Story of St Joseph & the lilies

Mary, the daughter of Anne and Joachim, was now old enough to get married. In those days, parents and priests chose the person a girl was going to marry. The high priest Zacharias was to decide on Mary’s husband. He knew that God had brought Mary into the world for a special reason, so he prayed asking God to help him make the right choice for Mary.

An angel came to him and said, “Call all the men that you can choose from to come to the temple. Tell each one to bring his walking stick. God will use the sticks to give you a sign of which man should be the husband of Mary.”

So all the men arrived with their walking sticks, and left them there as Zacharias requested. Among them was a good person named Joseph who was a carpenter.

In the morning, all the walking sticks were stilled lined up, expect for one, from which beautiful lilies had blossomed during the night! The stick belonged to Joseph. Zacharias the high priest knew then that Joseph was the man God had chosen for Mary.

It is for this reason that Joseph is often depicted holding a lily flower.