The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

2. NAZARETH. THE HOUSE OF THE HOLY FAMILY.

[Sunday, February 25 ^th:] I saw the Blessed Virgin doing knitting or crochet work. She had a roll of wool fastened at her right hip and she held in her hands two needles (of bone, I think) with little hooks. One must be half a yard long. The other is shorter. The needle is prolonged beyond the hook, and it is round this prolongation that the thread is looped to make the stitch in working. The part already knitted hangs down between the two needles. She did this work standing or sitting beside the Infant Jesus lying in a basket. I saw St. Joseph plaiting long strips of yellow, brown, and green bark to make panels for screens or for walls and ceilings. He had a store of these panels lying on top of each other in a shed near the house. He wove various patterns into them--stars, hearts, and other things. I felt sorry for him; he had no idea that he would soon have to flee into Egypt. The Blessed Virgin's mother comes regularly every day to visit her; it is nearly an hour's walk from her house.I had a view of Jerusalem, and saw Herod having numbers of men summoned, as when soldiers are called up with us. These were led into a large courtyard and given clothes and weapons. They wore something like a half-moon on one arm. They carried spears and short broad swords like chopping knives. They wore helmets, and many of them had wrappings tied round their legs. All this must have been connected with the Massacre of the Innocents. Herod was in a very uneasy frame of mind.

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