St. Joseph's Table: History, Customs, and Cultural Meaning

Introduction to St. Joseph and His Table

According to an online article posted by St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, St. Joseph is described as "the husband of the Virgin Mary and the adoptive father of Jesus Christ. He is the Patron Saint of fathers, families, house hunters, carpenters, workers, of Canada, of Peru, of social justice and of a happy death."

St. Joseph is also honored as the patron saint of the poor and desperate, and it is in this role that we find the custom of St. Joseph's Table — an elaborate, meatless, and literal feast. In his many protector roles, St. Joseph is primarily honored among ethnic groups that follow Catholicism, although his feast day, March 19th, is also recognized in the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church. The groups that celebrate with a St. Joseph's Table include Sicilians, Italians in general, Poles, and occasionally the Irish. Being Catholic alone does not necessarily mean following the tradition of St. Joseph's Table.

In a phone interview with family acquaintances, Mr. and Mrs. [Student], who are Hungarian, it was noted that while there had never been that kind of celebration at either St. Elizabeth's — a Hungarian church their families had founded in Buffalo's Black Rock section — or at Blessed Sacrament, where they currently attend, they had heard about the custom. One evening, while dining at an Italian restaurant with an elderly Sicilian friend, the owner came over to invite them all to a Table the restaurant was putting on that year. As is the usual manner of the custom, they were invited to partake as much as they wanted and were asked only to make whatever free-will offering they could afford. For the truly poor, nothing is expected except gratitude shown, in some way, to the saint.

This idea of caring for the poor was very important in the years of greatest migration, according to an article in the January 1996 edition of American Folklore. The author, Richard Raspa, contrasts two different periods of migration:

"Until 1880 almost all immigrants were from the richer, industrialized northern provinces — Liguria, Lombardy, and Piedmont — attracted, for the most part, by the opportunities in the West. Among the immigrants were skilled craftsmen, small businessmen, as well as farmers, who brought their folk beliefs and customs and adapted them to the new environment. While they came as families and individuals, in general there were not enough of them to support a Little Italy… After 1880, 80 percent of the immigrants were from the poorer, agrarian regions of south Italy… Almost all were contadini (peasants)… the majority were sharecroppers and day laborers who saw themselves as no more than beasts, like mules or bison. They cursed the land that caused their families to live on the edge of starvation. What pushed more than 15,000 immigrants a day to America some years was the culmination of natural and social calamities in south Italy that smothered the peasants' will to continue…"

It is this later group of immigrants who brought and cherished the veneration of St. Joseph. They understood the hard times that would make such a champion more than welcome — he would be necessary where there seemed no other hope. There was also a relationship with the saints that people felt they could not have with God. God was remote and unapproachable. Saints were local, close by, and approachable to the point that "often the saint would be punished if a request was not answered in what was thought to be a reasonable time. Punishment would be the public cursing of the statue or relic — dunking it in water or placing it upside down in a cabinet until the favor was received." (Piatkowski)

In the course of this research, it was also discovered that some Catholic parishes hold a St. Joseph's Table as a way of celebrating community, togetherness, and blessings in general.

Origins of the Tradition in Sicily

The custom of St. Joseph's Table began in Sicily during the Middle Ages. An article in the LeRoy Pennysaver and News states:

"The story has it that there was a severe drought in Sicily and the rich crop farmers were about to lose large amounts of money because of the poor harvest. They prayed to St. Joseph to intercede for rain. The rains came, and the crop that was harvested was not only good but plentiful. In thanksgiving, the wealthy landowners prepared a feast which they served to their poor farmhands and their families."

There is a variation on the story collected by Piatkowski at the St. Joseph's (Buffalo) RC church Table:

"The fishermen had been having very bad luck catching fish. There were none in the sea. The sea was empty. The fishermen promised St. Joseph that if he gave them fish they would make a feast for all the people of the village. They caught a great amount of fish and fulfilled their promise by having a feast in the village square. Because the first Table was done by fishermen, this is why fish, not meat, is always served at the Table."

Immigration and the Spread of the Custom

This is one explanation of why the feast is meatless. The other reason given for focusing on fish, breads, vegetables, and pastas is that St. Joseph's Day falls during Lent.

The custom was brought to the United States during the migrations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the custom is best known among Sicilians, it is also recognized in some Polish communities, such as those in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Generally, the sequence of events begins with some great need: healing, a job, or protection for a loved one serving in a war. The promise is made that the Table will be performed if the request is granted. An altar is set up in the home; weeks are spent preparing all the decorations, and days are spent cooking. Some altars are organized entirely by one family, but it is also very common for the St. Joseph's Table to be put on by a church, a restaurant, or an ethnic social club.

One of the traditions associated with putting on a table is the practice of asking — or begging — for money, supplies, or services to help prepare it. Individual participants may fulfill a personal promise to the saint through donations of food, wine, bread, or time spent cooking. This individualization of the custom is described in some detail in Folklore of American Holidays, in an article by Ida M. Santini of Detroit, a student of folklore, who describes St. Joseph's Table as she witnessed it in her grandmother's home during childhood:

"The celebration required extensive preparation. The whole house — every piece of furniture and bric-a-brac, every window and curtain and doily — must be thoroughly cleaned and renovated with painting, polishing, and scrubbing. Then the table was set up in the front parlor, and on it a starched, elaborately embroidered white linen cloth. As a girl, she had woven this herself, and then devoted countless additional hours embellishing it with intricate cut-work embroidery learned at the convent school. Statuettes of saints, large and small — all that she could borrow, besides her own — were arranged on the table with vases of realistic artificial flowers she had fashioned herself… Using the best table and chinaware she could obtain, she set three places at the table, which she further decorated with festoons of bright ribbons." (pg. 144)

This writer went on to describe the seemingly endless specially shaped loaves of bread her grandmother obtained from the bakery. In contrast to most writing about St. Joseph's Table, this eyewitness reported her grandmother also preparing chicken and veal in various ways. She also describes customs common among the various groups: the pageant to find shelter, the three "saints" whose role is to represent all the poor, the offering of food to the saints first, and the custom of the saints eating their fill before anyone else. Variations exist on how money raised is distributed — either to those who play the parts of the saints or to a charity supported by a club or restaurant sponsoring the Table. Another universal custom is having everything — altar, table, and food — blessed before the Table is "broken," or opened for feasting.