And their names are as follows: the first is Melchior, old and gray, with long hair and beard; he brought gold to the King and Lord. The second is Gaspard, young and without a beard, with a ruddy face; he brought frankincense to the incarnate God. The third, Belshazzar, with a swarthy face, with a long beard, he brought myrrh to the mortal Son of Man. Their bodies, after many years, were transferred first to Constantinople, then to Milan [18], then to Cologne [19], in honor of the incarnate Christ God, to Whom with Him begat Him be glory from us forever. Amen.

Kontakion, tone 6:

Who before Lucifer was born of the Father without a mother, Thou didst be incarnated on earth without a father today from Thee: by the same star the good news is preached by the sorcerer, and the angels with the shepherds sing Thy ineffable Nativity, O Blessed One.

Feast day: 26 December

The Legend of the Flight of the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God with the Divine Infant to Egypt

After the Magi left Bethlehem, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, commanding him that he, together with the newborn infant Jesus Christ and His Mother, the Most-Pure Virgin Mary, should flee to Egypt and remain there until he was commanded to return from there, since Herod wanted to seek the Infant in order to destroy Him. Joseph arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and went into Egypt. But first, before his departure there, he fulfilled in the temple of Solomon all that was ordained by the law of the Lord, for the days of purification of the Most-Pure and Immaculate Mother of God had already come, and in that temple our elder Simeon and Anna the prophetess met our Lord. Then, having fulfilled all that was prescribed in the law, Joseph went to Nazareth, to his house. For thus says St. Luke: "And when they had done all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their city of Nazareth" (Luke 2:39). From this it is evident that they did not immediately go from Bethlehem to Egypt, but first went to the temple of the Lord, then to Nazareth, and finally to Egypt. St. Theophylact also bears witness to this in his commentary on the Evangelist Matthew, when he writes thus: "Question: How does the Evangelist Luke say that the Lord departed to Nazareth 40 days after His birth and after His meeting by the elder Simeon? And here St. Matthew says that he came to Nazareth after his return from Egypt? Answer: Know that the Evangelist Luke mentions what the Evangelist Matthew was silent about, namely, that the Lord (says Luke) went to Nazareth after His birth. And Matthew speaks of what happened after that, namely, how our Lord fled to Egypt, and how, on his return from there, He went again to Nazareth. In general, the Evangelists do not contradict each other, but only Luke speaks of Christ's departure from Bethlehem to Nazareth, and Matthew tells of His return to Nazareth from Egypt." And so, upon leaving the temple of the Lord, the holy travelers first set off for Nazareth and immediately made arrangements regarding their home, and then, having taken with them everything necessary for the journey, they hurriedly set out by night (so that the nearest neighbors would not know this) along the road to Egypt. At the same time, they took with them, for service, Jacob, the eldest son of Joseph, who was later called the brother of the Lord, which is evident from the church hymn for October 23, where it is sung thus: "A brother thou didst appear, a disciple, and a self-seer of the divine mysteries, running with him, and being in Egypt with Joseph" [1]. From this it is evident that James also accompanied the holy family on the way to Egypt, serving them during the journey. And the Lord fled to Egypt partly in order to show that He is a true incarnate man, and not a spirit and a ghost (to which St. Ephraim points in his homily on the Transfiguration, when he says: "If He had not been flesh, then with Whom did Joseph flee to Egypt"); Chrysostom explains in this way: "In His flight," he said, "the Lord teaches us to give place to rage, that is, to flee from human rage. And if the Almighty flees, then we, the proud, learn not to expose ourselves to danger." The purpose of the Lord's flight into Egypt was to cleanse Egypt of idols, and, as the holy Pope Leo says, so that the sacrament of the most holy sacrifice would be prepared not without this country, in which for the first time through the slaughter of the lamb the saving sign of the cross and the Passover of the Lord were foretaught. Likewise, so that the following prophecy of Isaiah may be fulfilled: "The Lord will sit on a light cloud, and is coming in Egypt. And the idols of Egypt shall shake at His presence" (Isaiah 19:1). In this place, under the cloud, St. Ambrose understands the Most-Pure Virgin, Who brought the Lord in Her arms to Egypt, and the idols of the Egyptian gods fell. That cloud, Most-Pure Virgin, is light, for She is not burdened with any burden of any sin or carnal lust and knowledge of marriage.

