Having discovered that his virgin wife, Mary, is pregnant with a child who is not his own, Joseph is disturbed. He threatens to abandon her—a course of action that risks upsetting God’s plans for the redemption of humankind through Mary’s son, Jesus. God dispatches the Archangel Gabriel to appear to Joseph in a dream and reveal the special nature of Mary’s child. Upon awakening, Joseph agrees to protect his wife and help raise their future child. Joseph’s Dream, though rarely depicted in art, occupies a full page in this Gospel Lectionary. In the High Middle Ages the liturgical year began on Christmas Eve, and Matthew’s account of Joseph’s repudiation and reconciliation opens this book.
Dream of Saint Joseph, from an Evangeliary, written and illuminated in Austria at the Monastery of St. Peter in Salzburg by Custos Perhtolt, 1070–90. MS M.780, fol. 1v. Purchased on the Lewis Cass Ledyard Fund, 1933.