Tag Archives: Magi

James, a Servant of God

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An icon of the 17th century depicts James as a young boy travelling to Egypt with his father Joseph and his stepbrother Jesus together with the Blessed Virgin, Jesus’ mother. The icon of James as an adult shows him vested as the 1st bishop of Jerusalem. The scroll he holds reads, “O Lord, who blesses those who bless thee….” which is one of the last prayers of the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greeting! Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials,  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:1-4)

The epistle of James is probably the first of the New Testament texts to be written. If 1 & 2 Thessalonians were the first epistles written by the Apostle Paul (AD 51-52), the epistle of James (written AD 45) predates the Apostle Paul by 5+ years. Traditionally attributed to “James the Just,” the son of Joseph by his first wife and the stepbrother of Jesus, the epistle that bears his name is more an extended sermon-homily than it is a letter. (This makes it similar to the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is also an extended sermon-commentary rather than a letter per se.)

James, the “brother of the Lord” as he is commonly referred to because they were stepbrothers, was not a believer (John 7:3-5) until after the resurrection (Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19). (He was the youngest of Joseph’s children and was a pre-teen when Joseph wed the Virgin Mary. Because James was still living at home with his father and the Virgin, he went down to Egypt with the Holy Family when they fled from Herod after the visit of the Magi described in Matthew 2.) He became the head of the Jerusalem church and is mentioned first as a pillar of the church (Galatians 2:9). He presided at the first council of the Church, held at Jerusalem in AD 50. James was martyred in approximately AD 62, according to the historian Josephus. (Apart from a handful of references in the synoptic Gospels, the main sources for the life of James the Just are the Pauline epistles, the Acts of theApostles, Josephus, Eusebius and Jerome, who also quote the early Christian chronicler Hegesippus and Epiphanius.)

Some think that this epistle was written in response to an overzealous interpretation of Paul’s teaching regarding faith. This extreme view, called “antinomianism,” held that anyone who has faith in Christ is completely free from all rules, whether religious law or secular law, and all the usual moral rules of a society.

As the earliest written description of Christian beliefs and practices, the epistle of James deserves more attention than it generally receives. It shows us not only what the early Church taught but continues to illuminate our path today.

“I am Black and Beautiful:” the Queen of the South

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  • The Queen of Sheba, from a 15th-century manuscript now at Staats – und Universitätsbibliothek Gottingen
  • Sanctae Mariae Coronavi by Giacomo di Mino‘s Gothic version. Circa 1340–1350

The Queen of Sheba, whom Jesus refers to as “the Queen of the South” who “came from the uttermost parts of the earth”, i.e. from the extremities of the then known world, to hear the wisdom of Solomon (Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31), has long fascinated us. She is a mysterious figure who appears briefly in 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9 and then seems to vanish again. Who was she? What do we really know about her? Why should we care?

Sheba, also known as “Saba,” is mentioned in the Psalms. It was a wealthy kingdom that included modern Yemen and Ethiopia and was connected to a vast network of trading routes and business exchanges. When the Queen came to visit King Solomon, it might well have been a trade mission–a sort of G8 meeting!–to make new trade deals and sign new business agreements between the two monarchs. Solomon and the Queen were both known for their wisdom and keen senses; while striking their business deals, they traded riddles. Folklore has suggested many possible riddles that they might have traded, including the famous, “What land has only seen the sun once?” (Answer: the bottom of the Red Sea, which was exposed to sunlight when it parted for Moses and the Hebrews to escape from Egypt.)

Origen, who wrote a voluminous commentary on the Song of Songs, identified the bride of the Song with the “queen of the South” of the Gospels, i.e. the Queen of Sheba, and assumed she was Ethiopian as the bride in the Song says, “I am black and beautiful” (μέλαινα εἰμί καί καλή ). Not only is the bride in the Song identified as the Queen of Sheba, the bride is also understood by Christians to be an allusion to both the Church and the Mother of God. (It is the identification of the Mother of God with the dark and beautiful bride that results in the depictions of the “black Madonna.”) Because of the identification of the bride as Queen, Church, and Mother of God, the Queen of Sheba herself comes to be seen as a type of the Church and the Mother of God: the wonderful gifts of gold and incense that the Queen brings Solomon is seen as a foreshadowing of the adoration of the Magi (Matthew 2) and the Queen of Sheba enthroned represents the coronation of the virgin.

Sant’Apollinare in Ravenna & the Magi

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Magi leading the Empress Theodora and the wise virgin-martyrs in procession to the Mother of God and Christ in the church of San Apollinaire in Ravenna.

St. Apollinaire was a Syrian, elected to be the first bishop of Ravenna (which was later the Byzantine capital of Italy). As the first bishop of Ravenna, he faced nearly constant persecution. He and his flock were exiled from Ravenna during the persecutions of Emperor Vespasian (or Nero, depending on the source). On his way out of the city he was identified, arrested as being the bishop, tortured and martyred by being run through with a sword. 

The church of San Apollinaire in Ravenna is a masterpiece, a jewel of Byzantine iconography and mosaics. It was erected by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great during the first quarter of the 6th century. It was re-consecrated in AD 561, under the rule of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, Justinian and his wife, the empress Theodora, appear in the mosaics of the church, each leading a segment of the offertory procession towards the altar during the celebration of the Eucharist.

The mosaics also depict a procession of the wise virgin-martyrs, led by the Three Magi, moving towards the group of the Madonna and Child surrounded by four angels. (The Magi in this mosaic are named Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar; this is thought to be the earliest example of these three names being assigned to the Magi in Christian art.)  The Magi are wearing trousers and Phrygian caps as a sign of their foreign origin. The gifts which the Magi and the wise virgins bring are reflections of the gifts which the congregation are bringing to present: bread, wine, water for the celebration of the Eucharist and food or clothes to be distributed among the poor and needy during the week.

The celebration of the Eucharist was often seen as a procession or pilgrimage in which the parish journeyed from earth to the Kingdom of God and then returned to earth to minister during the week what they had received on Sunday. During the celebration, the parish stepped outside time to stand alongside the Magi, the priest-king Melchizedek, Abraham and Isaac—all of whom also appear in the mosaics of this church—with the saints and martyrs of all times and places to worship God in eternity (as described in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation, which are the first liturgical commentaries). The offertory procession is a visual shorthand to refer to the entire celebration.


The Magi were consistently venerated as the first non-Jews to come and worship Christ so they were considered the patron saints of all Christians of Gentile backgrounds. A shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral, according to tradition, contains the bones of the Magi. Reputedly they were first discovered by Saint Helena on her famous pilgrimage to Palestine and the Holy Lands. The remains were first kept in the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople; they were later moved to Milan before being sent to their current resting place by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I in 1164.

What prompts these thoughts about Ravenna, St. Apollinaire, and the Magi? The martyrdom of the saint and the translation of the relics of the Magi to Cologne are both commemorated on the same day (July 23).

Read more about the Magi in previous posts here and here and here.