Even before the birth of Jesus, Saint Joseph was a model for a Christian married man. When he discovered that Mary, his bride-to-be, was pregnant he spared her the punishment for infidelity prescribed by the Mosaic Law, and later accepted when told in a dream that “she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:19-21). He cared for her throughout her pregnancy and during the birth of her child in Bethlehem; he took them to Egypt to escape from Herod; and when, after their return to Israel, “settled in a town called Nazareth”.