When the Pious Joseph saw that the sun had hidden its rays,
and the veil of the Temple had been rent at the death of the
Saviour, he did approach Pilate and did plead with him
crying and saying, “Give thou me this stranger who from his
youth has wandered like a stranger. Give thou me this stranger
whom his kinsmen killed in hatred like a stranger. Give me
this stranger at whom I wonder, beholding him as a guest of
death. Give me this stranger who knoweth how to take in the
poor and strangers. Give me this stranger whom the Jews in
envy estranged from the world. Give thou me this stranger
that I may bury him in a tomb, who being a stranger hath no
place wheron to lay his head. Give thou me this stranger, to
whom his mother, beholding him dead, shouted crying, ‘O my
Son and my God, even though my vitals have been wounded,
and my heart burns, as i behold thee dead, yet trusting in thy
Resurrection, I magnify thee,'” In these words the honorable
Joseph pleaded with Pilate, took the Saviour’s body, and with
fear wrapped it in linen and balm, placing thee in a tomb, O
thou who grantest to all everlasting life and great mercy.
(Hymn that traditionally is chanted during the procession of Epitaphios)