BRIDGEPORT—Fernanda Moreira still remembers the May night when St. Joseph appeared to her in a dream. He hugged her and kissed her and said, “I am Saint Joseph.” For some time, she pondered the dream and tried to decipher its meaning.
This occurred during the Year of St. Joseph, which was proclaimed by Pope Francis in observance of the 150th anniversary of his being named Patron of the Universal Church.
Shortly after, Fernanda, who began a worldwide apostolate for the dying 19 years ago, was giving a talk at a church in New Jersey when the pastor, Fr. Paul Da Silva, announced, “The next book you are going to write will be about St. Joseph.”
The author of several books, she was startled by this pronouncement. She thought he was joking and responded, “I don’t think so, Father.” Later, he told the audience, “Fernanda’s next book is about St. Joseph.” When she resisted, he said in a firm voice, “You will write it!”
And so after much prayer and consultation with her priest, Fr. James Walsh, Fernanda completed “Saint Joseph: The Shining Splendor of Silence” in five months.
Father Da Silva wrote a foreword and praised the book for “20 beautiful and profound meditations on St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.”
In 2003, Fernanda founded the Apostolate for the Dying with her sister-in-law. Since then, it has spread across the United States, from California to Connecticut, from Canada to the Philippines, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and Australia.
In the Diocese of Bridgeport, groups meet at St. Joseph Church in Shelton and Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Bridgeport, where they have weekly holy hours for the dying under the direction of Maria Amelia Moura.
“So many people have no one to pray for them at the end of their life, and they need our prayers,” Marie said. “I believe they will remember us and pray for us when our time comes. It is so important to pray for them, and we have the Blessed Sacrament exposed.”
She tells the story of her friend who went into a coma. “I was doing the Holy Hour for her with her husband at Griffin Hospital in her last few hours, and at one point, she squeezed my hand,” she recalled. “Even though she couldn’t talk, she was conscious of our prayers.”
The motto of the apostolate is “Let us pray for the dying today, those for whom tomorrow will be too late.”
Fernanda founded the apostolate “to pray for souls at the vital moment of death, when eternal life is at stake.” She later published “Holy Hour Devotion for the Dying,” which has been reprinted in many different languages.
She stresses how important praying for the dying can be and often quotes St. Therese of Lisieux, patroness of the apostolate, who said, “The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of one poor little person to save a multitude of others, redeemed like her at the price of his blood.”
The book about St. Joseph is Fernanda’s third. The first was “The Hidden Sufferings of Christ,” followed by “The Silent Sufferings of Mary,” which contains meditations about the Sorrowful Heart of Mary.
Fernanda is convinced she was called to write about St. Joseph and says the picture of him in the book resembles the saint who appeared in her dream.
She was assisted by her friend Annamarie Short, her daughter Paula Dudzinski, and her grandson Nikolai Dudzinski.
“When meditating on St. Joseph’s life, we all should be in awe,” she said. “He was chosen by God to take his place on earth, to be the foster father of his only begotten Son and the spouse of his Immaculate Mother. No other man has such a privilege to raise and protect the Redeemer of the world. Just think that this humble man heard the Son of God calling him “Father.” Saint Joseph is also the spouse of Mary, the Queen of Saints, so it is fitting to have great devotion to him.”
This simple carpenter from Nazareth is known by many titles, including “Patron of the Dying,” “Hope of the Sick” and “Solace of the Afflicted.”
Little is known of his life. Not one word of his is recorded in the Gospels. He was from the line of David and born in Bethlehem.
We are told that he always did God’s will and was obedient. When he was visited by an angel in his dreams, he obeyed and took Mary into his home. During the census, they traveled to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. When the angel commanded, Joseph took the Holy Family to Egypt and returned after King Herod died and they settled in Nazareth.
Joseph disappears from the Gospels after the Holy Family’s journey to Jerusalem for the Passover when Jesus was 12. Joseph is believed to have died in the presence of Jesus and Mary before Jesus’ public ministry began.
“St. Joseph understands human suffering,” Fernanda says. “He has great compassion for the sick and the dying…. This holy man wishes to help everyone who is dying because of the blessings he received at the hour of his death, so God through the Church made him patron of the dying.”
To write the book about this silent saint, Fernanda looked to the Bible for inspiration and prayed for guidance.
“When I began to write, the inspirations came naturally,” she said. “They were not my own inspirations. I prayed and believe the Holy Spirit was giving me what I should write.”
“St. Joseph: The Shining Splendor of Silence” is available from the Apostolate for the Dying on its website, apostolateforthedying.com or at www.spiritdaily.com. For further information, call 513.922.0370 or email holyhourdevotion@gmail.com.
