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The figure of St. Joseph clearly appears as the point of reference which must inspire the Oblates of St. Joseph both in "First Draft of the Rules of Foundation" of 1877, and in the first rules of 1892. To speak of St. Joseph in the Rules of the Congregation, it is necessary to go back to the person of the Founder Marello, who was the first to cultivate devotion to the Holy Guardian of Jesus and passed it on in his teachings. Joseph Marello was a living example for the first members of the Congregation, because he taught them what he practiced fully in his life.
In the first rules of the Oblates of St. Joseph of 1892 there are some stupefying statements on devotion to St. Joseph, portraying the living spirituality passed down by the founder to the first Oblates. They are real pearls of devotion to St. Joseph, as it was lived at the beginning of the Congregation, following the example and the teaching of St. Joseph Marello: “St. Joseph was the first exemplar of the religious life, who had continually under his gaze the Divine Exemplar, sent in His mercy by the Eternal Father to the world to teach the way to Heaven.” These words connect directly to the definition of religious life, which is essentially to "follow Christ more closely" (Vatican II), and they add as the proper charism the example of St. Joseph alongside Jesus in the life at Nazareth, along with Mary, His Most Holy Mother. Consequently, “The Congregation has for its patron St. Joseph. For this reason its members are called ‘Oblates of St. Joseph’ and strive to honor and love him as a father imitating his virtues and spreading his devotion.”
The founder saw the youth of his time among those most in need of spiritual help, and so he gave this indication: “May St. Joseph teach us how to take care of our students, or, better yet, may he take them into his care.” Evident in this prayer is the role which St. Joseph had in the education of Jesus in Nazareth, and therefore the role that he must also have in the ecclesial ministry of the Oblates of St. Joseph. The spirituality of the founder was passed on into the lives of his first Sons in this way and has reached us with this characteristic “Josephite” feature which honours us and which our area of greatest distinction.

The history of our Rules

The first rules of the Congregation of the Oblates of St. Joseph are dated back to 1892 as Father Bartholomew Pozzi attests: "The rules were written before the death of our founder. I and my other companions in the “carissimato” had written them with our own hands and we kept them as something very dear at least in private.
Already in 1877, St. Joseph Marello had drawn up the "First Draft of the Rules of Foundation" which was like the rock on which he intended to construct the building of the Congregation.
In the history of Orders and Religious Congregations there is often found a certain reluctance on the part of the founders to

write out true and proper rules. Father Louis Garberoglio recalls that once the Brothers of St. Joseph Marello asked him to write out some Rules, and he replied: “Blessed Leonardi, founder of the Priests of the Great Mother of God, was asked by his sons to write out their Constitutions. And Blessed Leonardi one day, acceding to their request, gathered them together and taking a sheet of paper he wrote: We will write out the Constitutions. And he wrote on that sheet of paper one word: Obedience. I for now, concluded Marello, tell you the same.” And Father Lorenzo Franco said: “The servant of God never wrote Constitutions or Rules: he insisted that obedience was to take the place of everything.” This insistent recommendation to obedience supposed something more from the teachings on the principles that were meant to guide the Congregation; there had to have been a set of practical norms which, even if not codified, constituted the foundation for the life of the first Oblates of St. Joseph. And first of all there was the example of the life of Father Founder, a true living rule, which became a life-giving rule for the entire Congregation. Even for us, he is like a living example of that program of life which he planned to propose to his Sons. Writes Fr Angelo Rainero, "The example of the founder will always be a fundamental part of the code of the religious life of our congregation, bringing to life again in us the examples from his life.”
Monsignor Marello, when he was Bishop of Acqui, wrote to the Sons of St. Joseph in Asti: “Tell Fr. John to also study with Fr. Baratta regulas constituendas. In spite of all my good intentions, my time runs out on me even in the long night hours... May the most eminent Fr. Carandino, with his long arms be a universal helper as usual (he was the secretary) ". Thus were born the first Rules of the Congregation in 1892.
Monsignor Marello, even as bishop, had made the written Rules for his first Oblates his own and kept a copy of them on his being as one of the things most personal and dear to him. He kept this precious copy inside a satin bag and had added by his own hand a few words which shows its authenticity. The bag containing the Rules had a cord by which is was possible to hang it around his neck and carry it on his chest. That is how the members of the Apostolic Process found it when they made the first exhumation of his body in 1949.