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According to Christian traditions, Relics of the Magi are preserved in several locations, notably, the Monastery of St. Paul on Mount Athos [Greece], the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Cologne [Germany], and the Church of Saint Eustorgius in Milan [Italy].

Overview

Two are the major sets of relics related to the Magi--their tomb and the gifts they presented to the child Jesus at his birth in Bethlehem.

The Gifts of the Magi

According to Christian traditions, the Gifts of the Magi to the infant Jesus are preserved in the Monastery of St. Paul on Mount Athos [Greece].

In 1470 the daughter of the Serbian ruler Đurađ Branković, Mara, who was the widow of the Turkish sultan Murat (Murada) II, presented the Gifts of the Magi to the Monastery of St. Paul on Mount Athos, which was Serbian until 1744.

According to Christian traditions, the Gifts were preserved by Mary of Nazareth and given by her to the Jerusalem Church. They were located there until the year 400. Later, the Byzantine Emperor Arcardius translated them to Constantinople and placed them in the Hagia Sophia church, until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

The Gifts of the Magi are still today preserved in the Monastery of St. Paul in small reliquaries--twenty-eight small rectangular gold wafers, a tetragon and a polygon, decorated with elegant filigree ornaments as well as around seventy small olive-sized balls of incense and myrrh. In 1999, after a devastating earthquake in Athens, the Gifts of the Magi were temporarily displayed in the Greek capital to raise funds for the victims.

The Tombs of the Magi

There are two major traditions concerning the resting place of the Magi. A tradition locates their burial in Saveh, Persia, the other maintains that their relics are now in Cologne, Germany (with some small fragments at St Bartholomew in Brugherio and at Saint Eustorgius in Milan [Italy]).

The Saveh Tradition

According to Iranian traditions, the Magi who visited the infant Jesus came from Saveh, and after their return they were buried there. In the 1270s, the Venetian explorer Marco Polo thus described the tombs of the Magi in his travel book, Il Milione:

"In Persia is the city of Saba, from which the Three Magi set out... and in this city they are buried, in three very large and beautiful monuments, side by side. And above them there is a square building, beautifully kept. The bodies are still entire, with hair and beard remaining." (Book i).

While the tradition is still alive in Persia, no place is today identified in Saveh as the Tombs of the Magi.

The Milan-Cologne Tradition

In June 11, 1164 the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa sacked Milan [Italy]. Among his most precious booty were the remains of the Three Magi, which with great pomp were transported to the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Cologne [Germany].

According to Christian traditions, the bones of the Magi, found in Jerusalem by Helena, were presented in 344 to the city of Milan by the Emperor Constantine, as a gift for the election of the new Archbishop Eustorgius I.

It was not until 1158 however that the tombs of the Magi are suddenly mentioned again in Milan. A French chronicler, Robert de Mont Saint-Michel, wrote that in that year the Milanese had found "in a chapel near the city" the remains of the bodies of the three Magi and had placed them for safekeeping in the bell tower of San Giorgio al Palazzo within the walls of the city. Barbarossa was already at the gates.

In Cologne a magnificent shrine was built to contain the remains of the Magi, and the construction of the new Cathedral began in 1248 to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims.

Still today the Shrine of the Three Kings is one of the major attractions of the City of Cologne.

Not all relics were brought to Germany. According to a legend, three fingers of the Magi had been donated in 374 by St Ambrose to the monastery where his sister Marcellina lived near Brugherio. In 1613 Cardinal Federico Borromeo ordered that the relics of the Magi were moved from the ruined monastery to the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew in Brugherio, where they are still today preserved in a 18th-century silver reliquary.

Milan itself made several unsuccessful attempts to recover the precious relics, while keeping alive the memory of their former presence in town. Every year on Epiphany, beginning in 1336, a celebratory procession started and ended at Saint Eustorgius and included a sacred drama of the story of the Magi--a tradition that still survives today. In 1903 the Archbishop of Milan Card. Andrea Carlo Ferrari was able to obtain a few fragments of bones from the bodies, which were presented to the Church of Saint Eustorgius.

In Depth

• Relics of the Magi (sources) -- survey of ancient sources

• Relics of the Magi (arts) -- survey of fictional works

• Relics of the Magi (research) -- survey of scholarly works

References

• Giuseppe Frangi, The Rest of the Magi [1]

External links

• Wikipedia