Terror of Demons

On this first Wednesday of May, my community continues a centuries-old tradition of honoring St Joseph that originated with the Carmelites. One of Joseph's most unlikely titles is "terror of demons," and if the rumors about a scheduled satanic mass at Harvard turn out to be substantiated, we better start invoking him big-time.

  St George fighting the Dragon--that's more
like my idea of the "Terror of  Demons"!

But, really: St. Joseph? You'd think the title "terror of demons" would belong to the more ferocious saints, like St. Michael the Archangel, St. George, or even St. James the Moorslayer.

Instead, it is the meek carpenter who makes the underworld tremble. You have to admit he has a track record. Just ask Herod the Great about the toddler who escaped his minions' swords.

Another holy terror: St.
James (the Apostle), depicted
as "the Moorslayer."

Well, so far it is looking as though we may well need to be invoking Joseph in anticipation of the planned May 12 Cambridge sacrilege, praying especially for the naive curiosity-seekers who might put themselves in so much danger, on-lookers the scene of an unpredictable and uncontrollable inferno. Everyone who
comes within reach of this supernatural black hole risks getting swept in and finding that their life will no longer be entirely their own. That's precisely what rouses St. Joseph's manly ire: His foster-Son "came that they might have life" and Joseph has no intention of letting Christ's love for them be thwarted by some faux-intellectual "transgressive performance."

Of course, it wouldn't be a bad idea to invoke St. Michael, while we're at it.