Joseph the Confessor (d.Constantinople,832) was a 9th-centuryArchbishop of Thessalonica and brother ofTheodore Stoudites. He is commemorated as a saint on July 14 by theEastern Orthodox Church.

Together with his brotherTheodore Stoudites, Joseph pursued a life of asceticism under the guidance ofPlato of Sakkoudion in the latter's monastery at Sakkoudion,Bithynia. Later Joseph was unanimously elected archbishop of the city ofThessalonica. Together with his brother he spoke out against theillegal marriage of EmperorConstantine VI (the "Moechian Controversy"), for which, after the torment, he was imprisoned in a dungeon on a deserted island.

EmperorMichael I Rangabe liberated Joseph from prison. Under EmperorLeo V the Armenian, when the second period of theByzantine Iconoclasm began, the bishop and his brother were again punished forvenerating theholy icons. In prison he was tortured, but the prelate was unshakable in his faith. The emperor demanded that he subscribe to the iconoclastic confession of faith. For his refusal the saint was thrown into another, foul dungeon.

Under EmperorMichael II, Joseph, along with other monks who had been persecuted for the veneration of icons, were liberated.

He spent his last years in theStoudion monastery, where he retired in 830.

Joseph is known as a spiritual songwriter. He composed the triodia and stichera of the Lenten Triodion, a canon for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son's Week and other hymns. He wrote several sermons for feastdays, of which the best known is the Sermon on the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord ("Λόγος είς τόν τίμιον καί ζωοποιόν Σταυρόν").

• Joseph the Confessor // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron  : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 ext.). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
• Orthodox Church of America - St. Joseph the Bishop of Thessalonica, and brother of St. Theodore of Studion[1]
• Pratsch, Thomas (1998).Theodoros Studites (759-826) — zwischen Dogma und Pragma: der Abt des Studiosklosters in Konstantinopel im Spannungsfeld von Patriarch, Kaiser und eigenem Anspruch (in German). Bern: Peter Lang.ISBN 9783631338773.

• 8th-century births
• 9th-century deaths
• 8th-century Byzantine monks
• 9th-century Byzantine monks
• 9th-century Byzantine bishops
• 9th-century Christian saints
• Saints of medieval Macedonia
• Saints of medieval Greece
• Christian hymnwriters
• Byzantine hymnographers
• Byzantine composers
• Byzantine Iconoclasm
• Studite monks
• Byzantine bishops of Thessalonica

• Articles with Greek-language sources (el)
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Year of birth unknown