The Life of Ioseph 12 was written by one of his disciples, Theophanes 23: Theophanes, Vita Iosephi Hymnographi (BHG 944). A later slightly expanded version was written by Ioannes Diaconus (PBE II): Ioannes, Vita Iosephi Hymnographi (BHG 946). A derivative and at times confused summary is included in the Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, 3 April, pp. 581-584.

Ioseph 12 was a prolific writer of hymns and was known as the Hymnographer; see Beck, Kirche, p. 601ff.., ODB II, p. 1074, and cf. Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 1 and Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 941A and 964C-965D. For his writings, see PG 105, pp. 983-1426, E. Tomadakes, Ioseph ho Hymnographos, (Athens, 1971) and the list in Beck, Kirche, p. 602.

Ioseph 12 was born and grew up in Sicily, in one of the well-known cities (sic; it is not identified); his parents were Ploutinos 2 and Agathe 1; they were pious people and Ioseph 12 received a religious as well as a secular education; he was still youthful when Sicily was attacked by the Arabs and his parents took him and his siblings to live in greater safety in the Peloponnesos: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 2, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 941D-944C, 944D-945A, Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 1. When fifteen years old (χρόνον γὰρ πεντεκαιδέκατον ἤνυε), Ioseph 12 left the Peloponnesos and went to Thessalonike, where he received the tonsure and entered a monastery (see Anonymus 296); he followed a life devoted to extreme asceticism and hardship: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 3, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 945A-948A, Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 1, cf. Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 4 for a description of his life and character. While living at Thessalonike he was given relics of St Bartholomaios by a holy man living there (Anonymus 301): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 9, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 961D. He was ordained a priest (see Anonymus 297): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog., title (Βίος καὶ Πολιτεία τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰωσὴφ τοῦ Ὑμνογράφου, πρότερον μὲν μοναχοῦ καὶ πρεσβυτέρου γεγονότος), 5 (τοῦ μακαρίτου Ἰωσὴφ ... τῷ τε τοῦ πρεσβυτερίου τετιμημένου βαθμῷ καὶ τὰ τῶν ἱερέων ἐνεργεῖν προκεχειρισμένου), Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 952A (χειροτονεῖται πρεσβύτερος), Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 1 (χειροτονεῖται πρεσβύτερος).

When Gregory the Decapolite (Gregorios 79) visited Thessalonike, he and Ioseph 12 met and with the permission of the hegoumenos (Anonymus 296) they pursued a life of asceticism and devotion together; they then both travelled to Constantinople, and lived at the Church of St Antipas, close to the Church of St Mokios, where they continued with a life of hardship and worship, devoted to the study of the Bible: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 5, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 952C-953A (at Constantinople they lived a short while - πρὸς βραχὺ - at the Church of SS Sergios and Bacchos), Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 2. During the iconoclast persecution under Theophilos 5, Gregorios 79 was approached by leading iconophiles to send Ioseph 12 to Rome with a letter to the pope explaining the sufferings of the church; Ioseph 12 set sail with the message, but they were attacked by barbarian ships (evidently Arabs) and Ioseph 12 and all on board were carried away to captivity in Crete; in prison he raised the spirits of his fellow prisoners and encouraged them when they grew downhearted (see Anonymus 298, Anonymus 299 and Anonymus 300): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 6, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 956A-960A, Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 2. He was eventually released after a ransom (λύτρα) was paid: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 7, cf. Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 960A-D.

Ioseph 12 returned to Constantinople after the death of Theophilos 5 and the Triumph of Orthodoxy (in 843), but found that Gregorios 79 was dead; he became a hermit together with Ioannes 244, a former disciple of Gregorios 79, at the same place as he and Gregorios 79 had formerly occupied: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 8, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 960D-961C, Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 3 and 6 (cf. below). Some years later, after the death of Ioannes 244, he moved to the tomb of St John Chrysostom; he remained there for five years, when the growing numbers of monks who joined him there made the site too small, and so he founded a new monastery on an abandoned site; he transferred there the bodies of Gregorios 79 and of Ioannes 244; he also founded there a church dedicated to the Apostle St Bartholomaios and to Gregorios 79; he allegedly wanted to compose hymns for use there but found the task difficult; he therefore prayed to the Apostle and received a vision during the night, after which the composition of hymns came easily to him: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 9, cf. 10-11 (author of many hymns celebrating many saints, which were widely sung and known), Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 961C-964C, Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 3-4.

