Joseph of Arimathea
Life and witness
At Jerusalem, of St. Joseph of Arimathea, a senator of noble extraction, and disciple of our Lord, who taking down His body from the cross, buried it in his own new sepulchre.
Baring-Gould: March · S. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
[Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius, because observed as a double by the Canons of the Vatican, who possess an arm of the saint. In Liege, where other relics are preserved, on Feb. 22nd; by the Greeks on July 31st.]
When Christ came into the world, one Joseph took Him into his arms and cherished Him in His infancy; another Joseph received Him when He was dead, and ministered to His inanimate body. Joseph, a native of Arimathæa, said by S. Matthew to have been rich, and called by S. Mark a counsellor, appears to have lived in Jerusalem, where he possessed a garden. According to S. John, he was a disciple in secret of the Son of God; that he was a just man, we are told by S. Luke. After the Crucifixion he cast aside the fears which had restrained him from professing openly his conviction, and going boldly to Pilate, he craved of him the body of Jesus. He then bought the winding sheet, and going to Calvary, detached from the Cross the dead body of Christ, assisted by S. John the Evangelist, S. Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Cleopas. Joseph and Nicodemus anointed the body with myrrh and aloes, and laid it in the sepulchre of Joseph.
Many strange traditions have attached themselves to Joseph of Arimathæa, as that he came to Britain, and planted his staff at Glastonbury; but as these legends are wholly worthless, they must be here passed over.
His body is said to have been buried by Fortunatus, patriarch of Grado, in the abbey of Moyen-Moutier; but no relics of it now remain there, though some are shown elsewhere.
Alban Butler — Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints
HE was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, but a faithful disciple of Jesus. It was no small proof of his great piety, that, though he had riches and honors to lose, he feared not the malice of men, but at a time when the apostles trembled, boldly declared himself a follower of Jesus who was crucified; and with the greatest devotion embalmed and buried his sacred body. This saint was the patron of Glastenbury, where a church and hermitage, very famous in the times of the ancient Britons,[1] were built by the first apostles of this island: among whom some moderns have placed St. Joseph himself, and Aristobulus.
Footnotes: 1. See Matthew of Westminster, and John of Glastenbury in their histories of that famous abbey published by Hearne; also Tanner's Notitia Monastica.
Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness
Hierosolymis sancti Joseph ab Arimathaea, qui nobilis Decurio et discipulus Domini exstitit; atque ipsius Domini corpus, de cruce depositum, in monumento suo novo sepelivit.