One hundred meters from the cave of the Annunciation is the Church of Saint Joseph. An oral tradition attributes this place to Saint Joseph, in so far as it was the place where he worked, his workshop.Friar Eugenio AlliataItalian Institute of Archeology – Jerusalem“The tradition of the Church of Saint Joseph of Nazareth is not very ancient. There is a tradition which the Franciscans noted at the beginning of the 17th century, but it is not found in the writings of the pilgrims of previous centuries. This means that the popular tradition saw in a certain place the workshop of Saint Joseph, the place in which Saint Joseph worked with wood and taught the carpenter’s trade to his son, as was the duty of every good Jew, to teach his trade to his son.” A little farther, at the Sisters of Nazareth, is what's traditionally called the tomb of the righteous man. Friar Eugenio Alliata: "(...) As tradition goes, the righteous man in question is St. Joseph. It then comes to the tomb. Ancient writings of an apocryphal nature recount how Jesus would have stopped preaching and would have returned to Nazareth for a time to take care of his father, who was about to die, and then bury him, fulfilling the duty of every good Jewish son towards his father. Therefore, the memory of the grave of the righteous man recalls many of the elements that belong to the tradition of Nazareth. But again, from a strictly archaeological point of view, it is difficult to demonstrate 100% the authenticity of the place."Another holy place of Nazareth, is the synagogue where, according to the Gospels, Jesus came to preach. Friar Eugenio Alliata:"This traditional site has been preserved for a very long time. Already the first centuries of pilgrims remind us that they visited this synagogue. Pilgrims of the Middle Ages as well. Today, there is a church belonging to the Greek-Orthodox, which was built on the traditional site. But our concern is that there has not been perfect continuity throughout the centuries of the Christian presence in that place. Maybe the place has changed ... "In the center of the quadrangle, between the place where Jesus lived, that is to say the cave of the Annunciation; the place where he went to work, the workshop of Joseph; the place where he prayed, the synagogue; and the place where Joseph is buried, that is, the tomb of the righteous man, was the house discovered at the International Mary of Nazareth Center.  Olivier BonnassiesFounder of the Mary of Nazareth Association“One can imagine that it may have been the home of the family of Alphaeus or of James and Jude. In any case, it is certainly that of close relatives or acquaintances of Jesus; and, which is very compelling, the stones which have been unearthed, which have risen again, they are of the same period as Jesus and they were situated 50 meters from the place where Jesus lived. Between 50 and 100 meters. When you spend thirty years in a place – or 20 years if we count the flight to Egypt-, if you spend 20 years in one place, you cannot ignore  or not have seen, time and time again, what is only 50 meters away. So it is very moving to know that these stones were seen and, no doubt, touched by Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”                                                                                                           There is also at Nazareth what is called the Fountain of Mary. Friar Eugenio Alliata:“The fountain of Mary is the only spring of the village of Nazareth and has certainly not changed place with relation to its position in the first centuries. Tradition says that it was there that Mary and her son, Jesus, came for water.”Olivier BonnassiesFounder of the Mary of Nazareth Association“In addition to these places that are traditional, there are found at Nazareth baths of a very great size, which are very interesting, not so much for their antiquity, which is contested and debated, (…) but the baths bear witness to the fact that there were very important forests at Nazareth. A hypocaust was found which was 5 meters long and 5 meters wide; this is where they burned the wood to heat the water for all the baths.  And of a consequence, really incredible.  With the wood that currently exists in Nazareth, in a few days, everything would be exhausted. So if baths of that size were built, it means that there were large forests in Nazareth. We have to imagine a Nazareth completely different from the one we see today.”      

One hundred meters from the cave of the Annunciation is the Church of Saint Joseph. An oral tradition attributes this place to Saint Joseph, in so far as it was the place where he worked, his...leggi tutto