MyCatholicSource.com - 'Quick Help' Page: Death & Burial of St. Joseph

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Please remember that not everything is in the bible. The Catholic Encyclopedia says the following concerning St. Joseph's death and burial...

"The summons to go back to Palestine came only after a few years, and the Holy Family settled again at Nazareth. St. Joseph's was henceforth the simple and uneventful life of an humble Jew, supporting himself and his family by his work, and faithful to the religious practices commanded by the Law or observed by pious Israelites. The only noteworthy incident recorded by the Gospel is the loss of, and anxious quest for, Jesus, then twelve years of old, when He had strayed during the yearly pilgrimage to the Holy City (Luke 2:42-51)... This is the last we hear of St. Joseph in the sacred writings, and we may well suppose that [Jesus'] foster-father died before the beginning of Savior's public life. In several circumstances, indeed, the Gospels speak of the latter's mother and brothers [* see below] (Matthew 12:46; Mark 3:31; Luke 8:19; John 7:3), but never do they speak of His father in connection with the rest of the family; they tell us only that Our Lord, during His public life was referred to as the son of Joseph (John 1:45; 6:42; Luke 4:22) the carpenter (Matthew 13: 55). Would Jesus, moreover, when about die on the Cross, have entrusted His mother to John's care, had St. Joseph been still alive? According to the apocryphal 'Story of Joseph the Carpenter,' the holy man reached his hundred and eleventh year when he died, on 20 July (A.D. 18 or 19). St. Epiphanius gives him ninety years of age at the time of his demise; and if we are to believe the Venerable Bede, he was buried in the Valley of Josaphat. In truth we do not know when St. Joseph died; it is most unlikely that he attained the ripe old age spoken of by the 'Story of Joseph' and St. Epiphanius. The probability is that he died and was buried at Nazareth."

[* Note: Some ancient languages have no word for cousin (and other relatives) so the term "brothers" may be used to refer to relatives other than blood brothers. The use of this terminology does not mean that Jesus had blood brothers, which of course he did NOT since Mary is ever-virgin. For more information on this topic, try the Marian apologetics in the Non-Catholics Section located here.]

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