He fell victim to the Kaisar Bardas 5 (presumably at the time when the patriarch Ignatios 1 was deposed, in 858) and was sent to Cherson (in the Crimea) into exile (βασιλείῳ χειρὶ καὶ νεύματι μακρὰν ὑπερόριος γίνεται, τουτέστιν ἐν Χερσῶνι τῇ πόλει); after some years (μετά τινας χρόνους) he was recalled to Constantinople and was invited by the imperial authorities to accept higher honours (τιμαῖς μείζοσιν); he refused, allegedly wanting a peaceful life (διὰ τὸ φιλήσυχον αὐτὸν εἶναι καὶ ἐνάρετον πάνυ), but was prevailed upon to become skeuophylax of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia) (καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν καὶ ὑπερτίμων σκεύων τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ Μεγάλης Ἐκκλησίας ... προχειρίζονται φύλακα); this was after Ignatios 1 had become patriarch of Constantinople again (which was in 867), and Ioseph 12 remained in high favour still when Photios 1 succeeded Ignatios 1 (in 877): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 12, cf. title (ἐπεῖτα δὲ καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν καὶ ὑπερτίμων σκεύων τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ Μεγάλης Ἐκκλησίας φύλαξ προχειρίζεται παρὰ Βασιλείου ἄνακτος), Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 968A-969A (τὴν φυλακὴν ... τῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἱερῶν κειμηλίων; allegedly he was only persuaded to accept by the efforts of the patriarch himself, Ignatios 1), Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 5-6 (wrongly puts the exile under Theophilos 5 and his return under Theodora 2, possibly through confusion with his captivity in Crete). He was apparently in exile in Cherson from 858 to 867, then returned to Constantinople and was skeuophylax of Hagia Sophia from 867 until his death.

When he felt his death approaching towards the end of Lent, on Good Friday he sent to the patriarch Photios 1 a register of the property of the Church together with Theophanes 23 (the author of the Life), entrusting both to his care (ἡ ... Παρασκευή, ἐν ἧι τὸ γραμματεῖον, ἐφ' ὧι αἱ πᾶσαι τοῦ ποιμνίου ἀναγεγραμμέναι κτήσεις ὕπηρχον, ἀράμενος καὶ σὺν τούτῳ καὶ ἐμὲ προσλαβὼν τῷ Φωτωνύμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀρχιερεῖ καὶ τὴν κλῆσιν ἔχοντι τοῖς ἔργοις ἐπαληθεύουσαν ἐγχειρίζει); shortly afterwards he fell ill with shivering and a fever and seven days after taking to his bed he died; the date was 3 April: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 14, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 969D-972C. He was then aged seventy: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 15. His death occurred no later than 886 (since Photios 1 was still the patriarch); since the day on which he died was 3 April and this was the seventh day after he took to his bed (which was therefore on 28 March) and since he had not yet taken to his bed on Good Friday of that year, then Good Friday was no later than 27 March and Easter was no later than 29 March in the year of his death; between 877 and 886, only two years correspond to this, viz. 878 and 886. He therefore died in one of these years, aged seventy exactly, and was therefore born in either 808 or 816. The date 883, proposed by Stiernon, seems to be excluded by the date of Easter in that year (31 March 883, with Good Friday on 29 March 883). He was buried in the tomb already prepared for him in his own monastery of St Bartholomaios: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 15, Synax. Eccl. Const. 581-584, 6. Among those to whom he gave the tonsure was Theophanes 23, author of his Life: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 11. Subsequently he seems to have made Theophanes 23 hegoumenos of his monastery: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 16.

Called the hymnographos (Ἰωσὴφ ὁ ὑμνογράφος), he lived in the time of the emperor Theophilos 5, was banished by the empress Theodora 2 and lived down to the reign of Leo the Wise (Leo VI; Leo 25, AD 886-912): Georg. Mon. Cont. 808.

Ioseph 12 was a friend and acquaintance of Anonymus 302, who lived far away at the time when Ioseph 12 died but who at that very instant of time had a vision of all the heavenly hosts welcoming the soul of Ioseph 12 to heaven: Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 973A-976A.

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