Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/52

40 joy and blessed her and was the first to hail her as the mother of the Lord (St. Luke i. 42). In answer to the salutation of Elisabeth, Mary uttered the song which we know as the Magnificat (St. Luke i. 40-55). It shows that, whether the priests in the temple or her parents at Nazareth brought her up, she had been instructed in the scriptures. The song is taken largely from that of Hannah ( (1)), mother of Samuel (1 Sam. ii. 1-10). The rest of it is almost entirely from the Psalms and the books of Moses and the Prophets.

When Mary returned to her husband's house, it became manifest that she was with child. While Joseph was grieved and perplexed, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and told him that she was about to become the mother of the Saviour of the world. They both suffered some suspicion and abuse from the priests, but they rejoiced because they were favoured by God.

Soon they set out for Bethlehem, in obedience to the decree of the Emperor Augustus that all the Jews should be taxed.

The Virgin Mother brought forth her son in a cave used as the stable of the overcrowded inn. At the moment of the Lord's birth everything stood still: the clouds were astonished, the birds stopped in the midst of their flight, people sitting at table did not move their hands to feed, and those who had meat in their mouth did not go on eating; but all faces were looking upwards; the kids that had their mouths touching the water did not drink. Then came Salome and would not believe that a virgin had brought forth a child; and her hand withered, but she acknowledged her fault, repented of her presumption, and worshipped the new-born King; she was allowed to carry the Child, and as soon as she took Him in her arms, her hand was made well. One of the legends of the Nativity—popular in Spain—was that the cow and the ass in the stable were quiet to let the Madonna rest, but the ox and the mule made their noises and disturbed her, and that is the reason that the ox and the mule never have any young ones to this day.

Next came the Wise Men from the East, led by a star of wondrous brightness, to the place where the young Child and His mother were. They worshipped the Child and presented their gifts and returned to their own country. The shepherds in the fields and SS. Simeon and (2) in the temple acknowledged the Divinity of the new-born Saviour, and Simeon foretold to the B. V. Mary the martyrdom of grief that she was to suffer. Then Herod, fearing that a rival king of Judea was born in Bethlehem, sent men to kill all the children there of two years old and under. Mary was afraid, wrapped her Child in swaddling clothes and hid Him in an ox-manger; but Joseph, warned of God that Herod was seeking to kill the Child, fled into Egypt, taking his wife and her Infant on an ass while he and his son Simeon walked beside them. Many legendary details of this journey are told in the various apocryphal books. As the holy family sat resting under a tree, the divine Child commanded the branches to bend down that His mother might gather the fruit to refresh herself. When dragons and other monsters came out to trouble them. He stood before them and they went peacefully away. Lions and wild asses carried the baggage the little party brought with them.

During part of their journey they were pursued by Herod's men, and at one place they passed through, the inhabitants were sowing corn in the fields. Mary said to them, "If people come here asking for us, tell them we passed through your place when you were sowing corn." They promised to do so. The corn grew up and ripened in one night. Next day, when the same men were reaping it, Herod's soldiers arrived and asked them whether a young woman with an infant and an old man had passed that way. They said, "Yes, they passed through when we were sowing this corn." The soldiers thought that must have been months ago, but a wicked black beetle lifted up its head and said, "Yesterday, yesterday." However, nobody listened to it, and the soldiers gave up the pursuit as hopeless. I have heard an amiable French child say, "Kill that