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It’s OK to be second fiddle. Or even third.

March 19, 2025

2 Samuel 7:4, 8-16 | Romans 4:13-18 | Luke 2:4-52 | Psalm 89:1-29

From as early as I can remember, say the mid-1960s (grade school years), March was about bike riding again and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in my working-class Providence neighborhood of Elmhurst. I don’t even recall Joseph being “a Saint.” And occasionally I might hear my dad, a former ROTC Marine at the University of Pennsylvania, blurt out “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” – not necessarily a term of endearment. “Saint” or not, Joseph played second fiddle to Patrick, and third fiddle to JC and Mary.

At 12 years old, I began to work at my maternal grandfather’s (Papa’s) store, Vincent’s Specialty on Federal Hill, Fridays after school and all-day Saturday. I was the “stock boy,” helping my mother and “Italian aunts”, some with whom I shared no bloodline, sell children’s clothing including Christening Sets, First Holy Communion dresses and suits to mostly immigrant and first-generation Italian patrons.

Every March brought the “Festa di San Giuseppe,” i.e., The Feast of Saint Joseph. A statue of the saint was paraded along Atwells Avenue, led by a marching band, as patrons attached dollar bills, a tithe, at the statue’s feet. Secular and non-secular dignitaries were part of the festivities and often spoke to the gathered crowds. And who could pass up the grilled sausage, pepper, and onion sandwiches or zeppole that made their annual appearance in the local bakeries?

You may not know it from my last name, but I grew up in a large extended Italo-American family on my mom’s side, many of them living within walking distance of my home. Holidays were a marathon with visits to many homes. Hugs, a toast, and eventually a sit-down dinner would be followed with music and merriment well into the evening.

Did you know Joseph, a carpenter by trade, is the patron saint of workers? No wonder he was venerated by my family.

Fast forward 50 years… I am still very close to many of those cousins, occasionally gathering with ones close by and annually spending a summer Saturday reunited at “Pantalone Reunions,” enjoying home-made eggplant sandwiches, playing bocce, and just “catching up” on life.

Collect for the day: O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today is Saint Joseph’s Day. How could this man, truly playing one of the most famous supporting roles of all time, do so with such grace, uprightness, obedience, humility?

Occasionally, I have witnessed men of such stature in my life. The Dalai Lama. Bishop Desmond Tutu. Martin Luther King, Jr., to name a few.

I pray I am half the man these gentlemen and Saint Joseph were/are!

“Buona Festa di San Giuseppe!”

Rob Walsh

Norma and Robert Walsh, circa 1980, during Saint Joseph Day celebration,
pictured in front of norma&sons, teen and junior miss clothing boutique.

Credit: The above poster was designed and silk screen printed by my RISD roommate
and dear friend, James Finkle, in 1977.