THE STORY OF THE THREE KINGS
In the Latin countries, that is to say, in Italy and the southernmost
edge of France, Switzerland and Austria, our good old friend Santa
Klaus rarely acts as the bearer of gifts at the Christmas season. Even
Russia, though she has adopted Saint Nicholas as her patron saint, and
celebrates his day in her own way, gives him no special place in the
festivities that attend the birthday of Christ.
Indeed in all these countries it is not Christmas but the Epiphany, not
December 25th but January 6th, which is the day on which presents are
exchanged among friends and relations.
Epiphany, best known among English-speaking peoples as Twelfth Day, is
the feast of the Three Kings, who figure in the New Testament story as
the Magi or Wise Men of the East. You will undoubtedly remember how
these Wise Men were warned of the birth of Christ by the appearance of
a strange star in the heavens, and how, by following its guidance they
arrived at the stable in Bethlehem where the Savior had been born.
[Illustration: On the way to Bethlehem.
Painting by J. Portaels.]
They brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh which they
presented to the Holy Child.
It was in memory of the gift-bearing kings that Epiphany among the
Latin and Russian peoples is celebrated as the season for exchanging
presents.
Little is said in the New Testament about these wise men. Popular
legend has greatly filled out the Biblical story. It makes them three
rich and powerful monarchs:--Caspar, King of Tarsus, the land of myrrh;
Melchior, King of Arabia, where the land is ruddy with gold, and
Balthasar, King of Saba, where frankincense flows from the trees.
According to some authors these kings were of the race of Balaam, the
Old Testament prophet, who had prepared the Gentiles for the coming of
Christ into the world. He had foretold that a new star should appear in
that part of the sky under which lay the land of Judea, and had warned
his descendants that when they saw the star they should follow it and
should go to adore a great king who would be born somewhere in Judea
and be Lord of the Universe.
Even from the time of Balaam, it is added, sentinels had been posted
upon a mountain towards the east, in order that as soon as the star
rose into view they should give notice of it to the lords of the
country, that the latter might go without delay to pay reverence to the
new king. This notice, as it happened, was not necessary in the case
of Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Being very wise and learned kings
they were under the special care of the Holy Spirit, who informed them
in person of the appearance of the star.
Each of them at once gathered together a retinue of servants, as well
as troops of horses, camels and dromedaries, all of which were laden
with the choicest products of their respective countries. Then they
started out in search of the new-born king. They looked up to the star
as their guide, for it moved forward as they moved, and they well knew
that it had been sent to show them the way.
Where the three kings met is not told, but they arrived in Jerusalem
together. As soon as they had entered the city gates the star which had
guided them disappeared.
Now this was in accordance with the will of God,--that on the failure
of their starry guide the kings might make inquiries in the capital of
Judea, and by these means publish abroad the birth of the Son of God.
Hence Herod and the Jews in general could have no excuse for ignoring
this great event, and “the care and diligence of the Magi would reprove
their negligence and indifference, because having Christ so near
them, they did not seek Him, while these strangers came from distant
countries for this cause alone.”
[Illustration: The Three Kings visit Herod.
Painting by Sebastian Conea.]
And in fact the three kings, as they rode through the streets of
Jerusalem, asked of every one they met:
“Where is He who is born King of the Jews? We have seen the star and
have lost it.”
None could give them any information, for no one in Jerusalem had seen
the star.
One of the writers who tells this legend pauses to praise the “holy
boldness” with which the Magi published a new king in Jerusalem without
having fear of Herod who might have been capable of putting them to
death for this cause. This writer quotes with approval the words which
Saint John Chrysostom later addressed in imagination to the kings.
“Tell me, oh good kings, do you not know that whoever proclaims a new
king in the life of a reigning king is liable to death, that you do
this thing, and thus place yourselves in manifest danger from Herod,
who may easily command you to be put to death?”
The same writer quotes with similar approval Saint John’s answer to his
own question:--
“The faith of these kings was so great and the love they bore to the
new-born King so fervent, that even before they had seen Him they were
ready to die for love of Him.”[3]
The news of how three great kings, with a vast following of servants
and beasts of burden had arrived in Jerusalem soon reached the ears of
King Herod. He was greatly troubled when he heard that they had come
in quest of a new-born King of the Jews, well knowing that the kingdom
of Judea did not belong to him by succession or by birth, but that he
had received it as a reward from the Romans, who had unjustly taken
possession of it.
The first thing he did was to call together all the wise and learned
men of Jerusalem, and ask them what the prophets had said about the
coming of the Messiah, and the place where he would make his first
appearance on earth.
