Epiphany, the Magi and Me: The Big Aha!

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James Tissot's 'Journey of the Magi.' (ca 1886-1894) via Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum, Wikidata, used w/o permission
(From James Tissot, via Wikidata, used w/o permission.) (James Tissot's "Journey of the Magi." (1890s))
"We Three Kings of Orient are,
Bearing gifts we traverse afar.
Field and fountain,
Moor and mountain,
Following yonder Star...."
("We Three Kings," John Henry Hopkins Jr. (1857))
As a child, "We Three Kings" was among my favorite Christmas songs. It still is.

The song's gold, frankincense and myrrh are "Biblical," in the sense that they're mentioned in Matthew's Gospel. So is the star.

As for the "Three Kings of Orient:" well, there were more than one of them, and Matthew says they were from the east. But he also called them magi....

More about Matthew's magi, Herod the Great, Bethlehem's dead boys, the Ark and more, at A Catholic Citizen in America.

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