After the Virgin Mary, demons fear St. Joseph more than any other saint. The power of St. Joseph is truly extraordinary. He alone bears the title “Terror of Demons.” What makes this unique title of St. Joseph so extraordinary is that St. Joseph was not a pope, a priest, a monk, or a martyr. Saint Joseph is a layman. Like most laymen, he is a father and a husband. It is his purity, in particular, that gives St. Joseph extraordinary intercessory power against the forces of darkness.
Have you heard of Blessed Bartolo Longo, who lived during the late 19th and early 20th century? He was born in Latiano, Italy, to a devout Catholic family. As a young man, he studied law at the University of Naples. After being swept away by various political ideologies, he became anti-Catholic, radically opposed to what he believed were the “old wives’ tales” of Catholicism. Within a short period of time, he went from adhering to nationalistic ideologies to becoming involved in spiritualism. This led him to attend séances and become an ordained priest of Satan.
Bartolo’s involvement with the occult and spiritualism left him empty and unhappy. He suffered from hallucinations, torturous nightmares, frazzled nerves, bodily ailments, and severe depression. Seeking guidance, he turned to a friend and Dominican priest and began to experience a radical conversion. Fearing for his soul, he renounced spiritualism and its practices and turned back to the Catholicism of his youth. In gratitude for having been delivered from the occult, he became a Third Order Dominican and dedicated his life to the spread of the rosary, especially by renewing the Catholic faith in the ancient city of Pompeii and building there the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. He was also very devoted to St. Joseph, prayed to him every day, and was particularly fond of his title “Terror of Demons.” Bartolo had such a great love for St. Joseph that he told everyone to go to Joseph in their fight against temptations of any kind. Bartolo Longo, the former satanic priest, was beatified by St. John Paul II in 1980.
It is a great blessing for souls to be under the protection of the saint whose name makes demons tremble and flee.
Pronounce often and with great confidence the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Their names bring peace, love, health, blessings, majesty, glory, admiration, joy, happiness, and veneration. Their holy names are a blessing to angels and men, and a terror to demons. Christians should always have the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their hearts and on their lips.
The life of Blessed Bartolo Longo gives us proof that St. Joseph is a powerful intercessor against the forces of darkness. Saint Joseph sees the face of God and has power over evil because he is pure. On earth, he gazed upon the face of Jesus for decades. In heaven, he gazes upon the divine countenance forever. The radiance of St. Joseph’s face blinds the demons of hell. The purity of St. Joseph terrorizes Satan.
For this reason, it is a tragedy that the majority of art depicting St. Joseph has presented him as an elderly man. This is far from the truth of who St. Joseph is as a man. Saint Joseph is a dragon-slayer! His lily is not the cane of an old man; it is the lance of a knight! Rare is the artist who has depicted the lily of St. Joseph as a sharp weapon piercing the serpent dragon. What the Church needs today are images that depict St. Joseph as a dragon-slayer. He worked with manly tools, chopped wood, and swung a sharp ax! Such images are needed in homes and churches today to convey the real manhood of St. Joseph.
St. Joseph is one of the most powerful warriors against evil that we have at our side; and today, one of the greatest evil forces wreaking havoc in the lives of men and women is pornography. Studies have shown that pornographic websites are the most frequented sites on the internet. Ask any priest, and he will tell you that the number one sin among men today is impurity. Many women, as well, have fallen prey to the evils of the pornographic culture. Pornography is a spiritual plague destroying the minds and hearts of men and women on a global scale. Some of the fruits of pornography involve immoral actions with oneself, homosexual acts and lifestyles, pedophilia, cohabitation, contraception, and abortion.
Pornography leaves a person powerless and spiritually impotent. This explains why so many men today have no strength to fight evil. Satan has nothing to fear from a person who has freely chosen to let evil and sin into his life through lust, pornography, immoral desires, and every other form of perversion. An impure heart blinds a person to the countenance of God. Therefore, if men and women want to see God and have power over darkness, they must strive to have a chaste and loving heart like St. Joseph. They must strive for purity.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.
Men and women who want to be pure, pray. Without prayer, no one (male or female) can be pure. Pope Leo XIII understood this very well. At the end of the 19th century, Satan unleashed a spiritual deluge of filth, immodesty, and impurity on the world. Pope Leo XIII desired to fight it and forged together two of the greatest spiritual weapons the Church has in her arsenal: the rosary and St. Joseph. This prophetic pope requested that the following prayer to St. Joseph be prayed at the end of the rosary in the month of October:
To you, O Blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction, and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse, we now, with hearts filled with confidence, earnestly beg you to take us under your protection. Through that sacred bond of charity which united you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by that fatherly love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you to look graciously upon the beloved inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by his blood, and to aid us in our necessities with your power and strength.
Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen children of Jesus Christ. Keep from us, O most loving father, all blight of error and corruption. Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness. And just as you once saved the Child Jesus from mortal danger, so now defend God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Shield us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and strengthened by your help, we may be able to live a virtuous life, die a happy death, and obtain everlasting bliss in heaven. Amen.
The Church needs to constantly invoke the aid of St. Joseph to overcome the devil. Saint Joseph is more powerful in heaven than he was on earth! Now is the time for consecration to St. Joseph! Now is the time to turn to your spiritual father and ask him to help you in the battle for purity. How can you do this specifically?
Get the new book “Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father”. It offers a 33-day method of consecration to St. Joseph that is similar to St. Louis de Montfort’s 33-day consecration to Mary. In the program, you will learn all about the greatness and wonders of St. Joseph. In the book, you will also discover commissioned art that depicts St. Joseph as young, strong, and chivalrous. An incredible website has been established by the Marian Fathers to help you learn about consecration to St. Joseph. On the website, you can purchase the book as well as the commissioned artwork on St. Joseph.
The Church and the world need men and women who are terrors of demons! It will only happen when men and women consecrate themselves to St. Joseph and learn to imitate his purity. If men and women do this, the world will be renewed.
Valiant and strong is the man who, like St. Joseph, perseveres in humility; he will be conqueror at once of the devil and of the world, which is full of ambition, vanity, and pride.
Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, a convert to Catholicism, is a member of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. Author of “Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father“, Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, brings to life the wonders, the power, and the ceaseless love of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and the Terror of Demons.