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Has Devotion to St. Joseph Supplanted Devotion to St. John the Baptist?

Tradition and Sanity

Nowadays, it would be fair to say that the common opinion among Catholics is that St. Joseph is the greatest ever saint after the Blessed Virgin Mary. When it becomes apparent upon study that, in the history of the Church both Eastern and Western, devotion to St. John the Baptist vastly, almost infinitely, exceeded devotion to St. Joseph until modern centuries, and that liturgically he still has a much larger role—he is mentioned nine times in each celebration of the classical Roman rite, compared to zero or one mention of Joseph, and he has, at least on the traditional calendar, more feastdays than Joseph has, as also have the Archangels—one develops a burning desire to understand why so much emphasis was placed on John the Baptist, and relatively little on Joseph? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.traditionsanity.com/subscribe