The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

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XI. THE JOURNEY OF THE THREE HOLY KINGS TO BETHLEHEM

Section II

[The night of November 27th -28th. When Catherine Emmerich communicated in 1821 these visions of the journey of the three holy kings, she had already related the whole of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and had amongst other things seen how, after the raising of Lazarus (which she saw happening on September 7 th of the third year of His ministry), He withdrew beyond the Jordan. During His sixteen weeks’ absence there, He visited the three holy kings who on their return from their journey to Bethlehem had settled all together, with their attendants, nearer to the Promised Land.138 Only Mensor and Theokeno were alive then.

The dark-skinned Sair was in his grave when Jesus came there. It seems necessary to inform the reader about these events (which were thirty-two years later in date but described earlier by Catherine Emmerich) in order that certain references to them in what follows may be understandable.]

In the night of the 27th to the 28th of November I saw, as day began to dawn, Theokeno and his retinue overtake Mensor and Sair, after whom they had been hurrying, in a deserted city with great rows of isolated high columns. By the gates, which were square ruined towers, and in other places stood many large and beautiful statues not so stiff as in Egypt but in beautiful living attitudes. This region was very sandy and rocky. In the ruins of this deserted city people who looked like bands of robbers had settled themselves. They wore nothing but a skin round their bodies and carried spears in their hands. They were brown in colour, short, and stocky, but remarkably agile. (I had a feeling that I had been in this place before, perhaps on those journeys which I made in my dreams to the mountain of the Prophet and the river Ganges.) After the three kings and their followers had met here, they left at dawn in haste to continue their journey. Many of the rabble who lived here joined them because of the kings’ generosity. (After Christ’s death two disciples, Saturninus and Jonadab, the half-brother of Peter, were sent by St. John the Evangelist to this deserted city to preach the Gospel.139)

I now saw all the three holy kings together. The last arrival was the one who lived farthest away, Theokeno. His face was of a beautiful yellowish colour. (I recognized him as the one who was lying ill in his tent, when thirty-two years later Jesus visited the kings in their settlement nearer the Promised Land.) Each of the three kings had with him four near relations or friends of his family, so that, counting the kings, there were fifteen important people of the party, besides the crowd of servants and camel-drivers that followed them. Amongst the many youths in their retinue, who were quite naked from the waist upwards, and were astonishingly agile in leaping and running, I recognized the young Eleazar, who later became a martyr and of whom I possess a relic.140

[In the afternoon, when her confessor again asked her for the names of the three holy kings, she answered, ‘Mensor, the brown-faced one, after Christ’s death received the name of Leander on his baptism by St. Thomas. Theokeno, the old, yellow-faced one, who was ill when Jesus visited Mensor’s camp in Arabia, was baptized Leo by St. Thomas. The brownskinned one, who was already dead when Our Lord made His visit, was called Seir or Sair.’ Her confessor asked her: ‘How then was he baptized?’ She answered smiling and without hesitation: ‘He was already dead and had received the baptism of desire.’ Her confessor then said: ‘I have never heard these names in my life: how then did they get the names of Kaspar, Melchoir, and Balthasar?’ She replied: ‘They were called this because it goes with their character, for these names mean: (1) He goes with love; (2) He wanders about, he approaches gently and with ingratiating manners: (3) He makes rapid decisions, he quickly directs his will to the will of God.’ She said this with great friendliness, and expressed the meaning of the names by making pantomimic gestures with her hand on the bed-coverlet. It must remain for the language experts to decide how far these words can be made to bear these meanings.141]

[November 28th:] It was not, I think, until a half-day’s journey from the deserted city with its many columns and statues that I first really joined the three kings and their train. It was in a more fertile region. One could see shepherds’ dwellings here and there, with walls of black and white stones. The travellers came to a spring of water in the plain near which there were several large sheds, open at the side. Three stood in the middle with others round them. This seemed to be a customary halting-place for caravans. I saw that the whole procession was divided into three separate parties; each had five leaders, one being the chief or king, who, like a master of the house, saw to everything, gave orders, and apportioned the work. The members of each of these three parties had faces of different colours.

