Household Tales · Chapter
The Twelve Apostles explained
A poor mother sends her twelve sons into the world to seek bread.
What happens
A poor mother sends her twelve sons into the world to seek bread. The eldest, Peter, wanders into a forest and, near death, is led by a shining child to a cavern with twelve golden cradles. One by one, each brother is guided there and falls asleep. They sleep for three hundred years until the birth of Christ, then awaken to become the twelve apostles.
Themes in this chapter
Transformation and Redemption
The brothers' journey from poverty and despair to becoming apostles symbolizes spiritual transformation and redemption through divine intervention.
Promises and Their Consequences
The mother's prayer that her sons might be on earth with the promised Redeemer is fulfilled after three hundred years of sleep.
Characters to notice
- St. Peter
The eldest son, sent out to seek bread; led by an angel to the cavern and rocked to sleep.
- the Virgin Mary
Not directly present, but the birth of the Saviour (Christ) is central to the chapter's conclusion.
Key passages
“Three hundred years before the birth of the Lord Christ, there lived a mother who had twelve sons, but was so poor and needy that she no longer knew how she was to keep them alive at all.”
Three centuries before Christ's birth, a mother of twelve sons was too impoverished to feed them.
Establishes the setting and the family's dire poverty.
“Suddenly there stood beside him a small boy who shone with brightness, and was as beautiful and kind as an angel.”
A radiant, angelic child appeared beside Peter.
The divine helper appears to guide Peter.
“They slept, however, three hundred years, until the night when the Saviour of the world was born. Then they awoke, and were with him on earth, and were called the twelve apostles.”
They slept for three centuries until Christ's birth, then awoke and became the twelve apostles.
The miraculous conclusion linking the sleep to the apostles' origin.