thee and others. But when he came to more advanced years, he was in constant prayer, and obediently went up with us to Jerusalem and elsewhere, to the appointed feasts; so wonderful then were his sight and words, and so acceptable, that many in affliction, said: w Let us go to Mary’s Son, by whom we may' be consoled.” But increasing in age and wisdom, wherewith he was replete from the first, he labored with his hands, in such things as were becoming, and spoke to us separately words of consolation and divinity, so that we were continually filled with unspeakable joy. But when we were in fear, poverty, and difficulty, he did not make for us gold and silver, but exhorted us to patience, and we were wonderfully preserved from the envious. Necessaries were occasionally furnished to us by the compassion of pious souls, sometimes from our own labor, so that we had what was necessary for our actual support, but not for superfluity, for we only sought to serve God. After this, he conversed familiarly with friends who came to the house, on the law, and its meanings and figures; he also openly disputed with the learned, so that they wondered, saying: “ Ho ! Joseph’s Son teaches the masters, some great spirit speaketh in him.” Once as I
