saint Joseph of Arimathea

Personal and Family Information

Joseph was born on 23 SEP 0001, the son of Jonah and Miriam. The place is not known.

He died on 27 JUL 0082 in Glastonbury, Somerset, England .

His wife was Anna. They were married, but the date and place have not been found. Their only known child was Anna or Enygeus (?-?).

Pedigree Chart (3 generations)

Events

Notes

Note 1

St. Joseph was the man who had taken Christ's body down from the cross and given up his own tomb for Christ's last resting-place. Apocryphal legend tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was the Virgin Mary's paternal uncle. After the resurrection, he left Palestine with Saints Philip, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene & others, and sailed through the Mediterranean to Southern France. Lazarus & Mary stayed in Marseilles, while the others travelled north. At the English Channel, St.Philip sent Joseph, with twelve disciples, to establish Christianity in the most far-flung corner of the Roman Empire.

Note 2

Joseph had been chosen for such a task, because he knew Britain well already. He was a merchant by trade and had conducted business with the Dumnonian tin-miners and Durotrigian lead-miners of Britain many times before. Some even say that he sometimes brought his nephew, Jesus, with him on these trading missions. Hence the words of Blake's famous hymn, Jerusalem:

And did those feet, in ancient time,

Walk upon England's mountains green?

...

Joseph ... secured himself twelve hides of land at Glastonbury in Somerset on which to build the first monastery in Britain. From here he became Britain's evangelist.