Joseph of Panephysis or Joseph the Anchorite was an Egyptian Christian monk who lived around the 4th and 5th centuries in the desert of

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...

. He was one of the

Desert Fathers The Desert Fathers or Desert Monks were early Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the Scetes desert of the Roman province of Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , na ...

and was a contemporary for Abbas

Poemen Abba Poemen the Great (Greek: Ὁ Ἅγιος Ποιμήν; ποιμήν means "shepherd") (c. 340–450) was a Christian monk and early Desert Father who is the most quoted Abba (Father) in the ''Apophthegmata Patrum'' (''Sayings of the Desert Fa ...

and

Lot Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to: Common meanings Areas * Land lot, an area of land * Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *Lot number, in batch production *Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...

, who sometimes consulted him. Joseph was born in

Thmuis Thmuis (; Greek: ; ar, Tell El-Timai) was a city in Lower Egypt, located on the canal east of the Nile, between its Tanitic and Mendesian branches. Its ruins are near the modern city of Timayy al-Imdid. History During the Ptolemaic period, Thm ...

, Egypt and lived as an

anchorite In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress) is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. While anchorites are ...

in Panephysis in eastern Egypt. There, he was visited by

John Cassian John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman ( la, Ioannes Eremita Cassianus, ''Ioannus Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern c ...

, who mentioned him in the ''Conferences''. He is venerated as a saint in the Coptic Orthodox tradition. His feast day is

June 17 Events Pre-1600 * 653 – Pope Martin I is arrested and taken to Constantinople, due to his opposition to monothelitism. * 1242 – Following the Disputation of Paris, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were bur ...

References

4th-century births 5th-century deaths Egyptian Christian monks Saints from Roman Egypt Eastern Catholic saints Coptic Orthodox saints Desert Fathers {{egypt-reli-bio-stub