[Joseph’s] humility was the reason (thus St. Bernard explains it) that he wanted to leave our Lady, when he found her with child; for St. Bernard says that he held this discourse within himself — What is this? I know that she is a virgin, for we have made a vow together to keep our virginity and purity, which she would not on any account break, and yet I see that she is with child and that she is a mother. How can it be that maternity is found with virginity, and that virginity does not prevent maternity? O God! he said to himself, may she not be that glorious virgin of whom the prophets declare that she shall conceive and be the Mother of the Messiah? Oh! if it be so, God forbid that I should remain with her, I who am so unworthy; it were better to abandon her secretly, on account of my unworthiness, and not to live any longer in her company… What more perfect humility can be imagined than that of St. Joseph?
--St. Francis de Sales
Image source: Philippe de Champaigne, The Dream of St. Joseph (1642-1643), https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/philippe-de-champaigne-the-dream-of-saint-joseph
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