In 1870, Pope Pius IX declared Joseph patron of the Universal Church and instituted another feast, a solemnity with an octave, to be held in his honor on Wednesday in the second week after Easter. In Divini Redemptoris, he wrote, “We place the vast campaign of the Church against world communism under the standard of St. Joseph, her mighty protector. He belongs to the working class, and he bore the burdens of pverty for himself and the Holy Family, whose tender and vigilant head he was.”

In 1955, Pope Pius XII introduced the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on 1 May in the General Roman Calendar as an ecclesiastical answer to the communist International Workers’ Day on the same day. This reflects Saint Joseph’s status as patron of workers. Pius XII established the feast both to honor Saint Joseph, and to make people aware of the dignity of human work.