Pious Union of St Joseph for the Dying: confirmed feast days

Enrolled associates may receive a plenary indulgence on three feasts expressly confirmed in the Union’s current publications.

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Time required Renew the daily-prayer promise: about 1–5 minutes (editorial estimate).

When: St Joseph (19 March), St Pius X (21 August), and St Luigi Guanella (24 October).
Where: For enrolled associates; the 2025 notice also recommends prayer in a church or before an image of St Joseph.
Who: Members of the Pious Union founded by St Luigi Guanella; not every person who occasionally prays for the dying.
Application: Self or the departed

The prescribed work

Be an enrolled associate of the Pious Union of the Transitus of St Joseph for the Dying.
Renew the promise to pray to St Joseph every day for the dying.
Fulfill the usual plenary conditions: sacramental confession, Communion, prayer for the Pope’s intentions, and complete detachment from every sin, including venial sin.

The work and its conditions

A plenary indulgence also requires complete detachment from every sin, sacramental confession, Holy Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions, subject to the grant’s stated exceptions. The ordinary limit is one plenary indulgence per day.

Conditions common to every indulgence

The person gaining an indulgence must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least when the prescribed works are completed. There must be at least a general intention to gain indulgences, and the prescribed work must be performed at the time and in the manner required by the grant.

Read the full conditions and norms. The cited grant and its specific provisions govern.

Time required

Read each branch with its own conditions. An editorial estimate is not a prescribed minimum.

Qualifying feast: renewal of the promise of daily prayer for the dying

Editorial estimate

About 1–5 minutes for a simple private renewal (editorial estimate)

The source sets no fixed duration or compulsory timed formula. This is an editorial estimate for a simple private renewal; it does not replace any required rite or the usual conditions.

Timing sources

What the time estimate excludes

Ordinary travel to and from the venue, and waiting outside the prescribed work
Separate fulfillment of the usual plenary conditions, except prayers or Mass expressly included in the branch.
The continuing daily prayer for the dying is the membership promise’s subject; it is not a separately quantified feast-day duration.

Occasion and source notes

Follow the applicable lawful liturgical observance; membership and renewal of the daily-prayer promise remain necessary. Annunciation, St Joseph and Immaculate Conception use standard Roman transfer rules where listed. The applicable local or proper calendar, lawful external solemnity and any specific indult govern the actual observance.

This entry covers three occasions expressly confirmed by the Union in 2025. Its 2024 and 2025 notices date the underlying decree to 20 June and 20 September 1968 respectively; the original decree was not recovered, so the precise date remains unresolved. Other historical occasions have not been treated as verified current grants.

Prayer texts and resources

Follow the prayer count and formula specified in the requirements.

Source and exact reference

Prayer texts and grants have separate source histories. Consult the grant source for the prescribed work, occasion, and conditions.