseph

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No words of St. Joseph are recorded In Scripture. In fact, little mention is made of him there. Yet, despite these seeming limitations, the Church nonetheless possesses an indescribably rich knowledge of St. Joseph and of his cultus. This book will astound most readers both with its scope and with its profundity. Based mainly on Scripture, but supported also by Tradition and the depositions of saints, it is a carefully reasoned analysis of the entirety of that great saint's role in the history of Salvation and the life of the Church. Here we find discussed the age, appearance and occupation of St. Joseph; his character, spiritual life and noble lineage - he was a son of David and therefore by rights a king; how he was prefigured in the Old Testament; his relationship to Mary and Jesus; why he has been named by Pope Pius IX "The Patron of the Universal Church;" and so forth. Many beautiful insights are contained here, for example: St. Joseph can be truly called the father of Jesus in that he served as the model for the formation of the Divine Humanity of Our Lord. Because Mary and Joseph were closely related, Jesus looked like St. Joseph, thus concealing from the world Jesus' true identity until His Public Life. Joseph's work became the work of Jesus - that of a carpenter or builder - probably the most demanding work there is from a combined mental and physical standpoint, thus teaching all people the value of their own type of work, however hard it might be. The book contains all this, plus much, much more. But only a reading will do justice to the amazing riches of The Life and Glories of St. Joseph.

Originally from 1888, THE LIFE AND GLORIES OF SAINT JOSEPH deserves to become a classic of devotional literature. Not only does the (English) author, a convert from Anglicanism and an uncle of Francis Thompson, write with effective - often poignant - eloquence; but when he is making a conjecture, he gives reasons for his conjecture by revealing his researches and citing eminent theologians from St. Jerome onwards. In other words, readers who merely want to be lulled by a trashy quasi-religious novelette should avoid this. Regrettably, the appearance of the book's pages in this reprint, with the original typesetting, is not all it might be - the margins are extremely narrow - but other than that, every Catholic should study Thompson's book.

For those who are interested in the lives of the saints, this book is a must-have. For those who AREN'T interested in the lives of the saints, this book is a must-have! I had trouble putting it down, and I am reading it more than one time!

The book title is what we ordered, however, it came as a digitalized copy and not the book as the publisher prints. We ended up returning it and re-buying it, making sure we were getting what we wanted and not a digitilized printed copy as seen in the ad. However, the ad did not say that it was an exact replica of the publisher's book, thus the reason for the return.