Digital Marian Helper Spring_2018

nant with their fourth child, Joseph. On that day, Ivan was taking his oldest son, also named Ivan, to see a den- tist for his terrible toothache. “When they came to the dentist’s office, there were two German soldiers there … and the dentist was not in,” Joseph said. The soldiers allowed young Ivan, a boy of about 12, to return home. “But they grabbed my father,” Joseph said. “They sent him to prison in Rijeka with the rest of the [captives].” When Joseph’s mother, Mare, heard the news of her husband’s capture, she panicked. The Zgombics already had enough difficulties. “We were so poor you wouldn’t believe it,” Joseph said. “We had no electricity, no run- ning water. We made our own bread. We had no money coming in from anywhere. We had only what we pro- duced from [my father’s] farm.” Nine months pregnant with no money to her name, Mare was now in danger of losing her beloved husband and the provider for her growing family. So Mare relied on the only thing she had left: faith. “She prayed to St. Joseph. [She had already been pray- ing] to St. Joseph for an easy birth and to protect the family,” Joseph said. As soon as she could, Mare went to the local priest hoping that he could help. “He knew a little German so he wrote a note asking if they would release my father on account of her being pregnant,” Joseph said. The next day, Mare boarded a boat and traveled across the bay to Rijeka, hoping to find her imprisoned husband. “She had to go in front of the German soldiers with their guns,” Joseph said. “[My family had known] two people in our village who protested against the Germans, and they were shot right in front of their houses.” But relying on the intercession of St. Joseph, protector of the family, Mare had hope that she could convince the German soldiers to release her husband. “[When the soldiers] saw her coming, big with child, along with the note from the priest, they released my father and sent him home,” Joseph said. Many of the Zgombics’ relatives and friends were not so fortunate. “[The others] never came back. They died of starvation,” he said. Less than two weeks after Ivan’s return, Mare gave birth to her fourth child. “She named me after St. Joseph because he saved my father,” Joseph said. According to Joseph, it was common back then for parents to name their children after relatives from previ- ous generations. “But I’m the only Joseph in my family,” he said. “There are Peters and Johns, but no Josephs.” When Joseph was 15, he took a job as a bricklayer and brought home the first paycheck his family had ever seen. He moved to the United States in 1962 and went on to spend 50 years working in construction. His wife, Linda, boasts of his talent for carpentry. “I’m so happy with my name,” said Joseph, who lives in New Fairfield, Connecticut. “I’ve always had devotion to St. Joseph, especially in my work. Fifty years in con- struction, and I never got injured.” Visit marian.org/b37 t o bring your family’s intentions to faithful St. Joseph during the novena before his feast day March 19, at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy. As he does for countless Marian Helpers, St. Joseph can help you and your family through hard times. MH Visit ShopMercy.org/b37 or call 1-800-462-7426. B37-SJEM l $12.95 St. Joseph Gems: Daily Wisdom on Our Spiritual Father By Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC Be inspired by St. Joseph! Father Calloway has gathered into one book the largest collection of quotes about St. Joseph to ever appear in print.