Holy Family. The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph.
   Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France, who founded a Confraternity. The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church in honor of Jesus, his mother, and his legal father, Saint Joseph, as a family.
   The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families. The Feast is held on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day; If both are Sundays, the feast is celebrated on December 30th.
   The Gospels speak little of the life of the Holy Family in the years before Jesus' public ministry. Matthew and Luke narrate the episodes from this period of Christ's life, namely his circumcision and later Presentation, the flight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and the Finding in the Temple.
   Joseph and Mary were apparently observant Jews, as Luke narrates that they brought Jesus with them on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem with other Jewish families. The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family. The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families. Since the 1
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