Mensor’s tribe was of a pleasing brownish colour, Sair’s was brown, and Theokeno’s a bright yellow. I saw none shining black in colour except some slaves, who were in all three parties. The leaders sat on their high-loaded beasts between bundles covered with carpets. They had staffs in their hands. They were followed by other beasts, almost as big as horses and ridden by servants and slaves with luggage. When they arrived at the halting-place they dismounted, unloaded the beasts completely and watered them at the spring, which was surrounded by a little rampart on which was a wall with three openings in it. The cistern was at the bottom of this enclosure; it had a fountain with three water-pipes closed by pegs. The cistern was covered with a lid, which a man who had come with them from the deserted city opened in return for a fee. They had leather vessels, which could be folded up quite flat, with four partitions. These were filled with water, and four camels always drank from them at the same time. They were very careful with the water, and not a drop was allowed to be wasted. After drinking, the camels were led into open enclosures near the spring, each in a separate compartment. Fodder which had been brought with them was shaken out into the stone troughs in front of them; it consisted of grains of the size of acorns (perhaps beans). Amongst the baggage there were also big square bird-cages, narrow and high, hanging by the sides of the camels under the larger packages. In these were birds, single or in couples, according to their size; they were as big as pigeons or hens, and were kept in separate compartments as food on the journey. They carried their loaves of bread, which were all of the same size, in leather cases, packing the slabs tightly together and taking out only so much as they needed each time. They had with them very costly vessels of yellow metal, some of them ornamented with precious stones. These were almost exactly like our chalices and incense-boats in shape; they drank from them and handed round food on them. The rims of most of these vessels were set with red jewels.

The three tribes differed somewhat in their clothing. Theokeno, the yellow-skinned, and his family, as well as Mensor, the light-brown one, wore high hoods embroidered in colours with a strip of thick white stuff wound round them. Their coats, which were very simple, with few buttons or ornaments on the breast, reached almost to their ankles. They wrapped themselves in light cloaks, very full and flowing, so that they trailed on the ground behind them. Sair, the brown-skinned one, and his family wore caps with little white pads and round hoods embroidered in colours on which was a disc of another colour. Their cloaks were shorter than the others’, but longer at the back than in front; their coats were buttoned to the knee and were decorated at the breast with braid and tinsel and thickly set with shining buttons. On one side of the breast they wore a shining little shield like a star. All wore sandals, the soles of which were fastened round their bare feet with cords. The more important ones had short swords or long knives in their girdles, with many pouches and boxes hanging from their waists. Amongst the kings and their families were men of fifty, forty, thirty, and twenty years of age. Some had long and some short beards. The servants and camel-drivers were dressed much more simply, some wearing only one piece of stuff or an old blanket.

When the camels had been watered, fed, and stabled, the travellers, after drinking, made a fire in the middle of the shed under which they had camped. The firewood consisted of pieces some two and a half feet long brought by poor people from nearby in very neat bundles; they seemed to have a store of it ready for travellers. The kings made a triangular fireplace and piled up the long pieces round it, leaving an opening on one side for the draught. It was very cleverly arranged. I am not sure how they made fire: I saw that one of them kept turning one piece of wood in another, as if in a box, and then pulled it out alight.

They then lit the fire, and I saw them kill some of the birds and roast them. Each of the three kings acted towards his tribe like the head of a family: he distributed the food, laying the carved-up birds and little loaves of bread on small bowls or plates standing on short feet, and handed them round. In the same way he filled the goblets and gave drink to each. The lower servants, among whom there were Moors, lie on a blanket on the ground at one side of the fire, patiently awaiting their turn. They, too, receive their due share. I think that these are slaves.

