By Fr. George Dorbarakis
“While you were alive, O Father, you were a divine hymnographer of the Living God;
But I, after your death, am a new hymnographer of you” (Verses of the Synaxarion).
But I, after your death, am a new hymnographer of you” (Verses of the Synaxarion).
This divine father was from Sicily and was the son of Plotinus and Agatha. He succeeded in fleeing his homeland so as not to be captured by the barbarians, and from there, traveling from place to place, he arrived in Constantinople, where he endured afflictions and persecutions for his pious zeal on behalf of the holy icons. He finished the course of his life in a holy manner, having become an excellent composer of hymns, and he fell asleep in the Lord after 866. Joseph wrote hymns that covered almost the entire Parakletike, as well as a great many poetic Canons of the Menaia; for this reason he is characterized as the preeminent hymnographer of the Church.
If the path of Christians who live with full awareness is “together with all the saints,” because in Christ we are all one — both those of the Church militant, as we say, and those of the Church triumphant — this is all the more true for Saint Joseph the Hymnographer: he is our constant fellow traveler, our daily companion, our great friend and brother, because through his hymns and canons our eyes are opened in the churches so that we may properly honor and glorify most of our Saints. For this reason it is not accidental that the wise hymnographer calls him the “prytaneis” (chief/leader) of all the other hymnographers (Kathisma of Matins).
How was the Saint able to write so many hymns, and with such great ease? And indeed hymns whose content reveals not only the historical course of each Saint, but above all his life in Christ and the mystical stirrings of his grace-filled heart? This, notes his own Hymnographer, is a gift from God. Christ gave it to him, responding to the request of his heart, even using as an instrument the Holy Apostle Bartholomew. “The Savior Lord, who knows how to glorify those who glorify Him, granted you the gift of poetry through the divine and venerable Apostle Bartholomew” (Doxastikon of Vespers).
And here precisely we have the deeper explanation: Joseph had Christ as his constant reference; it was Him he longed continually to glorify in his life, and therefore he considered it a necessity of his soul to be occupied both with Him and with His saints, who constitute another mode of doxological prayer to Him. “You glorified the divine ranks of all the saints and proclaimed with power their achievements, for you drew your words from the fountains of salvation” (Sticheron of Vespers).
Thus it is understandable that Saint Joseph loved and hymnologized the Saints so greatly, because he was a participant in their life — that is, a participant in the very life of the Lord. Only one who has a corresponding way of life with the saints, struggling against his passions with a painful turning of his heart toward the will of God and enduring all the temptations that accompany this turning, can both understand them and describe them in the proper way (Sticheron of Vespers, Lity).
Therefore the Saint activated his gift because he was moved by the breath of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. That Spirit, ultimately, he had as his teacher and guide. “A great wonder! Tell us, Joseph, how did you speak and record your hymns so easily? As if you were being taught by someone else. Surely the Holy Spirit was speaking through you” (Lity).
The result is clear: whatever moved the Saint in his writings, this is what he also transmitted — the uplifting of hearts. The ecclesiastical hymnography of Saint Joseph leaves no room for misunderstanding. “Having ascended to the height of the virtues and received from God the wisdom from above, you clarified the divine dogmas of the Scriptures. Therefore you raise every person through your hymns to divine eros, indicating the excellent paths of compunction” (Kathisma of Matins).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
