Bishop Terry LaValley, Diocese of Ogdensburg (Photo provided)

WATERTOWN — Bishop Terry R. LaValley, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg, will consecrate the diocese to St. Joseph on Friday, May 1, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

In Catholicism, to consecrate means to set apart for a holy purpose. According to the Bible, Joseph was a carpenter and the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose father was God.

The consecration will be celebrated at 11 a.m. in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Watertown. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the consecration will not be open to the public, but it will be livestreamed on the Diocese of Ogdensburg YouTube page. Links to the livestream, novena prayers for the nine days of preparation for this celebration, as well as other resources for staying connected to the Catholic Church in this time of pandemic, can be found at rcdony.org/covid-19.

“The man who helped to raise Jesus walks with us on this journey of faith,” LaValley said in a press release. “Joseph’s steadfast trust in God and his patience with God’s plan prepared him for events that he did not foresee or understand. St. Joseph is a model of persevering faith, courage and hope. With prayers of trusting abandonment, we confidently go to this carpenter who took the child and his mother on the perilous journey to Egypt and back. On this feast day of Joseph the Worker, the faithful of the Diocese of Ogdensburg are determined to go to Joseph, for the sake of our families, our marriages, our church and our sick.”

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Pope Pius IX declaring St. Joseph the “patron of the universal church.” In addition, the North Country has a history of devotion to St. Joseph. In the early 1900s, Brother Andre Bessette of Montreal, a regular visitor to the North Country and now a canonized saint of the church, constructed St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal.