Joseph of Thessalonica
Our Father among the Saints Joseph the Confessor, Archbishop of Thessalonica
Confessor · Bishop · Venerable · b. c. 762 — d. c. 832
Commemorated 26 January — Commemorated with the translation of his relics, together with those of his brother Theodore the Studite, 14 July — Commemoration in the Greek Menaion
Joseph the Confessor (c. 762 – c. 832) was Archbishop of Thessalonica, the younger brother of Theodore the Studite and, with him, a leading figure of the Studite reform and of the resistance to iconoclasm. Formed in monasticism under their uncle Plato at Sakkoudion, he was raised to the see of Thessalonica, but is remembered less for his brief settled episcopate than for his long confession: with Theodore he broke communion over the "Moechian" scandal, and under the renewed iconoclasm of Leo V the Armenian he was deposed, imprisoned, and repeatedly exiled for his defence of the holy icons, dying at last worn out by his sufferings. He was also a gifted hymnographer, who with his brother furnished many of the canons of the Lenten Triodion still sung today. His relics were translated, with Theodore's, to the Stoudios monastery, and he is commemorated on January 26.
Monk of Sakkoudion
Joseph was born about 762 at Constantinople, into the same devout and well-placed family as his elder brother Theodore: their father Photinus was a treasury official, their mother Theoctiste is herself venerated, and their maternal uncle was Saint Plato of Sakkoudion. When, about 781, the parents by mutual consent gave away their wealth and separated for the monastic life, the brothers Theodore, Joseph, and Euthymius followed Plato into his community at Sakkoudion on Mount Olympus in Bithynia. There Joseph was formed in the strict coenobitic life his brother would make famous, and was in time ordained.
Archbishop of Thessalonica, and the Moechian confession
For his gifts and holiness Joseph was raised — under the Patriarch Nikephoros, about 807 — to the archiepiscopal see of Thessalonica, the second city of the empire. But his tenure was broken almost at once by the same conflict that marked his brother's life. When the priest Joseph the Oikonomos, who had blessed the uncanonical second marriage of the emperor Constantine VI (the "Moechian," or adultery, controversy), was reinstated by imperial pressure, Theodore and his circle — the archbishop of Thessalonica among them — refused communion with those who condoned the union, upholding the Church's canons against the will of the court. For this stand Joseph was deposed from his see and sent into exile, sharing his brother's disgrace and his brother's cause.
Confessor for the icons
Joseph's great trial came with the second iconoclasm. When Leo V the Armenian (813–820) moved to abolish the veneration of the icons, Joseph stood with Theodore at the head of the resistance. He was deposed anew, imprisoned, and driven from place to place in a succession of harsh exiles, sharing the beatings, hunger, and confinement that the confessors of Orthodoxy endured under Leo and his successors. Through it all he held firm, and — like his brother — sustained others by his steadfastness. Worn down by these years of suffering, he reposed about the year 832, a confessor who had not died under the sword but had spent his life for the icons; his memory is kept with the honour due to those who "suffered for the faith but did not die of it," and to a hierarch who preferred exile to compromise.
Hymnographic legacy
With Theodore, Joseph was one of the poets of the Studite liturgical reform. He composed canons and other hymns for the Lenten Triodion — many of the tri-odes and canons of the weekdays of Great Lent are his work or his brother's — and so his voice, like Theodore's, is still heard every year in the services of the Fast. He is thus rightly called a hymnographer, though he is to be kept distinct from the more prolific Joseph the Hymnographer of Sicily (see below).
Relics
Joseph was buried near his brother, and after the final triumph of the icons his relics, together with those of Theodore, were translated to the Stoudios monastery at Constantinople in 845. It is this joint translation that the calendar keeps on January 26, so that the two brothers, united in the confession and in the reform, are honoured together on the day of their homecoming.
Feast and commemoration
Joseph is commemorated on January 26 (church date; Old Calendar civil February 8), the day of the translation of the relics of his brother Theodore the Studite, with whose the calendar joins his own. He is also remembered on July 14. He is styled "the Confessor" for his sufferings under the iconoclasts, and "Archbishop of Thessalonica" from his see.
Iconography
Joseph is depicted as a bishop — vested in the phelonion and omophorion, holding or blessing over the Gospel-book — often as a middle-aged or elder hierarch of grave aspect, and frequently shown together with his brother Theodore, the two Studite confessors paired. No securely identified early portrait proper to him alone has been located for storage, and no icon image is stored here.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with Joseph the Hymnographer of Sicily (†886, kept April 4), the great author of the Menaion canons, a distinct and somewhat later saint with whom this Joseph — himself a hymnographer — is easily confused. This Joseph is the brother of Theodore the Studite and Archbishop of Thessalonica.