From Sicily to Greece
By the accounts Joseph was born in Sicily around the year 816 to Christian parents named Plotinus and Agatha. While he was still a child or youth, the Arab invasions of Sicily forced the family to abandon the island and resettle in Greece, a displacement the synaxarion records among the hardships of his early life.
Settling in the region of Thessalonica, he was tonsured a monk at the monastery of Latomos and in time was ordained a priest. His gifts drew the attention of Saint Gregory the Dekapolite, who brought him to Constantinople, where the two stood together in defense of the holy icons during the iconoclast controversy that troubled the Church in that age.
Captivity, Imprisonment, and Exile
Joseph's defense of Orthodoxy brought him repeated suffering. Sent as a messenger toward Rome on behalf of the Orthodox monks of Constantinople, he was captured by pirates and bandits while at sea and held in bondage. The accounts relate that during his captivity Saint Nicholas of Myra appeared to him, and that he gained his freedom not long after.
He endured exile as well, being sent for a time to Cherson, and was again banished for rebuking the unlawful conduct of the Caesar Bardas. He returned to Constantinople in 867 after the death of Bardas. The accounts of his life associate his long sufferings with both the iconoclast persecutions and the political conflicts of the imperial court.
The Hymnographer of the Church
Joseph is honored as the most prolific hymnographer of the Eastern Church. Tradition relates that the Apostle Bartholomew appeared to him in a vision and encouraged him to compose hymns, and Joseph thereafter wrote a vast number of canons in honor of the saints. His compositions are found throughout the service books of the Church, including the Parakletike and the Menaion.
The number of his works is variously reckoned: tradition speaks of about a thousand hymns, while the modern scholar Tomadakes counted some three hundred eighty-five canons together with kontakia. For the beauty and abundance of his hymnody he is called the sweet-voiced nightingale of the Church.
During his years in Constantinople he served as skeuophylax, the keeper of the sacred vessels, at the great church of Hagia Sophia.
Repose and Commemoration
Joseph reposed in peace, the accounts placing his death on the third of April; the year is generally given as 886. He is commemorated in the Orthodox Church on April 3 in the Greek tradition and on April 4 in the Slavic tradition.
