ON SAINTS JOSEPH AND LUKE, MARTYRS AT ANTIOCH.
CommentaryJoseph, Martyr at Antioch (Saint)
Luke, Martyr at Antioch (Saint)
[1] In all the illustrious Latin and more ancient Martyrologies that we possess, we read, usually in first place, the following: "The thirteenth day before the Calends of April, at Antioch, of Saint Joseph" -- or "of the holy Joseph." So the ancient copies of the Martyrology of Saint Jerome: the Luccan, the Blumian, and ours written nearly a thousand years ago. Likewise the manuscripts of Reichenau, Cassino, Altaemps, Barberini, Vallicella, the Vatican of Saint Peter, the Neapolitan of the Clerks Regular, and that of Saint Cyriacus, in which this Joseph alone is celebrated. Luke Holstein also reports the same in his observations from a very ancient codex of the Queen of Sweden, and they are also read in the Martyrology of Notker. But without the attribution to Antioch, Saint Joseph is inscribed in the manuscripts of Aachen, Augsburg, and Labbe.
[2] That this is the very foster-father of the Lord, whom the Martyrologies holding the next place of antiquity after the aforesaid Hieronymian ones present on the preceding day, and who was placed here by Eusebius of Caesarea on account of a special veneration at Antioch, we would gladly suspect; but lacking proofs, we do not dare to assert it, and therefore prefer to count him separately among the Martyrs of Antioch, until light shines from elsewhere and reveals who he is whose name was so celebrated at Antioch (presumably on account of martyrdom endured for the faith), unless some other and far greater connection with the Author and Perfecter of the faith, Jesus, intervened for him -- so that therefore, just as the feasts of the Virgin Mother of God and the Apostles who were not Martyrs, the Church of Antioch also judged that his commemoration should be celebrated annually, in some century closer to the times of Eusebius. A companion is joined to Joseph in the Martyrology of Saint Jerome from the manuscript of Corbie printed at Paris, and in another manuscript of Corbie believed to have been written more than eight hundred years ago; in these it is read thus: "At Antioch, of Saint Joseph, of Luke." In the manuscript of Saint Maximinus, Lucia and Josippus are mingled among other Martyrs, for which perhaps Joseph and Luke should be read. We reported on the past day of March 19, among the African Champions, a certain Joseph or Josippus, but one different from this one. Galesinius joined him to the Martyrs of Syria, of whom we shall presently treat; and we judge him to be also different from Saint Joseph the Samaritan, son of Saint Photina, of whom we have treated. We grant veneration from the most ancient Martyrologies; the time and Acts of the martyrdom we have read nowhere. Greven in his Additions to Usuard commemorates this Joseph with Claudius, who pertains to the Syrian Martyrs.