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)