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

1. AN ELDER BROTHER OF ST. JOSEPH

[Later in Catherine Emmerich's visions we shall come across various other allusions to the family history of Joseph and in particular of his brothers. These allusions are, however, too scattered and interwoven in the great mass of her communications for the writer to collect them all together in this place with certainty and clarity. Since, however, an opportunity occurs here unsought, we will mention an elder brother of Joseph's who lived in Galilee.[When we were looking up in our diaries the passage where Catherine Emmerich explained on August 24 ^th, 1821, the relationship between Joseph and Joachim (see p. 18 ), we found a detailed account given by her on the same day (being the feast of St. Bartholomew) of a story from the life of that apostle. This vision had presented itself very vividly to her in connection with a relic of the saint. In the course of it she stated that the father of Bartholomew of Geshur had for some long time frequented the healing waters near Bethulia and had afterwards settled permanently in the region, chiefly on account of his friendship with an elder brother of Joseph. She added:]He went to a valley near Dabbesheth which was the home of Zadoch, a devout man and an elder brother of Joseph. The devout father of Bartholomew had become much attached to him during his sojourn at Bethulia. Zadoch had two sons and two daughters, and these children were on friendly terms with the Holy Family. When the twelve-year-old Jesus remained behind in the Temple and his parents missed him, this was one of the families in which they sought for Him. I saw the sons amongst Jesus' playmates when He was a boy.

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