St. Joseph The Staff of Life

Every March 19th there is a tradition in Italy of making St Joseph's Bread Altars. Women come together and make bread shaping them many different types of shapes. Then they create an altar of bread. The bread afterwards is then given to the poor. St. Joseph is the saint that helps one find work, or find home. He is also considered a protector for the family. I have been making extra loaves of bread the last few months and giving them to the homeless. I had an idea of getting women together here on global pilgrimage and making bread to give to the homeless in your neighborhood for St. Joseph feast day. We could each make several loaves of bread, create an altar and post our photos of it here on Global Pilgrimage, afterwards we would deliver our loaves of bread to the homeless. There are many bread miracles connected to different saints I could share with the group along with traditional recipes, and medieval blessings for bread, butter and oil that I use when I bake the bread to give away. Is there any of you out there that would like to join me? If you like for me to post a bread altar photo, send it to me....I can use your name or not ...

I got this recipe from an old Italian Cookbook of my mother's put together by some Italian housewives back in the 70s. I adapted the recipe for a higher quality of ingredients. Traditionally they shaped the bread into braids, the staff of St. Joseph, Braided Rings, even shapes of hammer because St. Joseph was a carpenter. Many times churches give away food to indoctrinate the poor. This is not my intention with this project. We simply bake a high quality bread and give it away to either the homeless or homeless shelter with no strings attached to our gifting. I see it just as a service and also something that can express our creativity through The Art of Bread Making, and I see Art as Sacred. I will also be posting every few days other St Joseph Bread recipes this is one out of many we can use.

St Joseph’s Bread is traditionally made in Italy and also in New Orleans on March 19th St. Joseph’s Feast Day. They make beautiful altars with many loaves of braided bread. But I would like to make a suggestion of baking this bread and offering it to a homeless person or a family who is in need.

Vuccidrato (St. Joseph Bread)

1 cup of sugar....( organic)

2 tsp. salt

3 eggs

1 qt of warm water

2 pkgs. dry yeast

1/2 cup of corn oil ( I would use olive oil )

16 cups of bread flour ( I would use organic)

In a bowl mix sugar, salt, eggs, water yeast and oil. Then mix in the flour, Knead dough on a floured board until smooth. Let rise. Then cut the dough into thirds. Shape each piece into a rope then twist like a braid. Bring the ends together and tuck in both ends to form a ring. Make a shallow cut 1 1/2 " apart around the outside of the ring. Place on a grease baking sheet. Let it rise until doubled in bulk. Bake in a hot over 400 degrees oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown

Imagine if only 15 people said yes to baking five loaves of bread each for March 19th that would be 75 hungry people being feed for the day.