heliopolis -3-

I saw the Blessed Virgin weaving tapestry... 

and doing another kind of work. For the latter, she used a staff on the top of which a knot was fastened. I cannot say whether she was spinning or not. I often saw people visiting her, and the little Infant Jesus. The Child lay on the ground by Mary’s side, in a kind of cradle like a little boat. Sometimes I saw it raised on a frame like a sawing-jack. 

There were not many Jews in Heliopolis. 

And I saw them going about with a downcast look. 

As if they had no right to live there.

North of Heliopolis...

between it and the Nile, which there divides into several branches... 

lay the little territory of Goshen, and in it a little place, cut up by canals, among which dwelt numbers of Jews, whose religious ideas were very much confused. 

Several of them became acquainted with the Holy Family, and Mary did all kinds of feminine work for them, receiving as payment bread and other provisions. The Jews in the Land of Goshen had a temple, which they compared with the Temple of Solomon, but it was very different.

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Not far from his dwelling... 

Joseph built an oratory [kapel] where the resident Jews who possessed no such place of their own, used to assemble with the Holy Family for prayer. It was surmounted by a light cupola which could be thrown open, thus enabling the worshippers to stand under the open sky. 

In the center of the hall stood an altar, or table of sacrifice. 

Covered, as usual, with red and white. 

On it lay rolls of parchment. 

The priest, or teacher, was a very old man. 

The men and women were not so separated from one another at prayer as in Palestine.

The men stood on one side, the women on the other.

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The Holy Family dwelt a little more than a year at Heliopolis. 

They had much to suffer from the Egyptians, who hated and persecuted them, on account of their overturned idols. And as the houses were all solidly built, Joseph could not find work at his trade. 

They left Heliopolis, therefore, but not before they had learned from an angel of the slaughter of the Bethlehemite babes. Both Mary and Joseph were deeply grieved, and the Child Jesus, who was now able to walk, being a year-and-a-half old, shed tears the whole day.

~bron~