All Things Christmas (16 page)

Wenceslaus
Dies

Troubles continued to escalate between the Christian Prince and his pagan nobility. Things reached a head on September 28, 935 when, at
Dragomir’s
urging, he was assassinated by his younger brother,
Boleslaus
the Cruel. After murdering Wenceslaus, he hacked his brother’s body to pieces and buried it at
Alt-
Bunzlau
.

Tradition says Wenceslaus’ murder occurred during a feast held at the same time as
Boleslaus
’ son was born. Possible verification for this legend might be found in the fact that the son received the strange name of
Strachkvaus
, which means
dreadful feast
.

Boleslaus
repented three years later and had
Wencelaus
’ body moved to the Church of St.
Vitus
in Prague. Apparently remorseful for what he had done, he also vowed to educate his son as a clergyman. The murderous brother ruled Bohemia for 32 years until his death on July 15, 967. He is generally respected by Czech historians as an energetic ruler who strengthened the Bohemian state and expanded its territory. Ambition, rather than the pro-Christian religious policies pursued by his elder brother, may have been the motivation for
Boleslaus
’ fratricide. During his rule he never impeded the growth of Christianity in Bohemia, and actually sent his daughter, a nun, to the Pope to ask permission to make Prague a bishopric.

After his death, Wenceslaus was viewed as a martyr and his concern for the poor led to him being revered as a holy person. His reputation for heroic goodness resulted in his elevation to sainthood. Saint Wenceslaus was posthumously declared king and named patron saint of the Czech state. A catchy tune extolling Good King Wenceslaus’ pious deeds was sung by the Czech people every
s
pring
as
a springtime song celebrating nature's powers of rebirth. Almost a thousand years after Wenceslaus’s murder, a 19th-century Englishman named John Mason Neale wrote the now-famous English lyrics for the ancient melody.

St Wenceslaus’ Final Resting Place

St. Wenceslaus’ body remains where
Boleslaus
put it; in the St. Wenceslaus Chapel at the Cathedral of St.
Vitus
. The decorations in the chapel are priceless. The lower parts of the walls are covered with gold and decorated with more than 1,300 gems. The walls contain 2,500 square feet of frescoes depicting scenes from Wenceslaus’s life. St. Wenceslaus’ tomb
stands at the center of the chapel.

This next part sounds like something out of a Dan Brown novel. There is a special door in the southwest corner of the chapel. Behind the door is a staircase leading to the Coronation chamber where the Crown Jewels of the Czech Republic are stored. Among other things, they include the St Wenceslaus Crown of Charles IV, dated from1347; a Royal Scepter and Orb both from the first half of the 16th century, and the Coronation Vestments including the grand Coronation Cloak dating from the early17th century.

Behind the door to the Coronation chamber is the door of an iron safe. Between them, these two doors have seven locks, which require seven separate keys. These seven keys are kept by seven different people, who must all be brought together for the door to be opened. The holders of the keys are Czechoslovakia’s President, the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Prague,
the
Chairman of the House of Deputies, the Chairman of the Senate, the Dean of St.
Vitus
Cathedral, and the Lord Mayor of Prague. The Coronation chamber was opened only nine times in the 20th century. Presumably, like Wenceslaus, everything is still there.

Chapter
Twenty

THE WISE MEN COME CALLING

The Magi as Depicted in Art

Before we address those stalwarts of every Nativity Set, the Wise Men, also known as the Magi, there are a few misconceptions that need to be laid to rest. Nearly everyone is familiar with the standard division of the Gospels into the three (Matthew, Mark and Luke) Synoptic Gospels [
from the Greek
syn
—
together and
opsis
—
appearance
] and the Gospel of John.

Instead, consider dividing the Gospels into those that provide a birth narrative and those that do not. This splits them down the middle with Matthew and Luke on
the
do have side and Mark and John on the don’t have side. Both Matthew (20%) and Luke (35%) offer a considerable amount of unique information and nowhere is it more apparent than in their birth narratives. Matthew ignores the shepherds in favor of the Wise Men, whereas Luke does just the opposite.

