The Carpenter’s Square
St Joseph’s trade, and the holiness of honest work.
Joseph worked with his hands as a carpenter and builder in Nazareth. Jesus was known as “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55), and himself as “the carpenter” (Mark 6:3).
The tools of his trade. The carpenter’s square, the saw, the plane or the axe in St Joseph’s hands recall the work by which he fed and sheltered the Holy Family.
The just man. A square makes every corner true. Scripture calls Joseph “a just man” (Matthew 1:19), upright in all he did.
St Joseph the Worker. In 1955 Pope Pius XII made 1 May the feast of St Joseph the Worker, to honour the holiness of daily work.
Patron. Joseph is patron of workers and carpenters, of fathers and families, of a happy death, and of the whole Church.
Where you’ll see it
In their hands
All symbols →
A statue with the carpenter’s square?
Every statue is made from scratch in our studio in Mangalore.