And when they answered that the babe would be born in Bethlehem he
was still more troubled. He at once sent out messengers to invite the
kings to his palace, where he prepared a great banquet for them. After
they had feasted he advised them to continue their journey as far as
the little town of Bethlehem, where they might come upon the object of
their quest.
“If you find that the child of prophecy has been born there,” he added,
“hasten back and tell me the joyful news that I, too, may come and
worship Him.”
The kings promised to do as Herod bid them, little knowing the guile
and deceit that festered in his wicked heart. Then they resumed their
journey.
No sooner had they issued out of the gate of Jerusalem than the star
once more appeared in the sky, to their great joy. Following it, they
arrived at the house where, thirteen days before, Christ had been
born.
[Illustration: The Journey of the Three Kings.
Painting by Andrea del Sarto.]
Here the star stood still, burning even more brightly than ever, as if
to say,
“Here is He whom you seek; this is the palace of the new-born King;
this is the court of heaven, since here its King has His abode.”
Strange and complex must have been the emotions these wise men felt in
their hearts when they saw what the star showed them--this chamber of
the King whom they sought, a place more suitable for beasts than for
men; since not for men but for beasts had it been prepared.
Within the stable the virgin mother was watching over the manger,
wherein lay her Divine Son. Her quick ear caught the sound of footsteps
and hoof-beats outside the door. In great alarm she lifted the Child
out of the manger and encircled Him with her arms. This was the
attitude in which the three kings, entering, found the mother and the
Child.
The scales fell from their eyes at the sight. They now realized that
it was in truth no human king who had been born into the world, but
the King of Heaven who had taken upon himself a human form. Throwing
themselves upon their knees, one by one they approached him, and
worshipped him as God and the Savior of man.
Then they presented Him with their gifts which had now acquired a new
meaning. Caspar’s gold testified that the babe was a king, Melchior’s
frankincense showed that he was God, and Balthasar’s myrrh was a
reminder that he was a man and doomed to suffer a painful death.
For gold was kept in kings’ treasuries, frankincense was burnt in
divine worship, and myrrh was used in embalming the bodies of the dead.
The infant Jesus returned their offerings with gifts more precious
still. For gold He gave charity and spiritual riches, for incense,
faith, for myrrh, truth and meekness.
That night the kings were warned in a dream that they should not go
back by way of Jerusalem because King Herod cherished evil designs
against the child Jesus, but that they should return by other roads to
their own kingdoms. They obeyed in all meekness and humility.
“From this arose the custom,” says the quaint old author I have already
quoted, “which the church observes in processions, of leaving the
church by one road and returning to it by another. By this it would be
well that all Christians should learn from the Magi not only to see
Christ, but having found Him again, even though they had lost Him, to
return by a different way from the other; because if at first they
walked in the ways of sin, they should return to it by the ways of
holiness; and in this country they will arrive at the true country,
which is heaven.”
[Illustration: The Arrival of the Three Kings.
Painting by Bernardo Luini.]
When Herod found that the three kings had returned home without
fulfilling their promise to him he was greatly wroth. It was then that
he issued his edict commanding that all children under the age of
two years should be put to death. He hoped that the Messiah would be
slaughtered among the rest. But, as the New Testament tells us, the
Holy Family received a special warning from heaven and fled into Egypt
before the emissaries of wicked King Herod could reach them.
As to the three kings, when they had arrived, each at his own capital,
they cast aside their royal robes and abandoned their royal state.
Giving all their goods to the poor they wandered about the earth
announcing that the Savior of man had been born in Bethlehem.
Seven years after the death of Christ upon the cross the wise men were
found in India by Saint Thomas, once the doubting disciple, now become
firm in the faith, and an apostle to the East. Saint Thomas baptized
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and they
too became missionaries of the gospel. In the end they fell martyrs for
their faith and their bodies were all buried together outside the walls
of Jerusalem.
Three hundred years passed away. Then Saint Helena, mother of the
Emperor Constantine, made her famous pilgrimage to Palestine. Though
she was quite eighty years of age she was still full of life and
vigor. All her time and energies she devoted to the discovery of early
Christian remains. She is credited with the finding of the cross on
which Christ suffered and the tomb in which He was buried.
She also identified the tomb of the Three Kings and carried their
bodies away with her, on her return journey to Constantinople, to
re-bury them in the church of Saint Sophia. Later the remains were
transferred to Milan and later still to Cologne. There they are still
shown, in a side chapel of the great Cathedral, lying in a golden
shrine--their grinning skulls girt with golden crowns, and their
skeleton bodies clad in royal purple, bedecked with jewels of enormous
value.
This is the story of the Three Kings as it is related all over Europe.
