on the same day as
Bartolomeo Esteban Murillo. The Adoration of the Magi. 1655-60.
"When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying: where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him. And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet: and thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.
Then Herod, privately calling the wise men learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them; and sending them into Bethlehem, said: go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him. Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the East, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him: and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country."
[Matt 2:12 - Gospel for the Mass of the Epiphany]
The shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral
The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral contains their relics brought from Milan by ship to the City of Cologne on the order of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, in 1164 as a gift to the Prince-Elector Archbishop, Rainald of Dassel.
This gave rise to the English Carol "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing in".
The relics had first been taken from Constantinople to Milan in 344 by Bishop Eustorgius of Milan.
Around 1199, the Roman Emperor Otto IV gave three golden crowns made for the three wise men as a present to the church of Cologne, the city where, the previous year, he had been elected King of the Romans and Emperor-elect by the Prince-Electors of the Empire (he later gained the support of all the imperial princes at Frankfurt in 1208).
An inscription reads:
Otto rex coloniensis curiam celebrans tres coronas de auro capitibus trium magorum imposuit.
Emperor Otto IV was the only member of the Welf dynasty to be elected Holy Roman Emperor and, being the son of Matilda Plantagenet (married to Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria), he was allied to England in the Franco-English wars. He was also the personal preference of Pope Innocent III, who crowned him Roman Emperor at Rome in 1209, although they later fell out over the issue of the imperial rights in Italy.
Because of the importance of the shrine and the cathedral for the later development of the city, the Coat of Arms of Cologne still shows these three crowns symbolizing the Three Kings.
Construction of the present Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248 to house these important relics. The cathedral took 632 years to complete and is now the largest Gothic church in northern Europe.
On July 20th, 1864, the shrine was opened, and remains of the three Kings and the coins of Philip I, Archbishop of Cologne, were discovered.
An eyewitness report reads:
“In a special compartment of the shrine now there showed - along with remains of ancient old rotten or moulded bandages, most likely byssus, besides pieces of aromatic resins and similar substances - numerous bones of three persons, which under the guidance of several present experts could be assembled into nearly complete bodies: the one in his early youth, the second in his early manhood, the third was rather aged. Two coins, bracteates made of silver and only one side striken, were adjoined; one, provably from the days of Philipp von Heinsberg, displayed a church, the other showed a cross, accompanied by the sword of jurisdiction, and the crozier on either side.”
The bones were wrapped in white silk and returned to the shrine where they remain to this day to be venerated by all the Faithful.
By long tradition, on the Feast of the Epiphany – called Dreikoenigsfest (the Feast of the Three Kings) in the lands of the old Holy Roman Empire – the Rector of the Parish (or in his absence, the father of each family) visits each house with a cross-bearer, 2 acolytes and 3 children dressed as the kings, one bearing a censer with lighted incense. At each house a little ceremony takes place, the house is blessed with Epiphany water, and over the door lintel of the house the following is inscribed with blessed chalk:
20 + C + M + B + 08
In my house we always perform this traditional ceremony.
This symbolises the present year and the blessing of the 3 Magi, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, upon each home.
The symbols remain all year or until the weather has washed them away.
Blessed Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, wise men and kings from the East, pray for us!
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The Journey of the Magi
by T S Eliot
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
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"three trees on the low sky... I should be glad of another death."
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2 comments:
Something I've been wondering about:
What was the monetary value of the gifts the Magi gave? Based on what little we know about them (e.g., “possibly"[?] from some priestly class ["caste"?] in Persia, etc.), what would be the value of the gifts they gave the Holy Family? What would gift-giving customs/practices, in that area of the world and at that time, dictate? Given that they’re supposed to b “honoring” the “new born King of the Jews,” might they have given the Holy Family a whole “lot” of gold, frankincense, and myrrh? And if so, what measurement constitutes “a whole lot”? According to some custom/rule/practice/etc., might it be that different amounts of each gift were given? (E.g., a big boxload of gold and, a “small” jar of myrrh?)
Given the best “guesstimate” of what was given, a)what would be the monetary value of these gifts today? b)what was the monetary value of the gifts when and where they were given? c)how long would the money have lasted? Some have suggested that Jesus’s Parents “probably” might have sold the gifts for money. If they did, how long might this money have lasted?
Modern investing, at least as we know it, didn’t really exist back then. But the Parable of the Talents seems to suggest that *something* akin to banking existed in Jesus’s time, the usury prohibition notwithstanding.
Anyway, I was just wondering. Just a curiousity of mine.
I know it probably has no bearing on the Deep Question of Human Existence, or theological controversies, or anything like that.
No idea.
Banking, like most things, was more sophisticated in those days than we, in our modern arrogance, are prepared to grant.
The Jews were allowed to "fenerate" (i.e. lend at interest) to non-Jews since the prohibition was, they said, only against fenerating to one's brethren.
Christianity said that all men are your brothers and so you may not fenerate to any man.
The only clue I can give you is that according to the visions of Blessed Anna Catherine Emmerich, recently beatified by Pope John Paul II, the gifts were costly and were taken from the cave at Bethlehem by the family of the Blessed Virgin under the supervision of St Anne, the mother of the Virgin. They were taken back to Nazareth and kept there until the Holy Family returned from Egypt.
There is a tradition that the Myrrh was carefully preserved against the day of our Lord's entombment when the women disciples recovered it from the Blessed Virgin to anoint the body of Christ.
The real significance of the gifts is that they respresent the 3 aspects of our Lord's ministry and the 3 roles of a Christian, in imitation, namely:
(1) Gold - for a king;
(2) Incense - for a priest;
(3) Myrrh - for death and sacrifice, the symbol of the prophetic role.
These are our 3 roles, kingly, priestly and prophetic of which the prophetic is the greatest since Joseph, the son of Jacob/Israel, received the double portion that would normally go to the eldest son, Reuben, who was disinherited, even though Jacob was the youngest son.
The next 2 sons, after Reuben and Simeon, were Levi and Judah and they fulfilled the priestly and kingly roles respectively.
The sons of Levi, despite being deprived by Jacob of their inheritance because of Levi's savagery against the Sichemites, were to be the clergy of Israel and the sons of Judah were the royal princes of Israel.
Joseph, however, was the specially chosen, the type of the Prophets and of the blessed, though he was the youngest.
This is to show that the Prophetic role is the greatest role, greater than the Kingly or the Priestly because it is the role of teacher by example which pleases God the best.
This should provide an antidote to the pride of kings and priests who, through history, constantly challenge each other's superiority.
The humble Prophet is the greatest, though he or she has no kingly or priestly authority.
The chief exemplar of the Prophetic role is the Blessed Virgin.
These are but some of the many meanings associated with the gifts of the Magi.
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