Oh, how touching is the good temper and childlike simplicity of these beloved kings! They give to those who come to them a share of all they have; they even hold the golden vessels to their lips and let them drink out of them, like children. Today I learnt much about the holy kings, including the names of their countries and cities, but in my helpless and agitated condition I have quite forgotten everything. I will tell what I know. Mensor, the brown-skinned one, was a Chaldaean, his city had a name like Acajaja142 land was surrounded by a river, like an island. Mensor spent all his time in the fields with his herds. Sair, the dark-skinned one, was on Christmas night all ready to start on his journey from home. The name of his country is connected in my memory with the sound ‘Partherme.’143 Beyond his country, and higher up, was a lake or sea. It was only he and his tribe who were so brown, with red lips; the people round were white. His country was quite small, no bigger than the province of Münster. Theokeno, the pale one, came from a country still higher up, called Media, lying between two seas.144 I have forgotten the name of the city in which he lived; it was an assemblage of tents erected on foundations of stones. Theokeno, the richest of the three, was the one who left most behind him. I believe that he could have taken a more direct way to Bethlehem, and had to make a detour in order to travel in company with the others. I almost think that he had to go by Babylon to join them.

Sair, the dark-skinned one, lived three days’ journey from the home of Mensor, the brown one, and Theokeno five days’ journey. Each day’s journey was reckoned as lasting twelve hours. Mensor and Sair were together in the former’s camp when they saw the vision of the star of Our Lord’s Birth, and started off the next day with their followers. Theokeno, the pale one, saw the same vision in his home, and hurried after them in great haste, catching up with the other two in the deserted city. I did know the length of their journey to Bethlehem, but have partly forgotten it. What I remember, more or less, is that their journey was about 700 hours and still another figure with six in it. They had about sixty days’ journey, each reckoned at twelve hours, but they performed it in thirty-three days owing to the great speed of their beasts and to their often travelling day and night.

The star which led them was really like a round ball with light streaming out of it as from a mouth. It always seemed to me as if this ball, which was as it were swinging on a shaft of light, was guided by the hand of a supernatural being. In the daytime I saw a light brighter than daylight going before them. If one considers the distance they had to travel, the speed of their journey seems astonishing; but the pace of their beasts was so light and even that I see them moving onward with the order, rapidity, and rhythm of a flight of migrating birds.

The homes of the three kings were at the three points of a triangle. Mensor, the brown one, and Sair, the dark, lived nearer to each other than Theokeno, the pale one, who was the farthest away of the three. They have, I think, already passed Chaldar where I once saw the enclosed garden in the temple. Theokeno’s distant city has only its foundations of stone; above, it is all tents. There is water round it. It seems to me about the size of Münster.

After the kings had rested here until the evening, the people who had attached themselves to their company helped them to pack their baggage on to their beasts, and then carried home with them everything that was left behind. It was towards evening when they started off. The star was visible and was today reddish in colour, like the moon in windy weather. Its long tail of light was pale. They went on foot for a while beside their beasts with uncovered heads, praying. On this part of the way it was impossible to go fast; later on, when they came to level ground, they mounted their beasts, which moved at a very quick pace. Sometimes they went more slowly, and then they all sang as they journeyed through the night; it was very moving to hear.

[November 29th to December 2nd:] I was again with the kings on their journey in the night of Thursday, November 29th, and during the following day. I cannot say enough how much I admired the order, nobility, and joyfulness which inspires all that they do. We are journeying through the night, always following the star, whose long tail reaches down to earth. These good men follow it with their eyes quietly and joyfully, talking to each other from their high saddles. Sometimes they sing short sentences by turns, in a very slow and beautiful melody, sometimes very high and sometimes deep in tone. It is very moving to hear it in the quiet night, and I feel all that they sing. They travel with perfect orderliness; first comes a big camel with boxes on each side of his hump covered with large carpets on which sits the leader with a goad in his hand and a sack at his side. Then follow smaller beasts, such as horses or big donkeys, carrying packages and ridden by the men belonging to this leader. Then comes another of the leaders on a camel and so on. The creatures walk so delicately with big steps, and put down their feet as if they were trying not to crush anything.

They carry their burdens with so little motion that it seems as though only their legs were alive, and the carriage of their heads on their long necks is wonderfully calm and quiet. The men, too, seem to do everything without having to take thought about it. Everything happens as in a quiet dream, peaceful and sweet. (I cannot help reflecting here how these good people, who as yet do not know the Lord, journey towards Him in such order, peace, and sweetness, whilst we, whom He has redeemed and loaded with graces, are so disorderly and disrespectful in our processions!) I think the region through which they passed tonight might well be the district between Atom, the home of Azarias, and the castle of the idolater, where I saw Jesus at the end of the third year of His ministry when He was journeying through Arabia on His way to Egypt.

