TRANSLATION OF THE THREE KINGS - 23 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 23rd of July

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TRANSLATION OF THE THREE KINGS

On this day, we commemorate the translation of the relics of the biblical Three Kings [Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar]. On July 23, 1164, they arrived at Cologne. Archbishop Rainald of Dassel received them from Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and had them brought to Cologne. For centuries up to the present day, the relics are visited by large numbers of pilgrims.

📷: 1. The shrine: CC-BY-SA-3.0, 2. Cologne Cathedral c. 1925, 3. view of the medieval lattice housing, 1633, Cologne, Kölnisches Stadtmuseum A I 3/125 (© rba_d023279)

The Three Kings' story as related in Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. “Where is the infant king of the Jews?” they asked. “We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.”

When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

“At Bethlehem in Judaea,” they told him, “for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. “Go and find out all about the child,” he said, “and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.” Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out.

And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward, and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

V. The Gospel of the Lord.

R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.