St. Joseph is called the patron of the Universal (Catholic) Church and is known as the husband of Mary and  the "stepfather" of Jesus.  To Gnostics though, he is the father of Jesus as a physical being while God is the Father of his spirit and soul.  His profession is usually translated as "carpenter" but some scholars believe "cabinet maker" would be more accurate today. Not a lot is said about Joseph in the gospels and no words of his are recorded.  It is believed that he was a widower when he married Mary and had children from his previous marriage, but there is no real evidence of that.  It is also believed that he died before Jesus started his adult ministry and that is why we never hear about him during those years.  Again, that is a tradition with no hard evidence.  We know that Mary and Joseph were very religious people so we have to ask "which of the Jewish sects did they belong to?"  The Sadducees or Pharisees?  Not likely.  The violent zealots?  The Essenes who's teachings seem to be very similar to those of Jesus?  I'll let you decide.