| Part ofa series on |
 |
TheHoly Family consists of theChild Jesus, theVirgin Mary andSaint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,[1] but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by SaintFrançois de Laval, the first bishop ofNew France, who founded aconfraternity.
TheGospels speak little of the life of the Holy Family in the years before Jesus' publicministry.[2]Matthew andLuke narrate the episodes from this period of Christ's life, namely hiscircumcision and laterPresentation, theflight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and theFinding in the Temple.[3] Joseph and Mary were apparently observant Jews, as Luke narrates that they brought Jesus with them on the annual pilgrimage toJerusalem with other Jewish families.
The Feast of the Holy Family is aliturgical celebration in theCatholic Church, as well as in manyLutheran andAnglican churches, in honour of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family.[4] The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families.[3]
From the 17th century, the feast has been celebrated at a local and regional level and at that level was promoted byPope Leo XIII. In 1921,Pope Benedict XV made it part of theGeneral Roman Calendar and set on the Sunday within theOctave of theEpiphany (cf.Epiphanytide); that is to say, on the Sunday between January 7 through January 13, all inclusive (seeGeneral Roman Calendar of 1954).[5][6]
In theGeneral Roman Calendar of 1954, the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas was in fact celebrated on the Sunday only if it fell on 29, 30 or 31 December, since it gave way to the higher-ranked feasts ofSaint Stephen, SaintJohn the Apostle and theHoly Innocents; otherwise, it was transferred to December 30, and if the feast ofSaint Thomas Becket, one of the most popular additions to the calendar in the Middle Ages, was celebrated in double rite (as it was universally after 1907), then it too took precedence over this Sunday, until the 1911 reforms where double feasts no longer did so automatically. The 1962Roman Missal, whose use is still authorized per the 2007 motu proprioSummorum Pontificum, follows theGeneral Roman Calendar of 1960, which ranks the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas as higher than these saints and keeps the Feast of the Holy Family on the Sunday afterEpiphany.
The1969 revision of theGeneral Roman Calendar moved the celebration of the Holy Family to the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, that is, the Sunday betweenChristmas Day andNew Year's Day (both exclusive), or if both Christmas Day and theSolemnity of Mary, Mother of God are Sundays, on 30 December, which is always a Friday in such years. When not celebrated on a Sunday, it is not aholy day of obligation.[7] In theGeneral Roman Calendar of 1969 the Feast of the Holy Family outranks the various saints whose feastdays fall during the Octave of Christmas, since it is usually to be celebrated on a Sunday.[8]
In the Catholic Church, hyperdulia[9] and protodulia[10] are the names respectively reserved in a specific way to the veneration of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary and the Most Chaste Saint Joseph. Those venerations are more important than the dulia reserved to any other saint. In fact, the Virgin Mary has the Marian title of Queen of Angels and Queen of Saints and Saint Joseph is the patron of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Holy Family became a subject popular in art in the early 16th century, in bothItalian Renaissance painting andDutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. The popularity of the subject was associated with an increased interest in, and devotion to, Saint Joseph. In the later Middle Ages he had become something of a comic figure, whose age was emphasized, and was often shown asleep in Nativity scenes. In the 15th centuryconfraternities dedicated to Joseph were part of revived devotional interest, who is now at least awake, and often shown taking an active role in parenting.[1]
Many earlyHoly Family compositions are either Nativity scenes or theRest on the Flight into Egypt with the removal of other event-specific elements, such as the ox and ass of the Nativity, to concentrate on the three main figures for devotional images, mostly intended for wealthy homes. Alternatively many compositions clearly derive from aMadonna and Child, with a Saint Joseph added. Often the figures were shown close-up, filling much of the picture space.[11]
Related variants add Jesus's slightly older cousin,Saint John the Baptist, and often his motherSaint Elizabeth; but Joseph is often absent in these, removing them from the usual definition of aHoly Family. It was thought that the Holy Family stayed with Elizabeth on their return from Egypt, and these pictures tend to show the children older than newborns. The extended family of Jesus, already popular as a subject in art, is called theHoly Kinship; this might include up to twenty figures.[11]
TheParte Guelfa Holy Family byLuca Signorelli dates from about 1490.Mantegna appears to have invented the very tightly focused group in the late 1490s, painting several variants with John the Baptist and his mother, such asone now in Dresden. Some of these have standing or vertical infants, mostly toddlers rather than new-borns.[12]
By theHigh Renaissance many Italian paintings had a horizontal format. The subject was popular withAntonio da Correggio (examples are inPavia,Orléans,the Royal Collection,Los Angeles andMantua), andDomenico Beccafumi (examples inMunich,Galleria Palatina, Florence andalso the Uffizi there).Michelangelo's tempera rendition (c. 1506) hangs in theUffizi inFlorence, Italy.[13] AHoly Family by Giulio Romano is in thePrado, with another at theGetty Center inLos Angeles, California.[14]
Lorenzo Lotto also painted the subject several times, tending to add angels and saints from later periods, to produce versions of asacra conversazione. Examples areHoly Family with Saint Catherine of Alexandria,Holy Family with St Jerome and St Anne, as well asone in the Louvre with the families of Jesus and John the Baptist.
North of the Alps, prints from the 1490s byAlbrecht Dürer probably preceded any paintings. An early northern painting is by theMaster of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece around 1500, where the composition has clearly been freshly imagined. By contrast, theHoly Family by the Dutch artistJoos van Cleve of c.1512 in theNew York Metropolitan Museum of Art,[15] essentially reducesJan van Eyck'sLucca Madonna to a close-up withstill life details, and adds Saint Joseph over the Virgin's shoulder.[16]
.jpg)
![French holy card, 1890[17]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aHoly_Family_2.jpg)
 |
| Part ofa series on |
| Josephology of theCatholic Church |
|---|
 Saint Joseph (c. 1640) byGuido Reni |
| General articles |
| Prayers and devotions |
| Organisations |
| Papal documents |
 Catholicism portal |
The Holy Family of Nazareth is a model of life for the priests and brothers of theCongregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family. In their pastoral ministry, they emphasize the importance of sincere love and devotion toJesus,Mary andJoseph. The founder of the congregation, Fr.John Berthier, wrote that "nothing can strengthen faith, hope and embrace hearts with love as the cult of the Holy Family."
The members of the Holy Family are also the patrons of theCongregation of Holy Cross. The Holy Cross Sisters are dedicated to theImmaculate Heart of Mary, the Holy Cross Brothers toSaint Joseph, and the Priests of Holy Cross to theSacred Heart. TheSons of the Holy Family is another religious congregation devoted to the Holy Family.
The Cathedral of the Holy Family of Nazareth is thesee of theDiocese of Tulsa inOklahoma.[18]
A pious practice among Christians, especially Catholics, is to write "✝ J.M.J. ✝" often flanked by twoChristian crosses at the top of letters, cards, documents and personal notes as a reference to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as the Holy Family.[19] Where it is written, "✝ J.M.J. ✝" is an "appeal for the blessing of the Holy Family."[20]
| Chronology ofJesus's life |
|
|---|---|
| New Testament | |
| Historical Jesus | |
| Depictions | |
| Christianity | |
| In other faiths | |
| Family |
|
| Related | |
| Family | .jpg) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life |
| ||||||||||||||
| Mariology |
| ||||||||||||||
| Veneration |
| ||||||||||||||
| People |
| .jpg) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | ||||||||
| Gifts of the Magi | ||||||||
| Narratives |
| |||||||
| Related | ||||||||
| In culture | ||||||||
| Remembrances | ||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Topics |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Statues | ||
| Related | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
