816–886
Saint Joseph the Hymnographer
A monk from Sicily who became one of the greatest hymnographers of the Orthodox Church.
Biography
Joseph was born in Sicily in 816 and, when Arab raids threatened the island, emigrated with his family to the Peloponnese. At fifteen he went to Thessaloniki, to the Latomou monastery, where he practised asceticism under Saint Gregory the Decapolite.
In 841 the Orthodox of Constantinople sent him to Rome over the question of Iconoclasm, but he was captured by Arab pirates and held on Crete, from which he was miraculously freed. He later founded his own monastery in Constantinople and became known as one of the Church's greatest hymnographers, until his death in 886.