A na­tive of Si­ci­ly, Jo­seph left that is­land in 830 for a mo­nas­tic life in Thess­a­lo­ni­ca. From there he went to Con­stant­in­o­ple, but left there dur­ing the icon­o­clas­tic per­se­cu­tion, go­ing to Rome. He was for ma­ny years a slave in Crete, hav­ing been cap­tured by pi­rates. Af­ter re­gain­ing his free­dom, he re­turned to Con­stant­in­o­ple. He es­tab­lished a mon­as­tery there, in con­nect­ion with the church of St. John Chrys­ostom, which his el­o­quence filled with in­mates. He was ban­ished to the Cher­so­nese for de­fend­ing icons, but Em­press The­o­dora re­called him. Through the fa­vor of the pa­tri­arch Ig­na­tius, he be­came Sceuophylax (keep­er of the sac­red ves­sels) in the Great Church of Con­stant­in­o­ple. Joseph al­so stood high in the fa­vor of Pho­tius, the riv­al and suc­cess­or of Ignatius, and ac­com­pa­nied Pho­tius in­to ban­ish­ment.

Joseph died at an ad­vanced age in 883, and was the most vo­lum­in­ous of the Greek hymn writ­ers. There are more than two hun­dred ti­tles un­der his acros­tic, Me­naea, and he may have written as ma­ny as a thou­sand to­tal. It is oft­en dif­fi­cult to dis­ting­uish his work from Jo­seph of Thess­a­lo­nica, some­times called Jo­seph of the Stu­di­um.

The Greek church cal­en­dar com­mem­o­rates Jo­seph on Ap­ril 3.

Lyrics

1. Των ίερων άθλόφορων
   • Let Us Now Our Voices Raise
2. O Happy Band of Pilgrims
3. Φωστηρες της ουσιας
   • Stars of the Morn­ing
4. Τῶν ἁμαρτῶν μου τὴν πληῦν
   • And Wilt Thou Pardon, Lord