The
Church celebrates the feast of the coming of Christ in Egypt on the
24th day of Bashans (the end of May in the Catholic calendar). The Holy
Family went to the land of Egypt: Mary, the Virgin Mother, held the
little child Jesus in her arms, while Joseph the carpenter walked beside
her. They had fled in order to escape Herod who was seeking to kill the
child.
The archangel
Gabriel came to Joseph in a dream and said to him: ‘‘Arise, take the
child and his mother, and flee into Egypt. Stay there until I tell you,
because Herod will seek the child to destroy him.’’ Joseph got up, took
the child and his mother at night, went to Egypt and remained there
until the death of Herod.
The scholars and
historians of the Church believe that the Holy Family spent about four
years in Egypt. As they approached the pagan statues of Egypt, the
statues collapsed in the presence of the Lord, and demons fled.
Palladius,
bishop of Helenopolis, Bithynia (now Turkey), historian of the Church of
the 4th century, wrote an account of this, having witnessed the
overthrown idols that crumbled in the presence of Christ.
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