Commemoration of the Flight Into Egypt

Life

The wise men-astrologers from the East, having bowed down to the Lord in Bethlehem, departed by the angel's command by another way to their homeland. And wicked King Herod thought to slay all the children in Bethlehem. God saw that intention of Herod's and sent His angel to Joseph. God's angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and commanded him to take the Child and His Mother and flee to Egypt. Joseph did so. Having taken the divine Child and His Most Holy Mother, Joseph first went to Nazareth (Luke 2:39), where Joseph arranged his household affairs and took with him his son James, and then they went to Egypt (Matt. 2:14). And thus were fulfilled the prophetic words: Behold, the Lord riding upon a swift cloud shall come into Egypt (Isa. 19:1). In old Cairo even today they show the cave where the holy family lived, and in the village of Matarea, near Cairo, they point to the tree under which the Most Holy Theotokos with the Lord Jesus rested, as well as a miraculous spring of water beneath that tree. Having lived several years in Egypt, the holy family returned by God's angel's command again to Palestine. And thus was fulfilled another prophecy: Out of Egypt have I called my son (Hos. 11:1). Herod had died, and on his bloody throne sat his son Archelaus, worthy of him in evil. Hearing that Archelaus reigned in Jerusalem, Joseph went to Galilee, to his city Nazareth, where Joseph settled in his house. Galilee was then ruled by another son of Herod, Herod the Younger, who was somewhat milder in evil than his brother Archelaus.