Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Venerated at Veroli near Frosinone, in Italy; and at Arles on May 25th; at Rheims on May nth; at Ciudad-Rodrigo in Portugal on April 9th. Authority Mention in the Gospels. Acts of SS. Mary, the mother of James, and Salome exist written after the year 1491, in which year, says the author, he was cured of the stone. These acts, it is needless to say, are altogether apocryphal.] ipC*W|N the Arabic 44 History of Joseph the Carpenter/' rj Kpli a wor k well known in the Middle Ages, and WuA considered by the best authorities to be of a ■BbMI date not later than the fourth century, we are told: — 44 There was a man whose name was Joseph, sprung from a family of Bethlehem, a city of Judah, and the city of David the king. And he followed the trade of a carpenter, and, after the manner of all men, took a wife. Moreover he begat unto himself sons and daughters — to wit, four sons and two daughters. And these are the names of them — Judas, Justus, James, and Simon; and the names of the two daughters, Assia and Lydia. At length the wife of Joseph the Just died, intent in all her works upon the Apxil*.] S. Mary.
Divine glory..... Now when Joseph the Just was made a widower, Mary (his future espoused wife).... had accomplished twelve years.... And, after Joseph had taken her to his house, Mary found James the Less in the house of his father, broken in mind and sad by reason of the death of his mother, and she brought him up. Wherefore she is called Mary the mother of James And Justus and Simon, the elder sons of Joseph, having married wives, went away to their families. Both the daughters likewise married, and departed to their houses. But Judas and James the Less and the Virgin.... remained in the house of Joseph.” 1 And the early childhood and companionship of Jesus and James are referred to incidentally in the following account related in the “ Gospel of Thomas the Israelite”: — “And Joseph sent his son James to tie up wood and carry it into his house; and the child Jesus also followed him. And as James was gathering the faggots, a viper bit the hand of James. And being sore afflicted and about to die, Jesus drew nigh, and breathed on the bite, and straightway the pain ceased, and the animal burst asunder, and James continued to remain healed."* The account occurs, substantially the same, in the “ Book of the Birth of the Blessed Mary, and of the Infancy of the Saviour;” 8 in the “Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour,” 4 believed to be of the fifth or sixth century; and in the Syriac “Gospel of the Boyhood of our Lord Jesus,” 6 believed to be the most ancient extant form of the so-called Gospel of S. Thomas.
1 “ Codex Apoc. Nor. Test** Edit. Tbilo, cap. I.— It., xi. 8 Cap. xrl. Edit. Tbilo. 8 “ Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha.** Edit. Tlschendorf, cap. xlL Thilo'a version only goes as far as cap. xxr.
8 Cap. xlili. Edit. Tbilo. •Cap. xlr. Edited, from the Syriac, with an English translation and notes, by W. Wright, LL.D. London, 1865.
Several passages of Scripture will also at once occur, as throwing additional light upon the subject Thus (Matt, yet talked to the people, behold his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.* (John it 12), “After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples.* (Acts i. 14), “ Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren.* (John vii. 3), “His brethren, therefore, said unto him, Depart hence.* And again, more particularly (Matt. xiii. 55, 56, and Mark vi. 3), the Jews asked, “Is not this the Carpenter's son ? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? and his sisters, are they not all with us?* In Matt xxvii. 56, and Mark xv. 40, “ Mary the mother of James and Joses* is mentioned. And in Galat i. 19, S. Paul says, “Other of the Apostles saw I none, save James, the Lord's brother.* SS. Simon and Jude were likewise of the number of the Apostles, and Joses, Justus, Joseph, or Barsabas, were elected, after the death of Judas, to the Apostleship with Matthias (Acts i. 23). The vagueness, however, in which the exact relationship between our Lord and the rest of the Holy Family was left in Scripture, and the discrepancies and hiatus which existed, even in the Apocryphal Gospels, were not likely to survive the passion for minute research and classification which prevailed during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; and accordingly, it is to the great encyclopaedists of those ages to whom we must turn to find that relationship defined with the most minute accuracy. In the “ Scholastic History,* a work which belongs to the latter part of the twelfth century, James, Simon, Jude, and Justus — sumamed Barsabas — are the sons of Mary, the sister of the Blessed Virgin by Alpheus the brother of Joseph, the foster-father of our Lord. Joachim was married to Anna, and had issue S. Mary.
— the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, and then died. Anna was next given in marriage by Joseph, her kinsman, to his brother Cleopas, by whom she had a second daughter — Mary subsequently married to Alpheus. By him she bore the so-called brethren of the Lord, James the Less, Simon, Jude, and Justus, or Barsabas. After this, however, Alpheus died, and Anna was married a third time, to Salom, by whom she had a third daughter; Mary subsequently married to Zebedee, by whom she had two sons — James the Great and the Evangelist S. John. 1 The Jews, as is well known, applied the term “brethren” loosely to all blood relations; but James, Simon, Jude, and Justus had a more especial claim to be called the brethren of our Lord, in that they were descended, as is shown, not only from Cleopas the brother of Joseph, but also from the wife of Alpheus, the sister of the Virgin. And the same is expressed fully, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, by Voragine, 9 Durandus, 8 and Vincent of Beauvais. 4 In a Missal of the Church of Utrecht, published in 1514, after the Common of Saints, is a Mass in honour of SS. Mary, the mother of S. James, and Salome, and in the Collect both are termed sisters of S. Mary the Virgin and 1 ** Hist Scholast** Edit. 1473. Fol. clxhr. * De elections XII. Apostolorum.** • *“ Legend Aur.,” cap. Ixrii. Edit Grease, 1850. • “ Rat. Dir. Off.** Edit. 1470. Fol. 196 A. Lib. all. * De sanctorum festiritatibus.”
