Justine M Westhead

Journey of the Peregrines: the Secret Gifts of the Magi Justine M Westhead

Publisher Marketing: JOURNEY of the PEREGRINES, Secret Gifts of the Magi - an historical novel, a love story, set in ancient Caesaraugusta, Hispania (Saragossa, Spain) - 295AD to 315AD - from the brutal days of Diocletian Caesar Augustus to the emergence of Constantine the Great. Complexities of love and romance illumine the life and lore of early Christianity. The peregrines (GYPSIES) journey to the vineyards of Salduba for their annual family reunion and the grape harvest. Around their Great Fire every evening these illusive and mysterious people reveal a culture of deep devotion to family and faith, retelling legends and tales of mystical experience closely tied to the culture and devotion of early Christianity. These intriguing tales also reveal the secret of how they came to be called Gypsies (Egyptians). Trouble starts in Spain for the family of the Villa Salduba and the peregrines/gypsies when a visiting dignitary from Rome falls in love with the family beauty and demands her immediate acquisition through the influence and power of his uncle, Caesar Galerius. Reluctantly, Dacian, the governor of Spain, must bow to the power of Rome and cooperate in the arrangements. All manner of misadventure follows, engaging the peregrines, family and friends in complicated and emotional love triangles as well as zany solutions to the confusion and near disasters imposed on them by Rome. The novel's focus marks an important period in history, a turning point in distinct contrast to the struggles of the early Church Fathers, followed by the last most brutal persecutions under Diocletian and the glories imparted to Christianity with the coming of Constantine the Great to power.