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The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
XIV. THE HOLY FAMILY IN BETHLEHEM AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE KINGS.
1. MEASURES TAKEN IN BETHLEHEM AGAINST THE KINGS. JOSEPH IS EXAMINED AND BLACKMAILED.
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[December 25 ^th:] The angel had warned the kings just in time, for the
authorities in Bethlehem--perhaps on a Secret order from Herod, but I
think from their own zeal of office--meant to arrest today the kings
who were sleeping in the inn at Bethlehem and to imprison them in the
cellars deep under the synagogue. They were then going to denounce them
to Herod as disturbers of the peace. However, when their departure
became known this morning, they were already near Engaddi, and the
valley where they had encamped was quiet and deserted as usual, with
nothing but the trodden grass and a few tent-poles to show that they
had been there. In the meantime the appearance in Bethlehem of the
kings and their train had caused a considerable stir. Some regretted
that they had refused Joseph a lodging; others said that the kings were
strange fanatical adventurers; while others connected their arrival
with the rumors of what the shepherds had seen. The authorities of the
place (perhaps as the result of a warning from Herod, but of this I am
not sure) decided that steps must be taken to deal with the situation.
In the center of the town, in an open place with a fountain surrounded
by trees, I saw near the synagogue a large house with steps leading up
to it. All the inhabitants were summoned to the square in front of the
house, and I saw a warning or command being given to them from the
steps. They were told that all perverse talk and superstitious rumors
must be stopped, and from now onwards there must be no more running
backwards and forwards outside the town to the dwelling of the people
who had been the cause of all this talk. After the assembled people had
dispersed, I saw St. Joseph summoned by two men and being examined in
that house by some aged Jews. I saw him go back to the Crib and then
again go to the court-house. When he went there the second time, he
took with him some of the gold from the kings' gifts and gave it to
them, upon which they let him go in peace. It seemed to me that the
whole examination was a sort of blackmail. I saw, too, that a path
leading towards the Crib was blocked by the authorities by felling a
tree across it. This was not the path through the town-gate, but the
one which led over a hill or rampart to the Cave of the Nativity from
the place where Mary had waited under a big tree on arriving at
Bethlehem. They even put up a guard-house by the tree, and stretched
ropes across the road which were attached to a bell in the guard-house,
so that they could hold up anyone who tried to pass. In the afternoon I
saw a band of sixteen of Herod's soldiers talking to Joseph; they were
probably sent on account of the kings, who had been accused of being
disturbers of the peace. Finding, however, everything quiet and lonely,
with nobody but a poor family in the cave, and having been warned not
to alarm these in any way, they went quietly back to report what they
had found. The presents and other things left by the kings had been
hidden away by Joseph partly in Maraha's grave and partly' in some
secret places in the hill of the Cave of the Nativity, which he knew of
since his boyhood when he had often hidden there from his brothers.
These separate hiding-places dated from the time of the patriarch
Jacob, who had once set up his tents here on this hill. At that time
there were only a few tents on the site of Bethlehem.
This evening I saw Zechariah of Hebron coming to see the Holy Family
for the first time. Mary was still in the cave. He wept with joy, took
the Infant Jesus in his arms, and repeated (in part or somewhat
altered) the hymn of praise which he had uttered at the circumcision of
John.
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