Feast Day ~ July 10
Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart. [Ps. 119:33, 34]
The thirst for knowledge is often very great, and when that thirst is directed toward the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, and the liturgical documents of the Church, it can only be satisfied when accompanied by living in accordance with what is read in those pages. One of the saints of the Church who shows us this is St. Joseph of Damascus, whose feast we celebrate on July 10.
Born in 1793 into a poor merchant family, Joseph longed to learn and took every opportunity to further his knowledge. He received some education, in Arabic and Greek, as a young boy, but the tuition for classes was too great for his family to manage, having used their resources to educate an older son, Moses. So Joseph had to work in the family business, weaving silk fabric; at night, he read as much as he could.
Tragedy struck the family when Moses died at the young age of 25 and the parents blamed his untimely death on the extreme exertion he spent on his studies. Thereafter, they were not inclined to encourage their younger son in his desire to learn, but nothing could stop Joseph. He began to read the collection of books which his brother had accumulated, but with little understanding. For a while he managed the tuition cost to study with a Muslim scholar, Mouhamad Al-Attar, and from him gained some greater knowledge of Arabic, logic, and debate. But poverty forced Joseph back into the pattern of working during the day and studying at night.
Joseph’s primary textbook was the Bible, as he compared the Greek Septuagint with Arabic translations. He had the opportunity to study church history and then began teaching others what he had learned, continuing to increase his own knowledge even to learning Hebrew from a Jewish student. Always, Joseph’s manner of life reflected what he had learned from his studies of the Scriptures.
Joseph’s parents became alarmed at the intensity of their son’s pursuit of knowledge, fearing that they would lose him as they had his brother. In an attempt to push Joseph into a “normal” life, they arranged a marriage for him (at the age of 19) with Mariam Al-Kourshi, a young Christian woman of the city. The story is told that even on his wedding night, Joseph stayed up late reading!
As the couple began to raise a family, were active in church affairs in Damascus, and Joseph continued to teach and study, the Patriarch saw in him great potential as a leader for the church. He ordained Joseph to the diaconate and then the priesthood when he was 24 years of age. Joseph was soon elevated to the honor of archpriest and was given the privilege of preaching frequently at the Cathedral. Fr. Joseph became well-known as a persuasive and eloquent preacher.
There was a school attached to the cathedral in Damascus and in 1836, Fr. Joseph took charge of its administration. He managed to obtain good teachers who were paid good salaries and the school began to attract bright students from throughout Syria and Lebanon. Fr. Joseph established a department of Orthodox theological studies which he hoped would match the level of that in Orthodox seminaries in other parts of the world in preparing men for the priesthood. Students from this school became patriarchs, bishops and priests for the Church in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, the U.S. and Brazil and the school nurtured at least one saint of the Church, St. Raphael Hawaweeny (of Brooklyn).
The archpriest Joseph was also known for his pastoral care. In the epidemic of yellow fever which struck Damascus in 1848, Fr. Joseph did not fear to minister to the sick, bury the dead, and comfort the living, even though one of his own sons died of this horrible disease.
In May of 1860, a rebellion in Lebanon began which rapidly spread throughout the entire region. Members of the Druze sect, an offshoot of Islam, began to revolt against the government and made Christians the main target of their violence. Soon, Muslims in Syria joined in this “revolution” and killed Christians and destroyed Christian property. On July 9 and 10, Damascus was the scene of terrible violence. It is said that as many as 11,000 Christians were martyred in this city alone. Many Christians fled to the cathedral for safety where Fr. Joseph prayed with them. When the cathedral was attacked, he and others ran out into the streets to try to escape, but one of the Muslim religious scholars recognized Fr. Joseph and cried out to the attackers to kill him. As was his custom, Fr. Joseph was carrying on his person the Blessed Sacrament which he usually took to the sick. As he was being hacked with hatchets, he partook of the Body and Blood of Christ and gave up his spirit to God.
The memory of this good man, whose zeal for learning the ways of God had touched so many people, remained as a sign of hope for the Christians who survived this massacre. In 1993, the Church glorified St. Joseph and now we venerate him as one who can help to show us the way. Blessed Joseph of Damascus, pray for us.