JOSEPH THE HYMNOGRAPHER

On April 17 (4), the Church celebrates the memory of St. Joseph the Songwriter (816–886). The saint was a monk, an ascetic, a confessor of the faith and, most importantly, a great author of liturgical chants. He entered the memory of the Church as a great hymnographer and confessor of faith in the struggle against the second wave of iconoclasm, which lasted for almost three decades from 815 to 843. The life of the saint was written by his disciple John.

A Sicilian by birth, from the ancient city of Syracuse, he ended up in Thessaloniki as a child. Joseph was born in 816 in Syracuse, Sicily, during the reign of the iconoclast emperor Leo V the Armenian (813–820). Fleeing from the Arab conquest, his parents came to the Greek Peloponnese. In 831, at the age of 15, Joseph was already a monk in the ancient monastery of Latomou in Thessaloniki. Over time, he was ordained to the rank of presbyter. His spiritual father, St Gregory of Dekapolis (797–842), around 840, took Joseph with him to Constantinople, where, together with other disciples, they stayed in a small monastic community at one of the churches. Iconoclasts persecuted not only icons, but also monastics, so the monks of that time lived in small communities. The great monasteries of that time could remain empty. He was convinced with his own eyes that those who endure persecution for icons are heard by God in the biblical way.

Like the biblical Joseph of the same name, the saint’s biography was filled with predestination of grace. This was the time of the reign of Emperor Theophilus (829–842), who persecuted icon veneration. According to the life, Joseph and Gregory preached against heresy. According to the life, Joseph and Gregory preached against heresy. Gregory, named after his place of origin from the country of the Ten Cities, in Greek “Decapolis”, in the territory of modern Jordan, was a wandering monk and was popularly revered as a miracle worker.

Gregory, named after his place of origin from the country of the Ten Cities, in Greek “Decapolis”, in the territory of modern Jordan, was a wandering monk and was revered as a miracle worker during his lifetime. It was great for the Church of that time that Gregory also zealously defended the holy icons. Joseph could be convinced from experience that icon veneration was based on deep, genuine mystical experience. Joseph could be convinced from experience that icon veneration was based on deep, genuine mystical experience. He was convinced with his own eyes that those who endure persecution for icons are heard by God in the biblical way.

Like the biblical Joseph of the same name, the saint’s biography was filled with predestination of grace. Many times, he saw the delivering hand of God. So, in 841, the brethren sent Joseph as their envoy to Rome to Pope Gregory IV (827–844) to ask for help in confronting the iconoclasts. Along the way, the ship was captured by Arab pirates, who sold him to iconoclasts in prison on the island of Crete. He was redeemed only thanks to the efforts of benefactors only sometime later. Returning to Constantinople, he no longer found his spiritual father alive. But the spiritual brotherhood he created continued.

Together with another disciple of Gregory, John of Thessaloniki, Joseph went into seclusion at the church of St. Antipas. He continued this feat at the Church of John Chrysostom for five years. There, around 850, he founded a monastery, where he placed the relics of ascetics: his teacher Gregory, and John, who had died by that time, as well as the relics of the Apostle Bartholomew, which he brought to Thessaloniki.

After the Triumph of Orthodoxy in 843, his martyrdom continued. This time it was on moral issues. For denouncing illegal concubinage of the ruler Varda (856–866) and for supporting the rigorism of Patriarch Ignatius, deposed on November 23, 858, he was exiled to the Crimean Chersonese. Joseph remained there until Ignatius returned to the throne in 867. The new emperor Basil I the Macedonian (867–888) elevated Joseph to the rank of sacristan of Hagia Sophia. He also carried out his obedience during the second patriarchate of Photius (877–886). The saint departed to the Lord in 883. God gave him this time of peace before his death to write liturgical texts.

Joseph entered the memory of the Church as the creator of liturgical hymns. According to researchers, more than 400 canons, which are part of the Menaion, Octoechos, Lenten and Colored Triodion, belong to the pen of Joseph the Hymnographer.

Unfortunately, we will never know exactly how these chants sounded at the divine service of the Great Church, as the greatest Christian temple of all times, Hagia Sophia, now converted into a mosque, was then called, in the temples and monasteries of New Rome - Constantinople for more than a thousand years back. Joseph created liturgical texts, the power of theology and the skill of versification of which makes it possible to realize what kind of creative inspiration poetic talent dedicated exclusively to God was capable of in those sacred times of martyrdom for the Church. “Sing to our God, sing to our King,” says the Psalms (Ps. 46:7). Among the great many who lived and tried, Joseph the Hymnographer was one of the few who truly fulfilled these words.

Byzantine iconoclasm became the longest period of systematic persecution for beliefs in the history of Orthodoxy. This is often forgotten. Emperors and many hierarchs stood on the side of the persecutors, simple believers and monks defended icon veneration, saving icons from destruction. In this fratricidal confrontation, the blood of many martyrs cried out to heaven (cf. Gen. 4:10).

According to one legend, it was during this difficult time for the Church that Joseph received a blessing from his confessor to write liturgical canons. Another legend says that the inspiration to write came to him from above under different circumstances. This apparent contradiction undoubtedly symbolizes the monastic brotherhood of the great hymnographers of that time, their inspiration to write not for the sake of glory and fame, but from a sincere desire to preserve the names of the saints, and to preserve the memory of them. A huge number of cultural monuments of Christian antiquity were destroyed by iconoclasts.

According to one legend, it was during this difficult time for the Church that Joseph received a blessing from his confessor to write liturgical texts. Another legend says that the inspiration to write came to him from above under different circumstances. He wanted to honor the memory of the Apostle Bartholomew but did not have liturgical texts for this. That’s why he cried. From this childhood depth of prayerful helplessness, he was given a gift.