The Monk Joseph Volotsky (in the world John Sanin) was born into the family of a patrimonial, the owner of the village of Yazvishche of the Volokolamsk Principality. The exact date of the monk's birth has not been established, but most sources indicate the years 1439-1440. Joseph's great–grandfather - Sanya (founder of the family name) He was originally from Lithuania. There is almost no news about the parents of St. Joseph, John and Mary, except for information that they died in monasticism. Besides the Monk Joseph, they had three other sons: Vassian, Akaki and Eleazar. Vassian and Akaky took monastic vows. Subsequently, Vassian became Archbishop of Rostov.
At the age of seven, the boy John was sent to study with the elder of the Volokolamsk Holy Cross Monastery Arseny. In two years he studied the Holy Scriptures and became a reader in the monastery church. At the age of twenty, John visited the Tver Savvin Monastery, where he met with the spiritual mentor Varsonofy, and "wisely following the advice and blessing of the visionary and holy elder Varsonofy, came to the monastery of St. Paphnutius and begged him to be obedient" (Kontakion 4).
In the Borovsky monastery, the Monk Paphnutius tonsured a young man into monasticism with the name Joseph. The Monk Joseph spent eighteen years under the guidance of the holy ascetic. Upon the death of his teacher, he was appointed abbot of the Borovsky monastery, which he managed for about two years. In this monastery, he introduced a cenobitic charter, which caused discontent among some monks. The Monk Joseph was forced to leave the monastery and went on a pilgrimage to Russian shrines. So he ended up in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. Here he became even more determined to create a new monastic dormitory. From the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, he retired to the Volokolamsk borders, where in 1479, at the confluence of the Struga and Sister rivers in the forest, he founded the monastery of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In his monastery, the Monk Joseph introduced the strictest dormitory and drew up his own charter for it, a significant part of which is taken from the Charter of the Rev. Neil Sorsky. The Monk Joseph raised an entire school of ascetic monks. Many of the tonsured monks of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery were archpastors and occupied the most important chairs of the Russian Church: Metropolitans of Moscow and All Russia Daniel (+ 1539) and St. Macarius (+ 1563), Archbishop Vassian of Rostov (+ 1515), Bishops Simeon of Suzdal (+ 1515), Dositheus Krutitsky (+ 1544), Savva Krutitsky, according to nicknamed the Black One, Akaky of Tver, Vassian of Kolomna, the Kazan saints Gury (+ 1563) and Herman (+ 1567), St. Barsonofy, Bishop of Tver (+ 1576).
At the church Councils of 1490 and 1504, the Monk Joseph denounced the heresy of the Jews that arose in Novgorod. He resolutely sought the condemnation of persistent apostates. In addition to his main work "The Enlightener", directed against this heresy, the saint also wrote 24 epistles to various persons, a brief and lengthy edition of the monastic Charter.
The Monk Joseph passed away on September 9, 1515 and was buried near the altar of the Assumption Church of his monastery. By the Council of 1578, St. Joseph was canonized by the Church as a locally venerated saint, and in 1591 as an all–Russian saint.