Religiously, heaven signifies the dwelling place of God. In the primary Christian sense, heaven exists wherever Jesus Christ exists with all his angels, martyrs and saints as described in this legend below.
Saint Joseph of Nazareth, a Galilean, was Jesus’ earthly father, and the husband of the Virgin Mary. In the Roman Catholic Church he is the patron of the Universal church. His life is recorded in the Gospels, particularly in Matthew and Luke.
The veneration of St. Joseph began in Egypt. The Servites, an order of the mendicant friars, observed his feast on March 19, the traditional day of his death. Among the subsequent promoters of the devotion was Pope Sixtus IV, who introduced it to Rome in the year 1479. The celebrated 16th century mystic St. Teresa of Avila was also another of his devotees.
St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus, oil on canvas painting by Guido Reni (1575-1642), on display at the State Hermitage Musuem in Saint Petersburg. Experts believe that the paintings dates back to the 1620s. Courtesy Web Gallery of Art/Wikimedia Commons
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