The Shepherd, December 2004
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT, 2
This thing is also recorded, that as they came into Egypt, somewhere in the desert wastes thieves fell upon them, aiming to steal the donkey, on which they carried their few necessities and upon which sometimes the Mother and Child rode. But one of the thieves, seeing that the Infant was surpassingly beautiful, and wondering at that especial beauty, cried out: “Even if God were to take upon Himself a human body, it could not be more comely than that of this Child!” Then, having said that, he forbade the other thieves with him to harm the wayfarers in any way. Then the All-pure Theotokos spoke to the thief: “Know that this Child will grant thee a good gift, in that thou hast protected Him.” This was that same thief, who much later, was crucified with Christ, and hanged on the cross to His right, and who heard from the Lord: “This day, thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” Thus was the prophecy of the Mother of God, concerning the gift of the Child, fulfiled.
Having entered the land of Egypt, and being in the region of the Thebaid, they drew near to a city called Hermopolis. At the approach to the city, there was an exceedingly fine tree, which they called Persea, which the people, being accustomed to their idol-worship, used to revere as a god on account of its majesty and exceeding beauty, and they used to fall down before it and make offerings, for in this way the demon that inhabited that tree was worshipped by them. When the All-pure Mother of God and the Divine Child approached that tree, it shook violently, and the demon fled in fear at the coming of Jesus. The tree itself bent over, the crown to the very ground, as it were making an obeisance to its Creator and to the one who had borne Him, the All-pure Virgin, and in so doing it provided a shelter with its leafy branches from the intense heat of the sun for the holy wayfarers who were wearied by the labours of their journey. And the tree has stayed thus for ever as a manifest sign of God’s coming into Egypt. The tree itself received a healing power when the Lord, His Mother and Joseph settled under it, and its leaves heal all manner of diseases.
Also in that town and its idol temple, when they entered, the idols fell. Palladius speaks of that temple in his Lausaic History: “There (that is in Hermopolis) we saw a temple of the idols, in which when the Saviour approached all the statues fell to the ground. Also in a certain village there, called Siren, three hundred and sixty-five idols in one temple fell at the entry of Christ and the All-pure Mother. But in the whole of Egypt the idols were crushed when the Lord approached, and the demons fled from them, and thus was fulfiled that which was spoken by the Prophet Jeremias, who had been in Egypt himself. Saint Epiphanius writes in his [the Prophet’s] life, that this Prophet foretold to the Egyptian magi: ‘It will be that all the idols will fall, and all that is hand graven will be shattered when the Virgin Mother cometh with the Child, born in the manger.’ From this prophesy of Jeremias, there was a custom among the Egyptians of depicting a virgin lying on a couch, with an infant near her in a manger, wrapped in swaddling bands, and they reverenced that image. When once the King Ptolemy asked the Egyptian magi why this should be so, they said that it was a mystery which had been foretold to our fathers of old by a certain holy prophet, and they awaited the fulfilment of that prophecy and the happening of the mystery.”
Then they went on a little from the town of Hermopolis, and seeking a place where they might settle, they came to a village called Natarea, which lay between Heliopolis and Babylon. There, being close to the village, Joseph left the All-pure Virgin Mary and Christ the Lord under a fig-tree, and went himself into the village for provisions. This fig-tree also provided the Divine Traveller with shelter, forking from top to bottom, and bowing its crown to the ground, it provided a shade or awning over their heads, and it divided also at the roots, making a little arbor to stay in, and there the All-pure Virgin and Child lay to rest upon their way. Even to this day, this place is held in the greatest reverence and not only by the Christians, but also by the Saracens (Muslims), for there, even now, as reliable eye-witnesses have confirmed, they place oil lamps in that cleft in the tree to honour the fact that the Virgin and Child rested there. As Joseph and the Theotokos desired to settle in that village, they found a small house not far from the tree, and there they began to stay. By the power of the Divine Infant another miracle occurred there: near where they were staying and near to the miraculous tree, there sprang forth a spring of living water, from which the All-pure Virgin drew for their necessities, whose basin had been made by her small Babe. That spring is there to this day, with the coolest of water, an aid to health. And even more wondrous, in the whole land of Egypt, this is the only spring of living water to be found; and this fact is the glory of that village.
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