Joseph of Panephysis was an Egyptian desert monk of the fourth century, remembered chiefly through the sayings tradition of early monasticism. He lived as an anchorite at Panephysis, a settlement in the eastern part of the Nile delta in Lower Egypt, and is counted among the Desert Fathers whose recorded conversations were gathered into the Apophthegmata Patrum (the Sayings of the Desert Fathers).
According to the tradition, Joseph came from Thmuis in Egypt and was consulted by other elders for his spiritual discernment. He was a contemporary of figures such as Abba Lot and Abba Poemen, who are reported to have sought his counsel. The monk and writer John Cassian, who travelled among the Egyptian fathers, visited Joseph and associated several of his Conferences with the region of Panephysis.
Joseph is best known for a single saying preserved in the Apophthegmata. When Abba Lot came to him and described the ordinary measure of his discipline — his rule of prayer, a little fasting, meditation, and the effort to keep peace and purify his thoughts — and asked what more he should do, Joseph rose and stretched out his hands toward heaven; his fingers, the tradition relates, became like ten lamps of fire, and he said, "If you will, you can become all flame." The saying has been read as an image of the soul wholly given over to God.
He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where the anchor record for this entry assigns his commemoration to July 7. The details of his life survive almost entirely in the form of brief sayings rather than a continuous biography.
