St. Joseph Triptych

Church of Saint Agatha, Trastevere, Rome

In the central image a notably young and vigorous St. Joseph cradles the Christ Child in his arms. At left, the angel advises the saint to take the family to Egypt (Matthew 2:13). At right, the boy Jesus reaches toward the saw (knife?) that Joseph is using to cut into a piece of wood. Images of the saint teaching Jesus his craft are of relatively recent origin.

The style appears to be of the 20th century. It may be relevant that in 1955 Pius XII instituted the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1).

Read more about images of St. Joseph.

Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.