BL. JOSEPH, BISHOP OF FREISING - 17 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 17th of January

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. JOSEPH, THIRD BISHOP OF FREISING 

The Bishop of Freising blessing the faithful

Blessed Joseph, the third Bishop of Freising (in Bavaria, South Germany) was - according to the Bavaria sancta - originally probably from Tyrol [Austria]. St Corbinian, the first bishop of Freising, had been succeeded by his brother Erimbert. After the latter's death in A.D. 749, our blessed Joseph came to the episcopal see. St Boniface, Apostle of Germany, had previously divided the whole of Bavaria into four dioceses (Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising and Passau) with apostolic authority.

HE SHOWED THE GREATEST ZEAL IN ESTABLISHING ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER

Prior to this, Joseph presumably had been a monk in the Freising Benedictine monastery, which had been founded by St Corbinian. He showed the greatest zeal in establishing ecclesiastical order and for building churches. In 752 Joseph founded the Isen Monastery and consecrated it in honour of the holy Bishop Zeno of Verona.

Joseph died on January 17, 764 and, as requested in his will, was buried in the Church of St Zeno in Isen. According to Hundius, he sat on the episcopal chair for 13 years.

THE FAITHFUL GREATLY HONOURED THEIR SHEPHERD

The people greatly honoured their shepherd and called him the "blessed." The epitaph written by Bishop Johannes Franz Eckher reads: "Here lies buried the blessed Bishop Joseph of Freising, the founder of this church. He died in 764 and was laid in this tomb by Mr Christian Stark, dean of this church, in 1743."

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)