By the time of Mary Magdalene's death in AD 63, her son Josephes had become Bishop of Saraz. In Malory's "Morte d'Arthur," Saraz (Sarras) feathres as the realm of King Evelake, as mentioned in the story of Lancelot's son Galahad. The tale begins when Galahad inherits a supernatural shield of the Christ, and encounters the mysterious White Knight:

Then within a while came Galahad thereas the white knight abode him by the hermitage, and every each saluted other courteously. "Sir," said Sir Galahad, "by this shield be many marvels fallen?" "Sir,," said the knight, "it befell after the passion of our Lord Jesu Christ thirty-two year, that Joseph of Arimathea, the gentle knight, the which took down Our Lord off the holy Cross, at that time he departed from Jerusalem with a great party of his kindred with him. And so he laboured till that they came to a city that hight Sarras. And at that same hour that Joseph came to Sarras there was a king that hight Evelake, that had great war against the Saracens, and in especial against one Saracen, the which was King Evelake's cousin, a rich king and a mighty, which marched nigh this land, and his name was called Tolleme la Feintes. So on a day these two met to do battle�."

Sarras (Saraz) was Sahr-Azzah on the Mediterranean coast. It was and is better known as Gaza, theonce Philistine center where Samson met his fate (Judges 16).

There is no record of a King Evelake as such, but the name is a literary variant of the title "Avallach," as found in quite a number of sovereign and saintly genealogies. It was subject to many different forms, such as Abalech, Arabach, and Amalach, but all were ultimately corruptions of the Egyptian-Greek word "Alabarch." (Author's Note: I am wondering about the OT name of Abimelech myself, who was one of David's brothers, the high priest).

Again, it does not represent a "name" (neither a forename nor a family name) but a title. St. Jerome (c.340-420), translator of the Bible into Latin, stated that Tiberius Alexander, the Procurator of Judaea from AD 46, was the son of Alexander Lysimachus, Alabarch of Alexandria. In essence (although politically applied to magistrates responsible for justice among the Jews), the word Alabarch indicated a community headman (a chief).

The White Knight's tale recounted (as above) the Evelake's Saracen enemy was Tolleme la Feintes (Tholomy the "feigned," thus the False), who is also mentioned in the Antiquities of Josephus:

"Tholomy, the arch robber, was after some time brought to him bound, and slain, but not till he had done a world of mischief to Idumaea and the Arabians." (Author's Note: This piques my curiosity again�could this be person be of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt?)

The person to whom Tolleme/Tholomy was brought from Saraz was the Procurator of Judea, Cuspius Fadus (the predecessor of Tiberius Alexander), who had Tolleme executed in around AD 45.

The White Knight went on to tell how Bishop Josephes informed King Evelake that he would inevitably be killed by Tolleme unless he "left his belief of the old law and believe upon the new law. And then there he showed him the right belief of the Holy Trinity." Evelake was immediately converted, and the Shield of the Most Worthy was presented to him, whereupon he defeated Tolleme. Josephes later baptized King Evelake before setting out to preach the Gospel in Britain.

The strength of the white shield lay in its red cross, and in a mystic veil that went before it bearing the image of Jesus. This is reminiscent of the conversion of the Emperor's son, Vespasian. As narrated in the "Vindicta Salvatoris," he was cured of leprosy by an ethereal shroud which bore an effigy of the Messiah.

In conclusion, the White Knight related that following Josephes' instruction, the shield was placed for safe keeping with the holy hermit Nacien. It lay with him in the abbey after his death, to be retrieved eventually by Sir Galahad. "Thereafter" (in the dying words of Bishop Josephes), "the last of my lineage shall have it about his neck, that shall do many marvellous deeds." In the "De Sancto Joseph" and elsewhere, Nacien (or Nacion) is described not as a hermit, but as a Prince of Medas. Historically, Prince Nascien of the Septimanian Midi as the 5th century ancestor of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, and his descendants also included the 11th-century Seneschals (Stewards) of Dol and Dinan. These powerful major-domos of Brittany were descended from Lancelot's mother, Viviane II del Acqs, dynastic Queen of Avallon, and were progenitors of the most influential of all Desposynic strains, the Scots Royal House of Stewart.