Jean Gerson's Letters on the Espousals of Mary and Joseph

Wedding of Joseph and Mary, from St. John the Baptist Basilica in Berlin, Germany

Earlier this year, I translated the main text of an Office that Jean Gerson (1363-1429) composed for a Feast of the Espousals of Mary and Joseph. Here, I summarize two letters he wrote promoting such a feast.

Letter of August 13-17, 1400

In this letter, Jean Gerson discusses his proposal for a Feast of the Marriage (conjugium) of Mary and Joseph:

"It has pleased divine wisdom (who reaches from end to end strongly, disposes all things sweetly (Wis 8:1)) to, in these last times, incline the hearts of many to teach that the virginal (so Jerome calls it) marriage of the just Joseph and Mary should be venerated with the solemn cult of the Church, and to promote its devotion.They are moved (so I deem) by the Gospel’s word, excellently and often preaching the prerogatives with which that just Joseph shone. They are moved by the honor and love of his most blessed wife, who called him ‘Lord,’ as Sarah did to Abraham—so the Apostle says (1 Pet 3:6). They are moved by the humanity and benignity of Jesus our Savior, Who submitted to them. They are moved, again, by the working of the miracles which they deem to have been done to themselves and others by the invocation of the same just Joseph. They are moved, finally, by the manifold edification of morals which the devoted mind receives from religious meditation on this most sacred marriage, and which makes it burn with the copious fire of chaste devotion.”

Such souls argue for a feast of this marriage, with texts taken, not from apocryphal sources, but from the Scriptures themselves, particularly the Song of Songs, “the marriage-song [Epithalamium] of this nuptial and virginal marriage,” per Hebrew custom. Such a feast could be celebrated on the Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent, since the preceding Wednesday includes the reading “The Angel Gabriel was sent…” (Lk 1:26).

“For, probably, without prejudice against a truer opinion [sine praeiudicio setentiæ verioris] and without boldness of assertion, the marriage of Joseph with Mary was solemnized as soon as possible after the Angelic annunciation, when the Angel taught Mary, saying, ‘And behold Elizabeth your kinswoman, and she has conceived a son in her old age’ (Lk 1:36), wherefore one can assume she was incited by a desire to visit Elizabeth and to minister to her. But Mary, at that time, was not only betrothed to the same Joseph by words of the future, but also by those of the present, and received into familial cohabitation into the very house of her husband, as was the custom observed by the Jews.” When Joseph found Mary to have conceived by the Holy Spirit, this occurred “before they had come together,” as the Gospel said, meaning, before “the rite of the nuptial celebration had occurred.” Joseph wanted to put her away quietly, but the Lord revealed the truth of this miraculous birth to him. “And Joseph, arising from sleep, immediately did as the angel prescribed, and accepted his wife in a renowned [celebri] way, just as one could believed he had prepared before [prout antea præparasse credit potest]. Therefore, the solemnity of the nuptials being consummated, it happened that, as Luke says, ‘Mary, arising, went unto the mountain with haste’ (Lk 1:39), with Joseph’s permission. We gather from these things the reason for placing this Gospel according to Matthew (‘But Joseph, arising from sleep, etc.’ (Mt 1:24)) immediately after the Gospel ‘The Angel Gabriel was sent.’ And, next, that according to Luke, which is read on the Thursday of the aforementioned Fourth Week of Advent: ‘But Mary, arising, went unto the mountain.’”

(This final reference is a mistake, as Gerson wrote "Thursday" (feria quinta) when he meant to write "Friday" (feria sexta). In the traditional lectionary, during the Ember Days that fall between the Third and Fourth Sundays of Advent, the reading "The Angel Gabriel was sent" (Lk 1:26) is read on Wednesday, and the reading "But Mary, arising, went unto the mountain" (Lk 1:39) is read on Friday. Gerson proposes that his feast, with its reading of "But Joseph, arising from sleep" (Mt 1:24), be placed on the intervening Thursday.)

After this discussion,Gerson then goes into his arguments for why Joseph was a young man (“that is, under fifty years of age”) when he married Mary, and not an old man, as well as for the ways living with Joseph protected her from the charge of adultery. He further argues that “Joseph, before he was joined with the virgin Mary, was not corrupted or wedded.”