It is also reported that when the righteous Joseph, the Most-Pure Virgin and the Divine Infant were going to Egypt, robbers attacked them in a certain desert place and wanted to take away from them the donkey, on which they carried what little they needed for the journey, and on which they sometimes rode themselves. One of those thieves, seeing the Child of extraordinary beauty and being amazed at such beauty, said:

- If God had taken upon Himself a human body, He would not have wanted to be more beautiful than this Child.

Having said this, he rebuked his companions, the other robbers, and did not allow them to offend these travelers in any way. Then the Most-Pure Mother of God said to that thief:

- Know that this Child will reward you with a generous reward for having protected Him.

This thief was the same one who later, at the crucifixion of Christ, was hanged on the cross on the right side, and to whom the Lord said: "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). And the prophetic prophecy of the Mother of God was fulfilled, that "this Infant shall reward thee."

When they entered the land of Egypt and were within the borders of the Thebaid, they approached the city of Hermopolis [2]. Near the entrance to this city grew a very beautiful tree, called "Persea," which the inhabitants of the place, according to their idolatrous custom, worshipped as a god, because of his height and majestic beauty, worshipping him and offering sacrifices to him, for in that tree lived also a demon, which they worshipped. When the Most-Pure Mother of God with the Divine Infant approached that tree, immediately it shook violently, for the demon, fearing the coming of Jesus, fled. And the tree bowed its top to the very ground, giving due worship to its Creator and His Mother, the Most-Pure Virgin, moreover, it protected them from the heat of the sun with the shade of its many-leaved branches, and thus gave the weary most holy travelers the opportunity to rest. And that tree remained in such a bent form as a clear sign of the coming of the Lord into Egypt. After the Lord with His Matter and Joseph rested under this tree, this tree received healing power, for from its branches all kinds of diseases were healed. Then the holy travelers first of all entered that city and the idolatrous temple that was in it, and immediately all the idols fell. Palladius mentions this temple in Lausaica [3]: "We saw," he says, "there (in Hermopolis) an idolatrous temple, in which at the time of the coming of the Saviour all the idols fell to the ground. Likewise, in a certain village called "Siren," three hundred and sixty-five idols fell in one temple, while Christ entered there with the Most Pure Mother" [4].

And in all Egypt at the time of the coming of the Lord, idols were broken, and demons fled from them, and in this event was fulfilled what the holy prophet Jeremiah prophesied when he was in Egypt, when he said: "All idols must fall, and all images of the gods will be crushed when the Virgin Mother comes here with the Child born in a manger." From the time of this Jeremiah prophecy, it was the custom of the Egyptians to depict the Virgin resting on a bed, and near Her the Infant lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, and to worship this image. When King Ptolemy once asked the Egyptian priests why they were doing this, they answered: "This is a mystery proclaimed to our most ancient ancestors by a holy prophet, and we await the fulfillment of that prophecy and the revelation of this secret."

After this, the holy travelers turned a little away from the city of Hermopolis and, looking for a place to stop, they entered a village called "Natarea", lying not far from Heliopolis [5]. Joseph left the Most-Pure Virgin Mary with Christ the Lord near this village, and he himself went to the village in order to acquire what he needed. And that fig tree, which sheltered the holy pilgrims under it, bifurcated from top to bottom and lowered its top, forming as it were a canopy or tent over their heads: and below, at its root, it formed in that cleft a kind of depression, convenient for dwelling, and there the Most-Pure Virgin with the Child lay down and rested from the journey. To this day, this place is held in great veneration not only by Christians, but also by the Saracens, who to this day (as it is related by reliable eyewitnesses) light a lamp with oil in a cleft in a tree in honor of the Virgin and Child who rested there. Joseph and the Most Holy Mother of God wanted to stay in that village, and having found a hut for themselves not far from that tree, they began to live in it. Another miracle was accomplished by the power of the Divine Infant, for there, near their abode and near that miraculous tree, suddenly appeared a spring of living water, from which the Most-Pure Virgin drew for Her own needs and in which She arranged bathing for Her Infant. That spring exists to this day, having very cold and healthy water. And what is even more surprising is that in all the land of Egypt this is the only source of living water, and it is famous in that village. Thus ends the narrative of the stay of the Most-Pure Mother of God with Christ in Egypt, where they stayed for several years. But there is no exact information about how many years the Lord spent in Egypt. St. Epiphanius says that - two years, and Nicephorus three years, and Georgy Kedrinus five years; others, like Ammonius of Alexandria, think that seven years. In any case, there is no doubt that before the death of Herod, just as the Gospel says: "And there he was until the death of Herod" (Matt. 2:15).