Epiphany, January 4

I remember when I first learned about Marco Polo, the 13th century Venetian diplomat who lived in China as a young man. I was about 10 years old and we were living in Forreston, IL so it was probably 5th grade. I just loved history. And it was about that age and this time of year we were also singing, "We three kings of Orient are," the hymn that tells about the 3 Magi arriving to worship the new born king led there by a star. I learned about 50 years later, there weren't 3 kings, but 3 gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh, so no one knows how many Magi showed up. The 19th c. hymn writer wrote it for a children's play.

 
We celebrate that event on January 4, so I was reading today about an illuminated French manuscript of 1410 of "The Book of the Wonders of the World" by Marco Polo written in 1298. The original no longer exists, but there were hundreds of copies and translations and it was a best seller, some beautifully illustrated. Over the years, many people have doubted certain stories in Polo's travel account.
I was quite surprised to read that while traveling through Persia (Iran) the locals told Polo a "true story" of the 3 Magi and told him to visit a fortress to see their tombs. The 3 bodies were together and still intact with their hair and beards. The story known in that area was "they set out for a distant land in order to adore a prophet who had been born and to offer him 3 gifts--gold, frankincense, and myrrh. . ."

Of course, even as a teen, Polo knew the Bible story, and perhaps he wanted to enhance it--but still, he thought there were 3 Magi just like the guy in Pennsylvania who wrote the hymn hundreds of years later.

  

Cover, Magnificat, January 2026