that both Martha and Mary continued at Jerusalem, and died there; and several ancient Martyrologists place their feast on the nineteenth of January.

JOSEPH.

JOSEPH, or Joses, was the son of Mary Cleophas, brother to St. James the Less, and a near relation to the blessed Jesus, according to the flesh; being the son of Mary, the holy Virgin's sister, and Cleophas, who was Joseph's brother, or son to Joseph himself, as several of the ancients suppose; who have asserted that Joseph was married to Mary Cleophas, or Escha, before he was married to the holy Virgin. Some believe Joseph, the son of Mary Cleophas, to be the same with Joseph Barsabas, surnamed the Just, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, and was proposed, with St. Matthias, to fill up the traitor Judas's place; but in this there is no certainty. We learn nothing particular in Scripture concerning Joseph, the brother of our Lord. If he was one of those among his near kinsmen who did not believe in him, when they would have persuaded him to go to the feast of the tabernacles, some months before our Saviour's death, it is probable that he was afterwards converted; for it is intimated in Scripture, that at last all our Saviour's brethren believed in him; and St. Crysostom says, that they were signalized for the eminence of their faith and virtue.

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.

JOSEPH of Arimathea, or of Ramatha, Rama, or Ramula, a city between Joppa and Jerusalem, was a Jewish senator, and privately a disciple of Jesus Christ: he was not consentient with the designs of the rest of the Jews, particularly the members of the Sanhedrim, who condemned and put Jesus to death: and when our Saviour was dead, he went boldly to Pilate, and desired the body of Jesus in order to bury it. This he obtained, and accordingly buried it after an honorable manner in a sepulchre newly made in a garden; which was upon the same Mount Calvary where Jesus had been crucified. After he had placed it there, he closed the entrance of it with a stone cut particularly for this purpose, and which exactly filled the open part of it.

The Greek church keeps the festival of Joseph of Arimathea, July the thirty-first.

We do not meet with his name in the old Latin Martyrologies; nor was it inserted in the Roman till after the year 1585. The body of Joseph of Arimathea was, it is said, brought to the abbey of Moyenmontier by Fortunatus, archbishop of Grada; to which Charlemange had given this monastery under the denomination of a benefice. His remains were honored till the tenth age; but then the mon

astcry being given to canons, who continued seventy years there, the relics were carried away by some foreign monks, and so lost with many others.

see.

NICODEMUS.

NICODEMUS, one of the disciples of our blessed Saviour, was a Jew by nation, and by sect a PhariThe gospel calls him a ruler of the Jews; and Christ gives him the name of a Master of Israel When our Saviour began to manifest himself by his miracles, at Jerusalem, at the first passover which he celebrated there after his baptism, Nicodemus made no doubt but he was the Messiah, and came to him by night, that he might learn of him the way of salvation. Jesus told him, that no one could see the kingdom of heaven, except he should be born again. Nicodemus taking this in the literal sense, made answer, How can a man be born again? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? To which Jesus replied, If a man be not born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. Nicodemus asked him, How can these things be? Jesus answered: “Art thou a master of Israel, and ignorant of these things? We tell you what we know, and you receive not our testimony. If you believe

not common things, and which may be called earthly, how will you believe me if I speak to you of heavenly things?"

After this conversation, Nicodemus became a disciple of Jesus Christ; and there is no doubt to be made but he came to hear him as often as our Saviour came to Jerusalem. It happened on a time, that the priests and Pharisees had sent officers to seize Jesus, who returned to them, and made this report, that never man spoke as he did; to which the Pharisees replied, "Are you also of his disciples ? Is there any one of the elders or Pharisees that have believed in him?" Then Nicodemus thought himself obliged to make answer, saying, "Does the law permit us to condemn any one before he is heard?" To which they replied, “Are you also a Galilean? Read the Scriptures, and you will find that never any prophet came out of Galilee." After this the council was dismissed. At last Nicodemus declared himself openly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when he came with Joseph of Arimathea to pay the last duties to the body of Christ crucified: which they took down from the cross, embalmed, and laid in the sepulchre.

Nicodemus received baptism from the disciples of Christ; but it is uncertain whether before or after his passion.

The Jews being informed of this, deposed him from his dignity of senator, excommunicated and drove him from Jerusalem. It is said, also, that they would have put him to death; but that in consideration of Gamaliel, who was his uncle, or cousin

german, they contented themselves with beating him almost to death, and plundering his goods.

Gamaliel conveyed him to his country-house, and provided him with what was necessary for his support; and when he died, Gamaliel buried him honorably near St. Stephen.

His body was discovered in 415, together with those of St. Stephen and Gamaliel; and the Latin church pays honor to all three on the third of August.

JOHN MARK.

JOHN MARK, Cousin to St. Barnabas, and a disciple of his, was the son of a Christian woman, named Mary, who had a house in Jerusalem, where the apostles and the faithful generally used to meet. Here they were at prayers in the night, when St. Peter, who was delivered out of prison by the angel, came and knocked at the door: and in this house the celebrated church of Sion was said to have been afterwards established.

John Mark, whom some very improperly confound with the evangelist St. Mark, adhered to St. Paul and St. Barnabas, and followed them in their return to Antioch: he continued in their company and service till they came to Perga, in Pamphylia, but then seeing that they were undertaking a longer journey, he left them, and returned to Jerusalem. This happened in the year 45 of the common era. Some years after, that is to say in the year 51,