He brings up one final point: “Let us confidently add that, as the eternal wisdom of God, foreseeing the whole mystery of the Incarnation, preordained the just Joseph to be the guardian and witness of His mother, to be, furthermore, His continual nurse [nutricium], so He gave to this guardian and nurse all that was befitting, decent, and honest. For this reason, it is probable that He consecrated the just Joseph in his mother’s womb, that He cooled all the smoldering lures of concupiscence in him [ab omni fomitis illecebrosi refrigaverit concupiscentia]. So that, later, when he died, as the law of Adam commanded, He personally visited him, and, so that He would console him, leading his soul unto the repose of the just, until he arises, He said to his soul ‘Today you will be with Me in paradise.’ Perhaps He meant by this that his soul and body would arise together, just as many bodies who slept arose when He died (cf. Mt 27:52). Thereafter, perhaps he appeared to his sweetest wife Mary on that day of resurrection, when her Son said to her, ‘Hail, holy parent,’ saying also to the same Joseph, ‘Hail, most-graced [charissima] spouse.’”

(The phrase, "Hail, holy parent" (Salve, sancta parens), is the opening words of the traditional Introit for Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary.)

Letter of September 7, 1416

In this later letter, Gerson reiterates his proposal, and includes some more liturgical details. In this letter, writing to a “Parus” (Parui), Cantor of Chartres, he mentions that, in Chartres, that had traditionally been a solemn commemoration of Joseph, "knowing that praise of him is praise of Mary," and that the cantor Henry Chicoti [Henricus Chiquoti] had offered some funds to re-establish such a feast, particularly in connection with St. Joseph's patronage of good and happy deaths. Said Henry also helped inspire Gerson in his Josephite devotion.

One method of promoting such devotion is the feast Gerson recommended in his letter from 1400 (which letter he references here): a feast to be celebrated “on the Thursday in Advent when the fasts of the fourth week are celebrated.” (An interesting note: here, he uses pagan names for days of the week (die Iovis, “day of Jove” for Thursday; die Mercutii, “day of Mercury” for Wednesday) instead of liturgical names (feria quinta, “fifth day”; feria quarta, “fourth day”), as he did in his letter from 1400.) Just as the reading “The Angel Gabriel was sent” is read at Matins and the Mass for that Ember Wednesday, so “Joseph, arising from sleep” should be read at Matins and Mass on Thursday. (Gerson here specifies that the reading ends with, “and call His name Jesus” (Mt 1:25).) There should follow three Matins readings expounding this text. (Gerson himself wrote some texts to be thus used; I plan to translate and post those shortly.)

As an alternative to this feast of the wedding of Mary and Joseph, Gerson also offers a feast of the passing of Saint Joseph (transitus sancti Joseph), already celebrated in some places overseas. “This celebration is regularly assigned to the octave day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, unless this occurs on Septuagesima or Sexagesima Sunday; then, there is an anticipation.” However, the Augustinian Friars in Milan celebrate it on March 19; many parts of Germany celebrate it, but Gerson knew not the day.

Gerson ends by begging that his correspondent acquiesce to these ideas, which can lead to “virtue, praise, and merit, through the intercession, for you, of this most venerable and divine Trinity of Jesus, Joseph, and Mary.”

A Brief History of the Feast

Gerson’s original proposal seems to have never been accepted: though I have found some claims that a Feast of the Espousals was instituted in Chartres in 1482, the first definite record of a similar feast is among St. Jeanne de Valois’ Nuns of the Annunciation, who first celebrated the feast (per permission of Pope Leo X) on October 22, 1517. In 1537, the Servites were allowed a similar feast on March 8; as the feast was picked up by various dioceses, though, the most common date became January 23. (This date originated in the Diocese of Arras in 1556.) The feast never entered the general Roman calendar, but it was fairly widespread until a curtailment in 1961; after that time, only those communities with a distinct connection to the feast could celebrate it. Prime among those is the Oblates of St. Joseph, who were granted permission in 1989.

Such is the more detailed background of Gerson’s plan for this feast; I hope to shortly translate the expository texts he intended for the Matins of the feast.

Sources: For the letter of 1400, see Ioannis Gersonii, Doctoris et Cancellarii Parisiensis, Quarta pars Operum… (Paris, 1606), 215B-218F; for the letter of 1416, see ibid., 213C-215A.

For the Oblates' history of the feast, which mentions the supposed Chartres celebration of 1482, see: https://osjusa.org/about-us/apostolates/holy-spouses-ministry/feast/

For an older history of the feast, see the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05543a.htm

For a more recent history, along with theological exposition, see Michael P. Foley's article in New Liturgical Movement: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/01/the-feast-of-espousals-of-mary-and.html

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