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HER name was Mary, a form of the name Miriam, the famous sister of Moses. The name was common among Jewish women in those days. A well-known tradition says she was born in Jerusalem; she was the daughter of Joachim and Ann. Mary grew up mostly in the Jewish settlements of Nazareth, in the hills of Galilee. The Jews were strong people. The hill climate was dry and beneficial. Though the land often lacked water and no one knew if enough rain would fall from one year to the next or if locusts or field mice would spoil their crops, facing adversity only made the people of Galilee stronger and more supportive of each other. Struggling for a living deepened on their religious spirit. They learned that they must always trust and depend on God. Mary was a woman of rural Galilee. She lived as they did, in a small family house of stone and mud-brick. She worked like any young girl, grinding wheat and barley into flour. Wool had to be made into clothing. Bread had to be baked. “Almost daily she carried a large jar of water from the town well for washing and cooking the well still supplies modern Nazareth today and is called Mary’s Well”(Charles 27). Just as for the other women of Nazareth, the seasons and times of harvest