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02Knights Templar - Julian Emperor

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SAINTS<br />

Initially, he plans to break off the engagement but he is prevented<br />

from doing so by a dream in which he is visited by an<br />

angel. The angel informs him that the child she is carrying<br />

was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that he should name him<br />

Jesus and that he will save his people from their sins.<br />

According to the angel, the birth of Jesus will fulfil the<br />

prophecy of Isaiah concerning a virgin who would conceive<br />

and bear a son. Joseph obeys the instructions of the angel<br />

and, furthermore, has no ‘marital relations’ with Mary until<br />

the birth of Jesus. The next important event in the life of<br />

Mary is referred to as the visitation. In the gospel of Luke,<br />

Mary makes a visit to her relative Elizabeth. Elizabeth is older<br />

than Mary and has never had children with her husband, a<br />

priest named Zechariah. However, the angel Gabriel has appeared<br />

to him and informed him that his wife will bear him<br />

a son who will be named John. He has also told Zechariah<br />

that his son will be a very significant and holy man who will<br />

proclaim the coming of Jesus.<br />

Following the birth of Jesus, Mary appears intermittently<br />

during his adult life. She is present, for example, at the wedding<br />

at Cana. Most dramatically, she is present at the crucifixion<br />

at the base of the cross. In the Gospel of John, Christ<br />

commits his mother to the care of John, saying to her,<br />

‘Woman, here is your son’ and to John,‘Here is your mother’<br />

(John 19: 26–27). One tradition claims that, following the<br />

death and resurrection of Jesus, Mary travelled to Ephesus on<br />

the western coast of modern dayTurkey where she ended her<br />

days. Other non-biblical sources claim that she died in<br />

Jerusalem. Some traditions claim that an angel appeared to<br />

her three days before her death to announce that she would be<br />

taken into heaven. It is also said that all of the apostles were<br />

miraculously present at her death.<br />

•16•

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