This was when Jesus was three years old. The Holy Family fled into Egypt, a land of the Gentiles, on February 17, 1 A.D. They lived in Egypt, in a town called Fostat, near Heliopolis and not far from Cairo. The Holy Family had to leave Bethlehem because of the wickedness and cruelty of the Jews, and had been warned to do so by the Angel Gabriel appearing to Saint Joseph. Herod, the King of the Jews, who tried to slaughter Jesus as an innocent Child, died in 3 A.D. Joseph and Mary then returned to Jerusalem with the Divine Child. But they had no trust in Herod’s successor, whose name was Archelaus and who was one of his sons. They were warned again by an angel to avoid him, and so, on their return to the Holy Land, they traveled north of Judea, to Galilee, to the town called Nazareth, where Jesus was conceived. There they lived for twenty-seven years in the little house where Mary also was conceived and where she was born. This holy little house, miraculously transported, first to Dalmatia in 1291, and then to Loreto, in Italy, in 1294, is known as the Holy House of Loreto.
Return Of The Holy Family From Egypt, by Jacob Jordaens (source)
