Saint Joseph decree (2020)
Year of Saint Joseph — concluded
The special plenary grants for Saint Joseph’s year ended in 2021.
Time required Historical only: 30-minute meditation, a one-day retreat, or other specified works.
- When
- 8 December 2020–8 December 2021
- Where
- Worldwide
- Who
- All eligible faithful
- Application
- Self or the departed
The prescribed work
- Historical reference only. Wednesday prayers, prayer on the nineteenth, particular works of mercy and other listed observances did not become permanent plenary grants through this decree.
- Separate standing partial grants for approved prayers to Saint Joseph remain available under the Manual.
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.
Meditate on the Our Father
Prescribed minimum
At least 30 minutes.
Prescribed minimum: 30 minutes.
This was an express numeric prescription in paragraph (a) of the expired decree.
Spiritual retreat including meditation on Saint Joseph
Complete the prescribed event
At least one day.
No fixed minimum number of minutes is stated. The expired decree prescribed a retreat lasting at least one day; it did not prescribe a number of continuous active minutes.
Elapsed requirement At least one day of spiritual retreat including meditation on Saint Joseph
Other listed prayers and works
Duration varies
Variable; no fixed number of minutes is prescribed.
No fixed minimum number of minutes is stated. Duration depended on the approved prayer, family Rosary, work of mercy or other specific route. These historical alternatives did not all require 30 minutes.
What the time estimate excludes
- Ordinary travel to and from the venue, and waiting outside the prescribed work
- Separate confession, Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions, except where a branch expressly includes the prescribed celebration
- Stated start
- 8 December 2020
- Stated end
- 8 December 2021
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.