Over time, the Magi have been imagined to have been everything from traveling entertainers, to magicians, to kings. Yes Kings. All together now, “We Three Kings from Orient are...” However, all Matthew says is, “…in the days of Herod the King, behold, wise men (in Greek
μἁƴος
, that is,
Magos
…an Oriental scientist or
Wise M
a
n
) from the east came to Jerusalem…”

A standard Nativity Set comes with three Wise Men although Matthew never mentioned any numbers in his Gospel. In Medieval times there were sometimes thought to be as many a dozen Wise Men. What Matthew does say is that they brought
three
gifts and this is what led to conclusion that ther
e must have been three of them.

History has given them various names.
Hormizdah
,
Yazdegerd
and
Perozdh
are mentioned in one account. In another, they are called,
Hor
,
Basanater
and
Karsudan
. The Western tradition names them
Balthazar
, Melchior and Gaspar. In a 6
th
Century mosaic, Baltha
z
ar is middle aged and has a black beard, Gaspar is old with a white beard and Melchior is young and beardless.

Map of Roman Empire and Parthia

Notice also that Matthew says they all came from the same place, the east. Yet a typical Nativity always includes one black Wise Man. This is because a tradition developed that they represented
all
three races…i.e. the entirety of mankind.
Balthasar
was often portrayed as an Asian, Gaspar a white European and Melchior an African and therefore black. Their ages and races have tended to vary. In reality Africa is south and west of Israel, so if they came from the east they
c
ouldn’t have been African.

Interestingly enough, Magoi ― the original phrase Matthew used
—
was the title given to members of the upper house of the Parthian Government and advisors to
Phraates
, ruler of the Parthian Dynasty. And that camel stuff? They may have used camels for baggage, but Parthians were more than likely to have traveled on horseback. The Parthians were known as expert horsemen and their cavalry routinely outflanked and defeated the Roman army.
Combine that with the fact that the Province of Syria formed the Eastern edge of the Roman Empire an
d bordered the Parthian Empire.

Parthia’s influence extended
from there to the Indus River.
The Parthians also had a history of meddling in Jewish politics. Prior to Herod the Great gaining the Jewish throne they supported Herod’s rival,
Hyrcanus
II, a
Hasmonean
claimant. A civil war of sorts was fought over the right to rule the Jews. Herod's brother,
Phesaelus
, was killed in this fighting and Herod and his family were very nearly captured.
As a m
atter of fact, Josephus writes that at one point Herod was so demoralized that he was ready to commit suicide.

Parthia’s capitol was Babylon, home to a large contingent of Jews who were very familiar with
Daniel’s
p
rophecies of a coming Mashiach. And, finally, Matthew says the Magi followed a star to Bethlehem. The Parthians themselves were
Zorastrians
and strong believers in astrologic influences.

From this evidence one could reasonably conclude that the Magi, or Wise Men, were Magoi from Parthia sent on a diplomatic mission to investigate the possible fulfillment of prophecies relating to the coming birth of the Jewish Mashiach.

One final point.
Even though statues of the Wise Men are included in every Nativity set and nearly everyone puts them in the stable along with the shepherds, most experts believe they arrived much later. Since Jesus was a firstborn son, Mary and Joseph would have had to make trips to the Temple to ransom him back and then again for Mary’s purification. She had family ties in Judea
and Joseph may have had as well
, so it only makes sense that they would have chosen to remain in Bethlehem to complete these requirements. Matthew also refers to the Wise Men visiting the Christ Child in a house and, when the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt, they clearly left from Judea not Nazareth. All of this leads to the conclusion that Jesus was most probably a toddler by the time the Wise Men arrived.

This separation of time and place is also seen in the celebratio
n of the feast of the Epiphany.
This is the Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ. Closing out the Christmas season, it falls on January 6th, but is typically celebrated on the Sunday between January 2nd and January 8th. The Western Church traditionally commemorates the visitation of the Magi, i.e., his manifestation to the Gentiles, on this day.

Chapter Twenty-One

Epiphany —
The
Gentile Christmas

M
a
gi Worshipping the Infant Jesus

Two important Feast Days occur during the 12-day Christmas season and, b
ecause Christmas is a fixed
date in the liturgical calendar, all other Feasts in the Christmas season are also fixed. The first of these is the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1
st
.