UPDATED: Local churches honor St. Joseph with special altars

St. Mary's Catholic churches are among those observing the Solemnity of St. Joseph with St. Joseph altars, like this one Tuesday at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Patterson. Church tradition holds that villagers in Sicily, suffering from a famine, prayed to the earthly father of Jesus. The famine ended, and the villagers laid a table with bread, fish and other food in Joseph's honor and shared the food with needy. The tradition lives on, especially in Italian American communities.

The Review/Bill Decker