Biblical accounts tell us of many travels St. Joseph made. He and Mary went to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. The angel told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to safety in Egypt. Later, he would lead the Holy Family yearly to Jerusalem for the great feast of Passover.

During these trips, might he have worn the cloak that is an extraordinary relic that the Church has of this glorious saint?

His sacred cloak, also called a tunic or mantle, is in Rome, only a little more than two miles from St. Peter’s Basilica. This treasured artifact of St. Joseph has been in the Basilica of Sant’Anastasia, on the Palatine Hill, for more than 1,600 years. At the time, Sant’Anastasia, built at the beginning of the fourth century, was one of the earliest churches in the Eternal City.

History credits St. Jerome, one of the early Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church, for bringing this mantle of St. Joseph from the Holy Land to this church where it has remained ever since.

Twice a year, pilgrims and the faithful can see and venerate the relic when the reliquary is brought to the sanctuary. In the nave, pilasters still include the earliest Roman marble and granite columns in the basilica that has been renovated several times over the centuries.

This 17th-century reliquary actually holds and displays two precious relics — St. Joseph's cloak and another major relic: part of the Virgin Mary’s veil.

The reliquary is shaped like a building with five Romanesque portals reaching to its “roof” that allow for a clear view of the mantle. St. Joseph’s mantle, or tunic, appears to be of brown cloth. That helps to explain the traditional artistic portrayal of St. Joseph wearing a brown tunic.

The golden roof on this relic “building” is decorated with colorful jewels and gently angles upwards. At the top, another reliquary is attached and shaped like a tall Romanesque arch. Behind the arch’s glass front is the veil of the Blessed Mother. The large display shows her mantle with its wide blue, red and cream bands or stripes. Narrow stripes of blue border the red bands, and narrow red stripes border the wider blue bands. We can’t help but wonder if Mary wore this mantle on one of the Holy Family’s trips to Jerusalem for Passover.

Together, these relics also become a reminder of the beautiful bond of Joseph and Mary and his constant care of her and Jesus.

Normally, people can see the relic twice a year on the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19 and again on May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Sometimes the relics will travel to another church, particularly the Basilica of St. Joseph, less than three miles away. This year, the relics were at this basilica for a prayer vigil on March 18, the eve of the feast of St. Joseph.

March 19 also marked Father’s Day in Italy. It becomes a great reminder to fathers to have St. Joseph as their patron and follow his loving example in caring for their wife and children.

Joseph and Mary are united also in an old legend that tells the story of St. Joseph’s cloak. The legend goes that St. Joseph needed wood for his carpentry work. Being poor, he had no way to pay for it. The Virgin Mary suggested he offer his wedding mantle, a gift from her, as a pledge to a lumber vendor who was at first reluctant to accept this offer in place of money. But after he did, he experienced many miracles. His eye problems cleared and healed. His grouchy wife turned kind and amiable. Thus, harmony came to their home. Even his sick cow recovered once the mantle touched it.

The grateful vendor wrote off what Joseph owed. He wanted to keep the mantle, and he provided Joseph and Mary with free lumber forever. He and his wife even brought gifts to the Holy Family. “The Virgin Mary blessed them,” the story goes, “saying God would protect anyone under the mantle of her husband, St. Joseph.”

On St. Joseph’s feast day and during this month of this saint, this is one lesson that should be firmly placed and acted upon in every father’s heart for his family as modeled so beautifully by St. Joseph.

And while most of us will not get to see St. Joseph’s cloak in person, we can rest assured we can be under his protection with his cloak through prayers such as “The Holy Cloak of St. Joseph” 30-day novena and also through other prayers.

Two Other Relics of St. Joseph

Although not as well-known as the mantle of St. Joseph, there are two other relics said to be of this great saint. One is in France, the other in Italy.

In France, the belt or cincture of St. Joseph is in the custody of Notre Dame Church in Joinville, 170 miles southeast of Paris. The church has been custodian of this relic since 1254 when Jean de Joinville returned from the Crusades. Historic records state that the belt or cincture was given to this crusader by St. Louis, the king of France, who was also a crusader himself during that campaign. It soon went to a chapel built for it in this medieval church.

The belt, or cincture, thought to be woven by the Blessed Virgin Mary, is gray and about 60 inches long. Sometime in the 1400s it was embroidered with fleur-de-lis and prayerful verses about St. Joseph.

The reliquary where it is kept includes images of Knight Jean de Joinville, King St. Louis, and two angels as a way to remember how the relic arrived in this small town nearly eight centuries ago.

In Naples, Italy, there is another relic of St. Joseph — his staff. It is now on display at the New Museum San Giuseppe dei Nudi that is part of an 18th-century complex including a church. It dates to the Congregation of St. Joseph of the Opera di Vestire i Nudi e Vergognosi (The Work of Clothing the Naked and the Shameful), founded in 1740. On St. Joseph’s feast of March 19, the congregation gave clothing to all those in need.

This relic believed to be St. Joseph’s staff has a somewhat mysterious lineage from earliest years. But the Neapolitan history of the staff’s arrival in this city begins by mentioning it was believed stolen from a Carmelite convent in England that had custody of it from the 13th century. Then next it was in the control of a landed English family until the 18th century. “Its authenticity,” says one account, “was confirmed by a miraculous event that saw the only room containing the staff saved from a devastating fire.”

In 1712, the staff was gifted to the famous Italian opera singer Nicolò Giuseppe Grimaldi, known as Nicolino, who was in London performing. The story goes that he was quite popular, became friends with the court and nobles, and saved one of them from a death sentence. To thank the singer, the man’s mother gave him the staff of St. Joseph. It had been in the family and brought back by the crusaders from the Holy Land.

Once the relic was in Naples, and after “inspection and apostolic authorization,” the staff went on display in his home. Tremendous crowds kept coming to venerate the relic.

In January 1795, with an eight-day celebration, the singer’s family donated the relic to the church of San Giuseppe dei Nudi.

But for whatever reason, it was hidden from popular devotion for the longest time. Finally, in 2019, the staff was put on display and the faithful could see it and venerate the relic that, according to the custodians, has “never been restored and is in the same state in which it arrived in Naples in 1795.”

In each of these relics of St. Joseph, the major lessons of relics remain. We connect with St. Joseph — his life, his example, how he inspires and teaches us, how he aids us as he did the Holy Family. And if we ask him, keep us sheltered safely under his cloak.