Holy Family

The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France, who founded a Confraternity.

The Feast of the Holy Family

The Gospels speak little of the life of the Holy Family in the years before Jesus’ public ministry. All that is known are the Circumcision of Jesus, the sojourn in Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the Finding in the Temple. The parents were apparently observant Jews, making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem every year with other Jewish families (Luke. 2:41).

The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family. The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families. Since the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast is celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, the Sunday between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (both exclusive), or when there is no Sunday within the Octave (if both Christmas Day and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God are Sundays), it is held on 30 December, a Friday in such years. It is a holy day of obligation only if it falls on a Sunday.

Holy Family (disambiguation)

Holy Family is a Christian term for Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.

Holy Family may also refer to:

Artwork

The Holy Family is a very common subject in traditional Western painting, examples including:

Religious buildings

Educational institutions

Philippines

Holy Family and donors (Carpaccio)

The Holy Family and donors is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio. It is in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, in Lisbon, Portugal.

It shows the Holy Family on the left, and two donors in rich clothes on the right, all adoring the Christ Child in the centre. In the background is a fanciful landscape with the Magi riding towards the main scene.

References