What is the Holy Cloak of St. Joseph? by Philip Kosloski

By Philip Kosloski, Aleteia, 01/13/21

It is both a novena prayer and a physical relic kept in a church in Rome.

One of the most popular devotions to St. Joseph is called the “Holy Cloak Novena.” It consists of a series of prayers said for 30 consecutive days, in memory of the 30 years that some believe St. Joseph lived as Jesus’ foster father.

At the same time, the novena is based, in part, on the belief that there exists an actual cloak of St. Joseph that is kept in a church in Rome.

The 19th-century book The Life and Glories of St. Joseph gives a brief history of this cloak.

Now of St. Joseph no actual relic existed, only some portions of his garments sanctified by contact with his holy and now, as we believe, glorified body. Rome possesses a splendid relic in the pallium or mantle of the saint, so much the more to be venerated as it must so often have enveloped the Divine Infant when clasped in Joseph’s arms. ….

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