Feast of the Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church in honor of Jesus, his mother, and his foster father, St. Joseph, as a family.

Why is it important?

The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families.

The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but 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 is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church, as well as in many Lutheran and Anglican churches, in honor of Jesus, His mother, and his legal father, Saint Joseph, as a family; it has been observed since 1921 when it was inserted by Pope Benedict XV.

History and significance

Origin

From the 17th century, the feast has been celebrated at a local and regional level and at that level was promoted by Pope Leo XIII. In 1921, Pope Benedict XV made it part of the General Roman Calendar and set it on the Sunday after Epiphany (January 6). It was moved to the Sunday after Christmas in 1969, bringing it within the Christmas season.

Significance

The celebration focuses on religious family life. Because of the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, a feast for the Holy Family has been observed by the Coptic Orthodox Church from early times. In Western Christianity, however, the cult of veneration for the Holy Family as a group, rather than as individuals, did not arise until the 17th century

The Gospel

The Gospels speak little of the life of the Holy Family in the years before Jesus' public ministry. Matthew and Luke narrate the episodes from this period of Christ's life, namely his circumcision and later Presentation, the flight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the Finding in the Temple. Luke narrates that Mary and Joseph, brought Jesus with them on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem with other Jewish families.

Date variations

The Feast of the Holy Family falls within the season of Christmastide and in the General Roman Calendar since 1969, it is held on the Sunday between Christmas Day and January 1; if both are Sundays, the Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated on December 30th.

For those communities keeping the General Roman Calendar of 1960 or the General Roman Calendar of 1954, the Feast is kept on the Sunday after Epiphany Day, which occurs on January 6th.

Those two traditional calendars only differ in years when the Sunday after January 6th is January 13th. In such a case the General Roman Calendar of 1960 keeps the Holy Family on the 13th whereas the General Roman Calendar of 1954 moves the feast up to January 12th.

Christian Art

The Holy Family became a subject popular in art in the early 16th century, in both Italian Renaissance painting and Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. The popularity of the subject was associated with an increased interest in, and devotion to, Saint Joseph.

Many early Holy Family compositions are either Nativity scenes or the Rest on the Flight into Egypt with the removal of other event-specific elements, such as the ox and ass of the Nativity, to concentrate on the three main figures for devotional images, mostly intended for wealthy homes. Alternatively many compositions clearly derive from a Madonna and Child, with a Saint Joseph added. Often the figures were shown close-up, filling much of the picture space.

source: wikipedia.org

The Nativity in Italy

The Parte Guelfa Holy Family by Luca Signorelli dates from about 1490. Mantegna appears to have invented the very tightly focused group in the late 1490s, painting several variants with John the Baptist and his mother, such as one now in Dresden. Some of these have standing or vertical infants, mostly toddlers rather than newborns.

By the High Renaissance many Italian paintings had a horizontal format. The subject was popular with Antonio da Correggio (examples are in Pavia, Orléans, the Royal Collection, Los Angeles and Mantua), and Domenico Beccafumi (examples in Munich, Galleria Palatina, Florence and also the Uffizi there).

Michelangelo's tempera rendition (c. 1506, to the right) hangs in the Uffizi in Florence, Italy.

Lorenzo Lotto also painted the subject several times, tending to add angels and saints from later periods, to produce versions of a sacra conversazione (sacred conversation).

Parte Guelfa Holy Family (c. 1490) by Luca Signorelli

Andrea Mantegna,  The Holy Family (1485)

Lorenzo Lotto, The Holy Family with St. Catherine (1523)