Ioseph 18 was the oikonomos of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia); he was one of a number of bishops and hegoumenoi, including Theodore the Stoudite (Theodoros 15), the bishop of Chalcedon (Ioannes 439) and the bishop of Nikaia (Petros 49), who met the hermit Ioannikios 2 at a church on Mt Olympus in Bithynia, the church of St Elias belonging to one of the metochia of the monastery of the Agauroi (near Prousa); Ioseph 18 was accompanied by his (unnamed) brother (Anonymus 559): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 28 (Ἰωσήφ, ὁ οἰκονόμος τῆς ἐκκλησίας σὺν ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ), Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 36 (Ἰωσὴφ ὅ ποτε γεγονὼς οἰκονόμος τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας, ἅμα τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ). The date of this encounter was possibly 821; cf. Ioannikios 2 and Theodoros 15. The language of Sabas 1 suggests that Ioseph 18 was oikonomos at the date of the incident; that of Petros 126 suggests on the other hand that he had been oikonomos previously. This man was perhaps identical with Ioseph 2 (who provoked the so-called Moechian dispute); if so, he had presumably by now made his peace with Theodoros 15 and become a firm supporter of the veneration of icons.

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