•"Spec. Hlatorlale." Edit. Benedict. 16S4. Lib. rii. cap. is. Four verses, attributed to S. Jerome [translator of the Bible into Latin (d. 420)], are appended, and appear to be the foundation of th following, in the M Golden Legend,'* cap. cxzxi.: — "Anna aolet did trea conceplsse Marias, Quaa genuere viri Joachim, Cleopas Salomeque, Quas duxere riri Joseph, Alpheus, Zebedacus, Prim a parlt Christum, Jacobum aecunda minorem, Et Joseph Jus turn peperit com Symone Judam, Tertla majorem Jacobum volucremque Johan nem," aunts of Christ To this is subjoined a discussion by John Bertand of Perigord on the kindred of S. John Baptist and the nephews and nieces of S. Anne. In this it is stated that Emerentia, and her husband Stolanus or Gazirus, were the parents of Esmeria, mother of Elizabeth, who was the mother of the Baptist; the second daughter of Emerentia and Stolanus was S. Anne, the mother of the B. Virgin by her first husband Joachim; and of Mary the wife of Cleopas and mother of S. James by her second husband Alpheus; and of Salome married to Zebedee by her third husband Salomon. This may be very ingenious, but it is altogether fanciful According to the apocryphal Acts of the three Marys, on the death of their husbands, Mary the mother of James, and Mary Salome went to the house of Mary the mother of Jesus, and dwelt with her; and were with her when Joseph died and when Christ was crucified. They were with her at the Resurrection, and tarried wtth her till she died. On the news reaching them of S. John the Evangelist, son of Salome, having been immersed in boiling oil at the Latin gate of Rome, Mary the widow of Cleopas, and Mary Salome, widow of Zebedee, went to Rome, and were received by S. Clement the pope; they then retired to Veroli near Fronsinone, and there died Mary the mother of James, on the 25th May, and Mary Salome on the 22nd October. Here by revelation, “ to a certain boy of Veroli,” was found the body of S. Mary the wife of Cleopas, in 1209, and in the Roman Martyrology, May 25th, is observed as the feast of the translation [the solemn moving of a saint’s relics to a new shrine] of these relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor]. This discovery is related as follows. “ A certain boy having dreamed that the body of S. Mary was in a dry rocky spot, the abbot of Casamare and his monks went to the place and opened a stone cell, in which was the body. On the stone cover was inscribed “ Mary, the mother of S. John the Apostle and James lies here,” and a parchment document was wrapped THE THREE MARIES AT THE TOMB. From a fresco in the Cathedral of Albi. Mary.
up with the bones, wrapper and parchment and bones all perfectly sound. 1 The Apocryphal Acts tells the story somewhat differently. In them S. James appears to the bishop of VerolL However, the Caraargues at the mouth of the Rhone claim S. Mary the wife of Cleopas, and S. Mary Salome, and S. Mary Magdalene; and the town of Les Saintes Maries, and the Gulf of the Saintes Maries take their names from them, as does also the little village of Les Sansouires (Saintes Sceurs) in the same district How the relics were brought there is differently related. According to the aforementioned legendary Acts, they were carried away from Veroli in 1220, by a knight, Lord of the Carmargues, who assisted the duke of Veroli against the Saracens [medieval Christian name for Arab and Muslim peoples], and received the sacred bodies as his reward. But, according to the received tradition in Provence, S. Mary the wife of Cleopas and Salome never were at Veroli, but came to Arles with S. Martha and S. Mary Magdalene, and a servant named Sarah. The bodies of the Marys and Sarah were placed in a new shrine by order of Robert, king of Sicily, in 1423, and were found linked together, with interlaced arms, as loving in death as in life. Another examination of the bodies was made, in 1448, before king R&i^ of Anjou and the Papal Legate; again, in 1627, before Cardinal Richelieu, and in 1640, before the archbishop of Arles, and 1 There can be little doubt as to the origin of these relics. The following passage from Gulbert of Nogent, De Pignor. SS. Ed. d'Achery, p. 336, a writer early in the rath cent, will afftmi the key: — ** Quid de capite Joannis ago qui de innumeris sanctorum corporibus itidem indies audio ? Plane decessor meus Ambianensls (Amiens) episcopus cum corpus Firmini martyr is ut putabat, quatenus de theca in tbecam efferet, nullum inlbi pitacium, ne unius quldem liters testimonium, quls ibidem j ace ret, invenit. Ab Atrebatensi et ipso Amblanenti Episcopi audivi quod refero. Qua de re urbis episcopus plumbeae laminae mox inscripsit, quod illic conderetur: Firminut Martyr Ambi.inorum Episcopus. Nec mora in monasterio Sancti Dionysii Idem actitatur. Parata ab abbate ornatiori ipsa dum inde extollitur, dum cum membrls caput evolvitnr, membranula in martyris naribus reperitur, in qua quod esset Firminus Ambianensls martyr cxponltur." VOI„ TV. q Lives oj the Saints.
the heads and bodies were found entire. But another claim to possess the bodies is made by the city of Ciudad Rodrigo. In the additions to the chronicle of Braullo and Hellecas, it is said that S. James came to Spain with Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Salome his mother, and Mary Magdalene, and that the Magdalene and Mary the wife of Cleopas died at Ciudad Rodrigo; but that Mary Salome, after having gone on with S. James to visit Germany, England, and Italy, died at VerolL These additions are a forgery of the 17th century. The head of Mary the wife of Cleopas is also venerated in the Servite church at Venice; this was probably brought from Constantinople, where the body of S. Mary the wife of Cleopas was venerated in the Church of S. James in the 6th century.
