Dom Prosper Guéranger:
At Antioch, in the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, the birthday of the Saints Julian, martyr, and Basilissa, his virgin wife. Having lived in a state of virginity with her husband, she reached the end of her days in peace. But after the death by fire of a multitude of priests and ministers of the Church of Christ who had taken refuge in his house from the severity of the persecution, Julian was ordered by the governor Marcian to be tormented in many ways and executed. With him suffered Anthony, a priest, and Anastasius, who Julian raised from the dead and made partaker of the grace of Christ.
Also Celsus, a boy, with his mother Marcionilla, seven brothers and many others.
In Mauritania Caesariensis (now Algeria), St. Marciana, virgin, who consummated her martyrdom by being condemned to the beasts.
At Smyrna, the holy martyrs Vitalis, Revocatus and Fortunatus.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Epictetus, Jucundus, Secundus, Vitalis, Felix and seven others.
At Sebaste in Armenia, St. Peter, bishop, brother of St. Basil the Great.
At Ancona, St. Marcellinus, bishop, who, according to Pope St. Gregory, miraculously delivered that city from destruction by fire.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
The Star foretold by Balaam having risen in the East, the three Magi whose hearts were full of the expectation of the promised Redeemer are immediately inflamed with the desire of going in search of Him. The announcement of the glad coming of the King of the Jews is made to these holy Kings in a mysterious and silent manner, and hereby it differs from that made to the shepherds of Bethlehem who were invited to Jesus’ crib by the voice of an Angel.
But the mute language of the Star was explained to them by God Himself, for He revealed His Son to them, and this made their vocation superior in dignity to that of the Jewish shepherds who, according to the dispensation of the Old Law, could know nothing save by the ministry of Angels.
The divine grace which spoke directly and by itself to the souls of the Magi, met with a faithful and unhesitating correspondence. Saint Luke says of the shepherds that they came with haste to Bethlehem (Luke ii. 16), and the Magi show their simple and fervent eagerness by the words they addressed to Herod: “We have seen his Star in the East,” they say, “and we are come to adore him” (Matthew ii. 2).
When Abraham received the command from God to go out of the land of Chaldea, which was the land of his fathers and kindred, and go into a strange country, he obeyed with such faithful promptitude as to merit the being made the Father of all them that believe (Romans iv. 11): so, likewise, the Magi, by reason of their equally docile and admirable faith, have been judged worthy to be called the Fathers of the Gentile Church.
They, too, or at least one or more of them, went out from Chaldea if we are to believe Saint Justin and Tertullian. Several of the Fathers among whom are the two just mentioned assert that one, if not two, of these holy Kings was from Arabia. A popular tradition, now for centuries admitted into Christian art, tells us that one of the three was from Ethiopia, and certainly, as regards this last opinion, we have David and other Prophets telling us that the coloured inhabitants of the banks of the Nile were to be objects of God’s special mercy.
The term Magi implies that they gave themselves to the study of the heavenly bodies, and that too for the special intention of finding that glorious Star whose rising had been prophesied. They were of the number of those Gentiles who, like the centurion Cornelius, feared God, had not been defiled by the worship of idols, and maintained, in spite of all the ignorance which surrounded them, the sacred traditions of the religion that was practised by Abraham and the Patriarchs. The Gospel does not say that they were Kings, but the Church applies to them those verses of the Psalm where David speaks of the Kings of Arabia and Saba that should hereafter come to the Messiah, bringing their offerings of gold. The tradition of their being Kings rests on the testimony of Saint Hilary of Poitiers, of Saint Jerome, of the Poet Juvencus, of Saint Leo and several others. And it would be impossible to controvert it by any well-grounded arguments. Of course, we are not to suppose them to have been monarchs whose kingdoms were as great as those of the Roman Empire, but we know that the Scripture frequently applies this name of King to petty princes, and even to mere governors of provinces. The Magi, therefore, would be called Kings if they exercised authority over a considerable number of people, and that they were persons of great importance, we have a strong proof in the consideration and attention showed them by Herod, into whose palace they enter, telling him that they are come to pay their homage to the new-born King of the Jews.