On Friday, November 30th, I saw the procession halting at night by a fountain in the fields. A man from a hut, of which there were several nearby, opened the fountain for them. They watered their beasts and rested for a short time without unloading. On Saturday, December 1st, I saw the kings, whose road had been going uphill the day before, on higher ground. On their right was a mountain range, and when their road descended again, they seemed to be in a place where houses, trees, and fountains often stood beside the road. It seemed to me to be the home of the people whom I had seen, last year and again lately, spinning and weaving cotton. They had stretched the threads between the trees and plaited broad coverings out of them. They worshipped images of oxen. They were generous in giving food to the rabble that followed the procession of the kings, but it surprised me to see that they never used the bowls again from which these had eaten.

On Sunday, December 2nd, I saw the three holy kings near a place whose name I remember as something like Causur, a city of tents on stone foundations.145 They were given hospitality here by another king, to whom this city belonged. His tent-dwelling stood a little distance before it. Since their meeting in the deserted city, they had now travelled fifty-three or sixty-three hours. They told the king of Causur all that they had seen in the stars. He was very astonished, and looked through a tube at the star that was guiding them and saw in it a little child with a cross. He begged them to tell him everything on their return, when he would erect altars to the King and make sacrifices to Him. I am curious to see if he will keep
his word when they return. I heard them recounting to him the origin of their star-watching, and remember of their conversation what follows.


138. No such visit of Our Lord to the abode of the three kings in Arabia is recorded in the Gospels. (SB)

139. She saw the procession of the kings passing through this town on the feast of St. Saturninus (Nov. 27th) of whom she possesses a relic; that is why she mentioned his connection with this place. The writer read later in the legend of this saint in Fleurs des Vies Saintes that Saturninus preached the Gospel in Asia as far as Media.(CB)

140. There is no available evidence about the martyr Eleazar. (SB)

141. According to the Ramsgate Book of Saints (1947), the names Melchior, Kaspar, and Balthasar were attributed to the Magi in the eighth century. The names themselves are not known before this, although Balthasar appears as a by-form of Belshazzar (Dan. 5.1), which is a pagan Babylonian name Bel-shar-usur (‘Bel protect the king’), and Melchior, if a Hebrew name Malki-or, could mean ‘My king is light’. The meanings given by AC are most obscure. The Legenda Aurea (Jan. 6th) gives their names as Appellius, Amerius, and Damascus in Greek; Galgalat, Malgalat, and Sarathin in Hebrew; and Melchior, Kaspar, and Balthasar in Latin; and adds that their bodies were found by Helena and taken to Constantinople, whence later to Milan, and finally to Cologne. (SB)

142. In 1839, eighteen years after this word Acajaja was pronounced by Catherine Emmerich, the writer found in Funke’s dictionary: ‘Achajacula, a castle on an island in the Euphrates in Mesopotamia (Ammian, 24, 2).(CB)

The reference is to the history by Ammianus Marcellinus covering the twenty-six years from Constantius to Valens, entitled Res Gestae, in thirty-one books of which eighteen are extant. The twenty-fourth book deals with the campaigns of the Emperor Julian (A.D. 363), and in XXIV, ii, 2, the place Achaiachala, an island fortress in the river Euphrates, is mentioned. (SB)

143. The name Partherme is otherwise unknown. It occurs again (of the same land), infra. (SB)

144. It would seem that Mensor, the Chaldaan, was from Mesopotamia, Theokeno from Media (Persia), and Sair from the mountain country between Mesopotamia and Persia. But the geographical information is not precise enough to determine anything. (SB)

145. Perhaps ‘Geshur in Syria’, Absalom’s retreat in II Kings (Sam.) 15.8. Fahsel notes Gessur, a Roman garrison town on the road from Damascus to Galilee, just south of Mount Hermon. (SB)