March 19

St.  Joseph's Day
 (La Festa di San Giuseppe)
 

Joseph is venerated as a saint within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches. He is Italy's and Sicily's most popular and celebrated saint. He is revered as the patron saint of the poor, of workers, of the family, and of unwed mothers. As the patron saint of unwed mothers, one of St. Joseph's most appealing qualities is his patience, a patience that must have been put to the test when he found his fifteen-year-old wife, who refused to consummate their marriage, pregnant. The chief sources of information on the life of St. Joseph are the first chapters of St Matthew and St. Luke's gospels. Many of the legends, however, come from the apocryphal texts such as the Story of Joseph the Carpenter that claims that Joseph was one hundred and eleven years old when he died on July 18 or 9 AD St. Joseph was not a popular saint in the early church which may be due in part to the lack of miracles attributed to him. However, that changed in the middle ages when he was invoked for help by the Sicilians who were starving due to a major famine due several years shortage of rain. In return for his help, the Sicilians promised to celebrate his feast day with food that would be shared with everyone in thanksgiving ;The prayers apparently helped since the rains came and there was a near miraculous crop of fava beans that was credited in saving thousands of lives This agricultural phenomenon is celebrated on Joseph's feastday (La Festa di San Giuseppe) in Sicily each year with special foods often featuring a large bowl of stewed fava beans or a fava bean soup (Maccu di San Giuseppe), generally followed with a glass or two of chianti which may be the source of Dr. Hannibal Lector's memorable quote in Silence of the Lambs.  It should also be noted that the practice of eating  beans was frowned upon by St. Jerome who, according to Ken Albala in his delightful Beans: A History, forbade nuns to eat beans because they "tickle the genitals".

When the late 19th and early 20th century Sicilian immigrants into Louisiana, Texas, California, Colorado and New York, they brought the tradition of the tavola di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph's Table) with them, an extravagant smorgasbord of meatless Lenten specialties featuring fava beans and many other traditional St. Joseph's day celebratory dishes. The tavola di San Giuseppe is celebrated at home as well as in Sicilian and Italian parishes where the food is contributed by members of the community and to which everyone is invited free of charge. I recall looking forward to stuffing myself at these feasts every year when I attended college in Chicago  The practice started as a commemoration of St. Joseph's role as patron of the poor. Before the participants are permitted to celebrate at the the table, the food is blessed and the saint's blessings are invoked.

The traditions for the St. Joseph's Day Table vary with each Sicilian and Italian city and village and Sicilian/Italian-American community or parish. However, many of the dishes are traditional and several of them honor the saint whose feast is celebrated, including ravioli di San Giuseppe (ravioli filled with marmalade or marzipan), lasagne di San Giuseppi (a meatless lasagna with grated cheese and butter on the top to form a thick crust), pappardelli di San Giuseppe (fried noodles with walnuts, sugar, and breadcrumbs), pane di San Giuseppe (a gigantic loaf of sweet bread often flavored with anise seeds, usually used as the centerpiece of the tavola di San Giuseppe), the excruciating delicious sfinge di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph's ricotta-filled cream puffs), and the addictive zeppoli or bigne di San Giuseppi (fried doughnuts fritters with a flavored custard or ricotta filling).

Fried chou pastries were often made by nuns for various religious holidays. In France, the fried puff balls are called pets de nonne (nuns' balls) the popular term for them during the nineteenth century. However, in the eighteenth century they were called pets de putain (whores' balls). Nobody seems to know exactly when or why, these little pastries got religion.

Here are recipes for several of these celebratory dishes. which you can enjoy while watching Joseph of Nazareth (2000) (TV)

Sfinge di San Giuseppe
(St. Joseph's Cream Puffs)
 

1. Preheat oven to 450º F.
2. Mix filling ingredients thoroughly in a bowl.  Set aside
3. Add butter and salt to boiling water; stir over medium heat until mixture boils. Lower heat, add flour all at once. Stir vigorously until mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and add 1 egg at a time. Beat in sugar and rinds after beating in eggs.
4. Shape on an ungreased cookie sheet using 1 TB per puff. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350º F and bake for 20 minutes more. Remove and cool. Slice off top, add filling, and replace top.