In the Latin countries and in Russia, an episode is added which is
unknown in other lands.
On their way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, so this added legend runs,
the three kings came across an old woman who was cleaning up her house.
[Illustration: The Adoration of the Magi.
Painting by Fra Angelico.]
She asked them whither they were going. And when they told her that
they were on their way to pay homage to the new-born King of the
Jews she prayed them to tarry until she had finished her task.
“Fain would I go with you,” she pleaded, “and join in your homage.”
“Nay,” replied the kings, “we have no time to wait. But leave your work
and come with us.”
The old woman refused to leave her work until it was all finished. Then
it was too late. She strove, indeed, to follow the kings, but they were
lost to sight.
Ever since that day she has been wandering about the earth seeking for
the child Jesus. And on the eve of the Epiphany she comes down the
chimneys of the houses, leaving gifts for the little ones, as the kings
left gifts for the infant Jesus, and hoping against hope that she may
find Him whom she still seeks.
In Italy she is known to this day as the Befana (a corruption of
Epiphania, the Italian for Epiphany) and in Russia as the Baboushka or
little old woman.
On the eve of Epiphany, Italian children hang up their clothes, after
carefully emptying the pockets, around the huge fireplaces which are
common both in palaces and in hovels. During the night the Befana
comes down the chimney, just like Santa Klaus on Christmas eve. If the
children have been good, she stuffs their pockets full of candies and
other presents, but if they have been bad all they get from her are
charcoal ashes or birchrods.
In Spain, however, it is not the Befana nor the Baboushka, but one of
the three kings, no less a person indeed than Balthazar, who is the
gift bearer. On the eve of the Epiphany children leave their shoes and
boots out in some convenient spot near the chimney, expecting Balthazar
will fill them during the night.
From early times he has been represented as a blackamoor or negro.
But not from the earliest. In the pictures by Giotto and Fra Angelico
representing the Adoration of the Magi, Balthazar is shown as a white
man. In a picture on the same subject by Bernardo Luini he appears with
the woolly hair, black face and thick lips of the negro.
Somewhere between the time of Fra Angelico and Bernardo Luini,
Balthazar changed his skin and became a colored gentleman.
In many Italian cities, it is the custom of shop-keepers to decorate
their windows with puppets meant to represent the three kings.
Conspicuous among these grins the black face of Balthazar.
There is a poem by the famous Dean Trench which was probably suggested
by Luini’s picture. Here are some of the most striking lines. They will
show you how closely the poem follows the picture:
[Illustration: The Adoration of the Magi.
Painting by Veronese.]
From what region of the morn
Are ye come, thus travel-worn,
With those boxes pearl-embost,
Caskets rare, and gifts of cost?
While your swarth attendants wait
At the stable’s outer gate,
And the camels lift their head
High above the lowly shed;
Or are seen, a long-drawn train,
Winding down into the plain,
From below the light-blue line
Of the hills in distance fine,
Dear for your own sake, whence are ye?
Dearer for the mystery
That is round you--on what skies
Gazing, saw you first arise,
Thro’ the darkness, that clear star,
Which has marshall’d you so far,
Even unto this strawy tent,
Dancing up the Orient?
Shall we name you Kings indeed,
Or is this our idle creed?
Kings of Seba, with the gold
And the incense long foretold?
Would the Gentile world by you
First-fruits pay of tribute due;
Or have Israel’s scatter’d race,
From their unknown hiding-place,
Sent to claim their part and right
In the Child new-born to-night?
An older poet than Trench, the seventeenth century George Wither, has
woven some pretty fancies about the story of the wise men as it is told
by Saint Matthew in the New Testament.
That so thy blessed birth, oh Christ,
Might through the world be spread about,
Thy Starre appeared in the East,
Whereby the Gentiles found thee out;
And, off’ring Thee Myrrh, Incense, Gold,
Thy threefold Office did unfold.
Sweet Jesus, let that Starre of Thine,
Thy Grace, which guides to find out Thee,
Within our hearts for ever shine,
That Thou of us found out maist bee:
And Thou shalt be our King, therefore,
Our Priest, and Prophet evermore.
Teares that from true repentance drop,
Instead of Myrrh, present will wee:
For Incense, we will offer up
Our Praiers and Praises unto Thee;
And bring for Gold each pious deed,
Which doth from saving faith proceed.
And as those Wise men never went
To visit Herod any more;
So, finding Thee, we will repent
Our courses follow’d heretofore:
And that we homeward may retire,
Our way by Thee we will enquire.
[Illustration: The Adoration of the Three Kings.
From the painting by E. Burne Jones.]