Translations:Saint Joseph/28/en

According to St. Matthew’s apocryphal Gospel of the Birth of Mary, when Mary became of marriageable age the high priest summoned all unmarried men of the house of David to bring their staffs to the altar. For the Lord had revealed to him that “out of whatsoever person’s rod ... a flower should bud forth, and on the top of it the Spirit of the Lord should sit in the appearance of a dove, he should be the man to whom the Virgin should be given.”