Dec07_06

Few have not heard of the Three Wise Men.

*One legend reports that Melchior, a great King reputedly from Nubia and the
smallest in stature of the Three Kings, presented a golden apple that once
belonged to Alexander the Great. He had it fashioned from pieces of gold that
he had received as royal tributes. Alexander had left the apple in India, when
many years later it was discovered and came into Melchior's hands. Along with
the golden apple, Melchior gave thirty golden pennies. Hence the gift of gold
represented not only power of a king, but was symbolic of spiritual wealth. Next
came Balthasar, another Wise King, this time from Sheba (southwest of Arabia,
close to the Red Sea). He was medium of stature and he gave frankincense,
representative of a high priest and divine majesty. frankincense was used
exclusively upon the altar, always for ritual use, and symbolized sacrifice. And
finally, Jaspar, the gracious king from Tarsus (close to Adana in Modern
Turkey), who was the tallest of the three, he stepped forward and gave the gift
of myrrh, a symbol normally of man's mortality, but in this case, it also was the
symbol of the Great Physician, for myrrh is used as an herb for healing as well
as for embalming before burial.

*In ancient days, these Three Wise Men were regarded as kings or rulers because
they were masters of profound wisdom, knowledgeable in the mysteries of inner
teachings, of philosophy, and of astronomy. As such, they wre respected and
automatically became rulers.

*The night the Christ Child was born, the Star rose in the heavens, and made the
night sky fair as the day, and by noon the next day, the Star reigned in the sky
like a second sun! And so the great journey of the Three Wise Men began, which
normally would have taken many days, but on this occasion, they reached their
destination in only a few days! What is not generally known is that these Three
Kings, these legendary icons of the Christmas tradition, their precious remains
actually rest today in the Cathedral of Cologne, Germany.

*How did the Three Kings arrive in Cologne? To begin with, according to the
story, after the Passion of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Thomas met up with the
Three Kings during his ministry to spread Christ's teaching. The Three Wise Men
ultimately became archbishops in the same service. Time passed and the Apostle
Thomas and the Three Archbiships came to the end of their natural lives. When
Constantine came to power as Emperor of the entire Roman realm in A.D. 324 he
and his mother, the Dowager Empress Helena had both become Christian, and
they devoted themselves to finding any relics or remains pertaining
to Jesus or any of the disciples.

*Helena in particular traveled far and wide.
As expected, Helena found the Three Kings' remains and
took them to the Cathedral of the Apostles in
Constantinople (now the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey),
where Constantinehad reliquaries of "the coats and cloaks
of the evangelists Luke and Andres."

The remains of the Three Kings were subsequently taken from Constantinople to
Milan, northern Italy, and in 1164, they were finally enshrined in the
cathedral of Cologne, Germany. Today, the ancient city of Cologne proudly
displays the three Crowns of the Three Wise Men on its Coat of arms.