God has healed many people through the intercession of St. Joseph, such as St. Teresa of Avila. She often told people how she was so terribly ill that she considered herself half-dead, but after praying to St. Joseph, she experienced a miraculous cure.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux would have died in infancy were it not for the intercession of St. Joseph. Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, Thérèse’s parents, were very devoted to St. Joseph. They named two of their children after St. Joseph but, sadly, both of the children died in childbirth. When Zélie was again pregnant, she believed the child in her womb was a boy, and she planned to name the child Joseph. After childbirth, however, the baby was discovered to be a girl, and it was decided that her name would be Thérèse.

Shortly after Thérèse was born, she became deathly ill. No one knew the cause of the illness. Her mother, having already experienced the death of several other children, was greatly saddened but resigned to God’s holy will. Fearing that little Thérèse was going to die, Zélie knelt before a statue of St. Joseph in her bedroom and asked the saint to heal her daughter. Miraculously, Thérèse was healed! Thérèse’s mother wrote down an account of what had happened to her little Thérèse. She wrote:

I went up to my room [little Thérèse was on the first floor with a wet nurse], I knelt at the feet of St. Joseph, and I asked him for the grace of healing for the little one, while resigning myself to God’s will. I do not often cry, but I was crying as I prayed. I didn’t know if I should go downstairs. In the end, I decided to go down, and what did I see? The baby was nursing vigorously. She did not let go until 1 p.m. She spit up a bit and fell back as though dead on her wet nurse. There were five of us around her. Everyone was stunned. There was a worker who was crying; I felt my blood run cold. The baby had no visible breath. It did no good for us to lean over to try and discover a sign of life because we could see nothing. But she was so calm, so peaceful, that I thanked God for having her die so gently. Then a quarter of an hour went by, and my little Thérèse opened her eyes and started to smile.

SAINT JOSEPH OFFERS HOPE IN TIMES OF SICKNESS. If you or someone you know is sick, go to St. Joseph. Jesus wants you to go to your spiritual father and ask him for help and healing. It’s up to God whether or not a physical healing will be given, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, as St. Zélie did for her little Thérèse.

If you or a loved one receive a healing, don’t forget that you are still going to suffer in life. Saint Thérèse was healed as an infant, but she suffered many other ailments in life, and eventually succumbed to death. Even Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, died again. Thus, whether you experience a physical healing or not, St. Joseph always offers hope for an illness-free life in heaven. Saint Joseph will help you be abandoned to Divine Providence.

Like St. Joseph, let us live each day according to the dispositions of providence, doing whatever God suggests.

— St. Joseph Marello

Read “Votive Masses”

Pray the Litany of St. Joseph

“Used with permission of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Stockbridge, MA USA.”