Adjacent to St Joseph’s crypt church is the candle room – the heart and soul of the oratory. The space is compact and glows from the light of the fire that burns in 100s of votive candles… you can feel the heat and smell the sacred smell of wax and chrism. In the candle room is a central large statue of St Joseph with a cascading array of candles sloped below – their colors in which spell out “Saint Joseph, patron de l’église, Patron of the Church. There are thousands of candles in this room, and hundreds of crutches that have been left by the faithful in Thanksgiving after a healing.

The candle room is oblong, and there are smaller alcoves in which to pray around the perimeter of the room. Each station dedicated to one of the ‘titles’ of Saint Joseph:

Mirror of Patience

Lover of Poverty

Model of Workmen

Glory of Domestic Life

Guardian of Virgins

Pillar of Families

Comfort of the Afflicted

Hope of the Sick

Patron of the Dying

Terror of Demons

Protector of the Church

Still on the ground level, but just off of this room are a few other notable stops: directly behind the central St. Joesph statue is a half-moon walkway that houses the tomb of Saint Brother Andre, the humble porter and then custodian of the oratory, whose entire life mission was dedicated to St Joseph and the building of the Oratory. However, before you leave this floor, there are a couple other notable stops to make; To the left end of the room is an oil lamp fountain – the lamp oil is well known by the faithful for the many physical healings that were administered here by Brother Andre who would use the lamp oil to bless and heal pilgrims. And to the right of the candle room is a small ‘information’ type room in which a priest is stationed to bless any religious articles you may have brought with you *charming*

I felt strongly that the Oratory is set up with pilgrims in mind… often I find that major Catholic pilgrim destinations are rather annoyed by the amount of pilgrim traffic – and as a pilgrim visitor, I sometimes feel like an intruder. However, Saint Joseph’s Oratory did not feel like this in the least…

I would highly recommend setting aside a good amount of time in the candle room of the Oratory to pray at each station and light a candle.

**Ite Ad Joseph**