The city of Jerusalem is thrown into a. state of excitement by their arrival, which would scarce have occurred had not the three strangers, who came for a purpose which few heeded, been attended by numerous retinue, or had not attracted attention by their imposing appearance. These Kings, then, docile to the divine inspiration, suddenly leave their country, their riches, their quiet, in order to follow a Star: the power of that God who had called them unites them in the same path, as they were, already, one in faith. The Star goes on before them, marking out the route they were to follow: the dangers of such a journey, the fatigues of a pilgrimage which might last for weeks or months, the fear of awakening suspicions in the Roman Empire towards which they were evidently tending —all this was nothing to them. They were told to go, and they went.
Their first stay is at Jerusalem, for the Star halts there. They, Gentiles, come into this Holy City (which is soon to have God’s curse on it) and they come to announce that Jesus Christ is come! With all the simple courage and all the calm conviction of Apostles and Martyrs, they declare their firm resolution of going to Him, and of adoring Him. Their earnest inquiries constrain Israel, who was the guardian of the divine prophecies, to confess one of the chief marks of the Messiah — His birth in Bethlehem. The Jewish Priesthood fulfils, though with a sinful ignorance, its sacred ministry, and Herod sits restlessly on his throne plotting murder. The Magi leave the faithless City, which has turned the presence of the Magi into a mark of its own reprobation. The Star re-appears in the heavens, and invites them to resume their journey. Yet a few hours, and they will be at Bethlehem, at the feet of the King they are in search of.
*****
Dear Jesus! We, also, are following you. We are walking in your light, for you have said in the Prophecy of your beloved Disciple: “I am the bright and morning Star” (Apocalypse xxii. 16). The meteor that guides the Magi is but thy symbol, divine Star! You are the morning Star, for your birth proclaims that the darkness of error and sin is at an end. You are the morning Star, for, after submitting to death and the tomb, you will suddenly arise from that night of humiliation to the bright morning of your glorious Resurrection. You are the morning Star for, by your birth and the Mysteries which are to follow, you announce to us the cloudless day of eternity. May your light ever beam upon us! May we, like the Magi, be obedient to its guidance and ready to leave all things in order to follow it! We were sitting in darkness when you called us to your grace by making this your light shine on us. We were fond of our darkness, and you gave us a love for the Light! Dear Jesus! keep up this love within us. Let not sin, which is darkness, ever approach us. Preserve us from the delusion of a false conscience. Avert from us that blindness into which fell the City of Jerusalem and her king, and which prevented them from seeing the Star. May your Star guide us through life, and bring us to you, our King, our Peace, our Love!
We salute you, too, Mary, Star of the Sea that shines on the waters of this life, giving calm and protection to your tempest-tossed children who invoke you! You prayed for the Magi as they traversed the desert: guide also our steps, and bring us to Him who is your child and your Light eternal.On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Antioch, in the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, the birthday of the Saints Julian, martyr, and Basilissa, his virgin wife. Having lived in a state of virginity with her husband, she reached the end of her days in peace. But after the death by fire of a multitude of priests and ministers of the Church of Christ who had taken refuge in his house from the severity of the persecution, Julian was ordered by the governor Marcian to be tormented in many ways and executed. With him suffered Anthony, a priest, and Anastasius, who Julian raised from the dead and made partaker of the grace of Christ.
Also Celsus, a boy, with his mother Marcionilla, seven brothers and many others.
In Mauritania Caesariensis (now Algeria), St. Marciana, virgin, who consummated her martyrdom by being condemned to the beasts.
At Smyrna, the holy martyrs Vitalis, Revocatus and Fortunatus.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Epictetus, Jucundus, Secundus, Vitalis, Felix and seven others.
At Sebaste in Armenia, St. Peter, bishop, brother of St. Basil the Great.
At Ancona, St. Marcellinus, bishop, who, according to Pope St. Gregory, miraculously delivered that city from destruction by fire.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
