Augusto Colombo 1902 - 1969
St Joseph and the Child Jesus
c. 1950
Oil on wood panel
110 x 233 cm
Raccolte d'Arte dell'Ospedale Maggiore, Milan
A militant antifascist, Colombo depicted the horrors of war in a series of works during World War II . However he also executed a large number of religious works including Via Crucis (1946), The Family of Jesus (1949), Caino e Abele (1947), L'Addolorata (1950), Tentazione di Adamo (1947), L’adultera
(1961), Cristo nell'orto (1964);
"St Matthew describes St Joseph with one word: he was a “just” man, “dikaios”, from “dike”, and in the vision of the Old Testament, as we find it, for example, in Psalm 1; the man who is immersed in the word of God, who lives in the word of God and does not experience the Law as a “yoke” but rather as a “joy”, who dwells in — we might say — the Law as a “Gospel”.
St Joseph was just, he was immersed in the word of God, written and transmitted through the wisdom of his people, and he was trained and called in this very way to know the Incarnate Word — the Word who came among us as a man — and was predestined to look after, to protect this Incarnate Word; this remained his mission for ever: to look after Holy Church and Our Lord"
(Pope Benedict XVI, At the end of the spiritual exercises of the Curia, 19th March 2011)
See also:
Pope Leo XIII Quamquam pluries (15th August 1889) (Devotion to St Joseph)
Pope John Paul II Redemptoris Custos (15th August 1989) (St Joseph in the Life of Christ and in the Church)
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