Feast of St. Joseph

The feast of St. Joseph is near and dear to me for two reasons.  One, I am Sicilian.  The other is that St. Joseph is for whom my little Goober is named.  

In many parts of Sicily there are banquets to celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph.  In some communities especially in small villages large altars and tables are built and filled with large quantities of local cuisine: fish dishes, cooked vegetables, breads, and sweets.  In many places, this feast is also shared with the poor.  

One of the desserts cooked on this day are the Sfinci di San Giuseppe.  You may know them better as creme puffs.  While I did not make them this year, I plan to in the future when my little Joseph is old enough to enjoy them.  My grandmother made them for her son Joseph every March 19th ( a sore spot with my mother since no one else got anything on their feast.  Joey was obviously the favorite).  I hope to carry on this tradition (no, not of Joey being the favorite....well maybe) of making creme puffs every year on March 19.  I had the honor of visiting the town in Sicily where my great grandparents were from and want my children to know where they came from.   I hope to do so by keeping alive this Sicilian tradition. 

 

With Guiseppina (my grandmother's second cousin) in Sicily

Grazia and Pasqualina (grandma's first cousins) in their home in Sicily

Santa Caterina, Sicily

 

St. Joseph is also the patron of those selling houses.  Last spring we were in the midst of relocating and selling our house.  I was pregnant at the time.  It was a tough market but we finally sold our house.  I diligently prayed to St. Joseph each day for our house to sell.  As moving day rolled around, everything seemed to be working out until the day we were to close on our new house.  Since we were moving a few hours away we did not attend the closing on our house and instead opted to have the money for our new house wired to the seller.  I guess the lawyers at the firm took the day off (not kidding) and left one secretary in charge of the office duties (which included wiring the money from closing to our seller).  We called our realtor to make sure the money had come in and she informed us that it had not.  Moment of panic.  We called the realtor who sold our house and he got on top of it right away.  (This whole time I was praying to St. Joseph).  He called us back and informed us that they had forgotten to wire the money and it was now too late to get it to us in time for the closing.  Extreme panic.  It was Friday afternoon.  If we didn't close that day we would have to wait until Monday.  I was due any minute and we had two kids.  We were in a brand new town.  I know St. Joseph was interceding for us on that day because things worked out in the end.  We were able to get a fax of the check and do a dry close on the house.  As we were leaving the closing, I turned to my husband and said "We're naming this baby Joseph". (We knew he was a boy).  We hadn't talked about Joseph as a name but he said "Yes, I think that's appropriate".  Three days later, on June 23rd, I gave birth to Joseph Michael. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you St. Joseph for watching over us then and please continue to watch over and pray for your namesake.