CONVENT OF THE TERRA SANTA, NAZARETH. 
This Convent belongs to the Latin monks, and is a strong and spacious building, or 
rather collection of buildings, which, unlike the usual fate of the Convents in Palestine, 
has been repaired and restored within the last twelve years. The Convent had been 
originally built in 1620, on the site of a Church of remote antiquity. A century later, 
it had been, in some degree fortified, and by subsequent additions it now ranks as a 
respectable place of defence, at least against native assaults. 1 
M. Lamartine, who visited the Convent in 1832, gives its description most in detail. 
He arrived at the “ high, yellow walls” at evening. A broad iron gate admitted him and 
his attendants into an outer court. Some Neapolitan and Spanish monks, who were win¬ 
nowing wheat for the Convent, conducted them into an immense corridor, into which the 
cells of the monks and the chambers for the reception of strangers opened. In the morning 
they were shown the Church and the general buildings of the Convent. Fifteen or twenty 
Spanish monks resided in the Convent, occupied in attendance on its religious ceremonial, 
and in receiving strangers. One of the brotherhood, whom they name the Incumbent of 
Nazareth, is especially charged with the care of the Christian community in the town, 
amounting to about two thousand persons, who, as well as the monks, generally enjoy the 
full exercise of their religion. 2 
A little Maronite Church, on the S.W. extremity of Nazareth, has been regarded by 
recent travellers as marking the spot where the popular outrage was attempted against our 
Lord. It stands under a precipice, where the hill breaks off in a perpendicular wall of 
forty or fifty feet in height. The monks have been unsparing, and almost profane, in 
giving names to the various localities. A small Church to the N.W. of the Convent is 
asserted to be built where the "workshop of Joseph” stood. This was described by 
Maundrell and Pococke as in ruins, but was found by Dr. Clarke restored, and perfectly 
modern. To the west of this Church is a small arched building, which, we are told, 
" stands on the ground of the Synagogue,” if it is not " the Synagogue itself,” where our 
Lord applied the memorable prophecy of Isaiah to His own mighty mission. 
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel 
to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to 
preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” It has been conceived by some writers, that it 
was His adoption of the prophecy in His own character which exasperated the people; but 
this is an obvious error, for the adoption, “ This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears,” 
was received with universal acknowledgment. " And all bare him witness, and wondered 
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.” It was only when He predicted 
their rejection of Him, on the general ground of the jealousy and envy of human nature—• 
"No prophet is accepted in his own country”—that they instantly proceeded to give 
demonstration to the truth of His words by the attempt to destroy Him, “ and rose up, and 
thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, 
that they might cast him down headlong.” 3 
Roberts’s Journal. 
2 Lamartine’s Travels. 
3 Luke, iv. 18-29. 
