I have been singing as a tenor in the choir for more than forty‑eight years. I grew up at St. Mary’s Parish in Akron, Ohio, and joined the St. Mary’s Choir during my junior year of high school. I continued singing there until the parish closed in 2010. After St. Mary’s closure, I became a parishioner at St. Paul’s Catholic Church and joined their choir as well.
In March of 2018, as the Feast of St. Joseph approached, I looked through our parish hymnal and was disappointed by the lack of devotional hymns honoring St. Joseph. That moment set me on a new path. I began gathering every hymn to St. Joseph I could find from my collection of Catholic hymnals.
Over the next three years, I surveyed more than one hundred Catholic hymnals and discovered over eighty hymns dedicated to St. Joseph. These hymnals came from England, Ireland, and America, primarily from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From this larger body, I identified the melodies and selected fourteen of the most widely used Catholic hymns to St. Joseph — hymns sung in Catholic choirs and schools since the 1840s.
My collection of hymns to St. Joseph is now available for purchase on Amazon. This is my first time publishing, and I am very excited to share it. Each hymn includes the melody and choir arrangement, a brief history, and a short reflection.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091F5QFD1
It is my hope that these hymns will once again become part of parish repertoires and help renew our devotion to St. Joseph.
After ten years at St. Paul’s, I returned to St. Mary’s, and I am once again singing with the St. Mary’s Choir.
In October of 2025, after a long and valiant effort to hold onto what once defined the parish, I stepped away from the choir.
Don Howe
