THE CHRISTMAS THORN OF
GLASTONBURY
A LEGEND OF ANCIENT BRITAIN
ADAPTED FROM WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY AND OTHER SOURCES
There is a golden Christmas legend and it
relates how Joseph of Arimathea--that good man
and just, who laid our Lord in his own sepulcher,
was persecuted by Pontius Pilate, and how he
fled from Jerusalem carrying with him the Holy
Grail hidden beneath a cloth of samite, mystical
and white.
For many moons he wandered, leaning on his
staff cut from a white-thorn bush. He passed
over raging seas and dreary wastes, he wandered
through trackless forests, climbed rugged mountains,
and forded many floods. At last he came to
Gaul where the Apostle Philip was preaching the
glad tidings to the heathen. And there Joseph
abode for a little space.
Now, upon a night while Joseph lay asleep in
his hut, he was wakened by a radiant light. And
as he gazed with wondering eyes he saw an
angel standing by his couch, wrapped in a cloud
of incense.
``Joseph of Arimathea,'' said the angel, ``cross
thou over into Britain and preach the glad tidings
to King Arvigarus. And there, where a Christmas
miracle shall come to pass, do thou build the
first Christian church in that land.''
And while Joseph lay perplexed and wondering
in his heart what answer he should make, the
angel vanished from his sight.
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