"Spend your life in honouring St. Joseph, and your love and homage will never equal the love and homage paid to him by Mary; it will approach never so distantly to the obedience, the love, the homage paid to him for thirty years on earth by the Son of God. But in proportion as your heart grows towards him in the reverence and unbounded confidence of a son will you trace in your soul a more faithful copy of the Incarnate Word."-Letter on Devotion to St. Joseph, by Herbert, Bishop of Salford, 1877. Passages from the visions and revelations of saints and holy contemplatives-St. Bridget, Sister Maria of Agreda, and others-have been interwoven with the.narrative, simply in the way of illustration, and not as being invested with authority, except in the sense in which, after due examination, they have been favoured with ecclesiastical approval: namely, as containing nothing contrary to faith. and morals, and affording pious and profitable helps to meditation. Finally, observations and reflections have been introduced as occasion offered which were suggested by various authors whose works have been consulted, or which occurred to the writer's own mind from consideration of the materials before him. It is no uncommon idea, even among Catholics, that the devotion paid to St. Joseph and the lofty estimate of his prerogatives now prevailing in the Church are innovations of comparatively modern date, and that they have no precedent or sanction in antiquity. But this is far from being the case. In the writings of the ancient Fathers are to be found, not only what' may be called prolific germs, but also positive and explicit statements of doctrine, which sufficiently show how deep in the consciousness of the Church lay the belief of Joseph's exalted dignity and sanctity, and how definite a shape it had assumed even in the early ages. The devotion paid to him has, it is true, been much more distinctly formulated in later centuries, when his place in the celestial hierarchy came to be more fully recognised; but from the first this great Saint had a peculiar attraction for many holy and gifted souls, who regarded him with singular veneration and affection, as the citations given abundantly testify.

Father Jean-Jacques Olier is the founder of the Sulpicians and an inspirational priest, as well as Catholic Author. In his earlier days he crossed paths with Saint Francis de Sales. Let us consider the details of his ordination: "On the 12th of March, 1633, M. Olier received the sub-diaconate, and on the 26th of the same month the diaconate; and, finally, on the 21st of May, being the Saturday before Trinity Sunday, he was ordained priest by M. Etienne Puget, Bishop of Dardania, who was also at the time Bishop Auxiliary of Metz and subsequently became Bishop of Marseilles. But, not content with making the ordinary retreat, he desired, like other good and pious priests, to employ some considerable time in "adorning" (to adopt M. Faillon's words) "the interior sanctuary of his heart before offering for the first time the Lamb without spot." Accordingly, he spent an entire month in a course of spiritual exercises, intermitting all other occupations."