Joseph of Arimathaea

August 1 is the day currently designated to commemorate Joseph of Arimathaea.  It used to be July 31, but the damned Jesuits stole it because their founder had the nerve to die on that day.  You'll notice I considered JK Rowling (and Harry Potter) more worthy of a post than Ignatius of Loyola. 

 

All four Gospels recount the detail that Jesus was buried in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin and secret disciple of Jesus who had, along with fellow council member Nicodemus, interceded with Pilate to be allowed to give Jesus' body a proper and timely Jewish burial.  Scripture doesn't tell us much else, but tradition (folklore, really) has quite a bit to add.  One of the more intriguing accretions is the legend that Joseph of Arimathaea gained was a wealthy merchant in the metals industry, who had an interest in tin mines in Britain (Cornwall, specifically) and traveled there by sea frequently.  On one such trip, he was accompanied by his nephew, Jesus of Nazareth.  His legend is the basis for William Blake's poem, set to music by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry:

 

BBC Proms - Hubert Parry: Jerusalem (orch. Elgar)

 

 

Saint John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople in the 4th Century, wrote that Joseph was one of the Seventy Apostles Jesus commissioned in Luke 10.  Medieval legends place Joseph as having custody of the Holy Grail, the chalice of the Last Supper, and bringing it to Britain after the Resurrection.  He is credited with being responsible for the fact that Christianity was already firmly rooted in England well before the Roman armies arrived with missionaries in tow.  Tertullian, who died in AD 222, wrote that Britain had embraced the Gospel by his day.  Queen Elizabeth I credited Joseph with bringing Christianity long before the existence of the Roman Catholic Church when defending the Church of England against Rome's attempts to delegitimize it.  The world's oldest (and arguably most) Christian nation has adopted Blake's anthem as second to "God Save the Queen", and this Anglophile wishes our own country had one as good.