ST. JOSEPH ARIMATHEA (AUG. 1)

July 31, 2024

ST. JOSEPH ARIMATHEA (AUG. 1)

St. Joseph of Arimathea and Glastonbury

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

Today, August 1st, we celebrate the great Apostolic patron of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in England, St. Joseph of Arimathea. “Arimathea” means “House of Righteous Doctrine”, and is surname that was given as a title for great Rabbis and Teachers. St. Joseph was a pious Jew, of priestly stock, known for good works and biblical knowledge. He was a “Pharisee of Pharisees” and well acquainted with the priestly work of the temple, doing good works and burying the dead. He followed Christ as one of the 70, and is featured in all four Gospels as the man with the moral courage and physical strength to take Christ’s Body and place it in his own family tomb, just a short distance from the mount of Crucifixion. His family grave is enshrined at the heart of the greatest church in all Christendom, built by Constantine the Great, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

St. Joseph taking Christ's Body off of the Cross

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Built by St. Constantine the Great

A Map of the Holy Sepulcher

A Modern Picture of St. Joseph's Ancestral Tomb, Forever Enshrined as Christ's Temporary Resting Place

After Christ’s glorious resurrection and the time he spent with his Apostles, the 70 Disciples and the 500 Followers, He ascended back to heaven, leaving his Church with His Great Commission and promising the Holy Spirit to those who waited in Jerusalem. St. Joseph was with the Apostles in prayer when the Holy Spirit descended, he heard St. Peter’s famous sermon and the tongues of all of his brethren, and he proclaimed the Gospel and the foundation of Christ’s Church in Jerusalem with the 12 Apostles. He was later sent by the Spirit to the British Isles, where he eventually settled in Glostonbury, founded the first Church, and ordaining the first bishops and priests.

The Bringing of the Holy Grail and the Planting of the Episcopal Staff

St. Joseph is the origin of the Grail myth, bringing the cup that Christ used at the Last Supper, in which St. Joseph has kept a drop of the Precious Blood from the Crucifixion, and keeping this as the central treasure of English Christianity. This story became central to the British concept of kingship, and was the mythos upon which Arthurian legends were built. St. Joseph was also said to plant his episcopal staff, made from the thorn tree in Christ’s Crown of Thorns, in the soil of Glastonbury, from whence the famous “Glastonbury Thorn Tree” sprang up and was planted in churchyards across the isles.

A Contemporary Glastonbury Thorn Tree

From the Cathedral Abbey of Glastonbury, where St. Joseph was buried, Celtic Christianity spread around Britain through the work of ascetic saints and evangelists, who built a strong mission through their preaching and miraculous healings. These works were enshrined in the cultural memory of the Britons, Celts, Picts, Irish, Angles, Saxons and Normans, through many centuries of holy witness and vibrant legends. This foundation is the firm, Apostolic, Orthodox basis upon which British Christian identity is anchored.

The Death of St. Joseph

The Glastonbury Abbey Cathedral Crypt, Destroyed in the Reformation

The Crypt of St. Joseph Today

It must always be maintained that saints like Sts. Patrick, Bridget, Abigail, Alban, Aiden, Fursy, and Columba, all met more Christians in the British Isles than they made. St. Augustine of Canterbury helped to conform Celtic Christianity to the will of Rome, but he did not found the Church in England. Christianity had flourished 500 years before his coming, and was present from Apostolic times! St. Theodore of Tarsus also helped to conform English Christianity’s practice to Roman sensibilities at the Synod of Hertford in 673AD, thus politically uniting the English Church to the Roman Church. However, English Christianity was founded in the Upper Room and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, not upon the authority of the Petrine Office or upon the universal jurisdiction of Roman primacy.

An Angel Guarding the Grail

St. Joseph Handing the Grail to His Disciples

Sir Lancelot, Venerating the Grail

King Arthur and the Round Table, Venerating the Grail

Carolinian Depiction of the Grail

Presentation of the Grail to King Arthur

Renaissance Depiction of the Grail

Knights Venerating the Grail

Early Modern Arthurian Legend Illustration

St. Joseph of Arimathea’s legacy in the Church of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and by extension to the whole of English-speaking Christendom, has been one of direct Apostolic founding, or a Succession that is in no way inferior to the Apostlicity of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, or Selucia-Ctesiphon. It speaks directly to the false assumptions of the universal jurisdiction and headship of the Church through the Pope, and affirms the hesitations of our Eastern and Oriental Orthodox brothers and sisters against assertions of universal episcopacy. It affirms the universality of Christ’s “Great Commission”, and shows that the Holy Spirit, indeed, sent the Gospel out to the Four Corners of the Earth, willing that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. St. Joseph’s Apostolic legacy lives on within our church, within our lineage, and we will continue to proclaim the Gospel of Christ today!