Virginum custos et pater, sancte Ioseph, cuius fidéli custódiæ ipsa Innocéntia Christus Iesus et Virgo vírginum María commíssa fuit:
te per hoc utrúmque caríssimum pignus Iesum et Maríam óbsecro et obtéstor, ut me ab omni immundítia præservátum, mente incontamináta, puro corde et casto córpore Iesu et Maríæ semper fácias castíssime famulári. Amen.
Guardian of virgins and holy father Joseph, to whose faithful keeping Innocence itself, Christ Jesus, and Mary, the Virgin of virgins, were entrusted:
I pray and beseech thee, by these two dearest pledges, Jesus and Mary, that, kept safe from all uncleanness, I may with spotless mind, pure heart, and chaste body ever serve Jesus and Mary in perfect chastity all the days of my life. Amen.
This ancient prayer — known from its Latin as the Virginum Custos, "Guardian of virgins" — asks St. Joseph for the gift of purity, and its argument is beautifully simple. God entrusted to Joseph the two purest creatures who ever lived: Innocence itself, the Child Jesus, and the Virgin of virgins, Mary. If the Eternal Father confided His own Son and the Immaculate Mother to Joseph’s guardianship, then no one is a surer protector of chastity. The one who guarded Purity itself can surely guard mine.
Joseph is honored as the model and patron of chastity because his whole vocation was one of reverent, self-forgetful love. As the true husband of Mary and the foster-father of Jesus, he lived a marriage of perfect continence and a fatherhood of total devotion, guarding the Holy Family with a strength that never possessed and a love that never used. Tradition gives him the striking title Terror of Demons precisely because the humble, pure, and obedient man is the one hell can least touch.
The prayer asks not merely to avoid sin but to serve Jesus and Mary "in perfect chastity all the days of my life" — purity of mind, heart, and body together. It has long carried an indulgence and been recommended to the young and to all who struggle, for St. Joseph, declared Patron of the Universal Church by Blessed Pius IX in 1870 (the decree Quemadmodum Deus), is above all the guardian of pure hearts.
Guardian of virgins and holy father Joseph, to whose faithful keeping Innocence itself, Christ Jesus, and Mary, the Virgin of virgins, were entrusted:
I pray and beseech thee, by these two dearest pledges, Jesus and Mary, that, kept safe from all uncleanness, I may with spotless mind, pure heart, and chaste body ever serve Jesus and Mary in perfect chastity all the days of my life. Amen.
Virginum custos et pater, sancte Ioseph, cuius fidéli custódiæ ipsa Innocéntia Christus Iesus et Virgo vírginum María commíssa fuit:
te per hoc utrúmque caríssimum pignus Iesum et Maríam óbsecro et obtéstor, ut me ab omni immundítia præservátum, mente incontamináta, puro corde et casto córpore Iesu et Maríæ semper fácias castíssime famulári. Amen.
Guardian of virgins and holy father Joseph, to whose faithful keeping Innocence itself, Christ Jesus, and Mary, the Virgin of virgins, were entrusted:
I pray and beseech thee, by these two dearest pledges, Jesus and Mary, that, kept safe from all uncleanness, I may with spotless mind, pure heart, and chaste body ever serve Jesus and Mary in perfect chastity all the days of my life. Amen.