Melchior, The Melchiest Magi


It is circa 5 B.C. and three Magi traverse the desert in search of a baby to worship. It is not their baby. It is everyone's baby. More specifically, it is the big man upstairs' baby, so it would be incredibly rude not to make an appearance.
Magi is specifically the plural of "Magus," a priest of Zoroastrianism. Although their names and number are not given in the Gospel of Matthew (the biblical source of the Adoration of the Magi), they are named in the 8th century Latin manuscript Excerpta latina barbari.  Melichior, more commonly known as Melchior, is the melchiest of the Magi.  If there was a children's storybook about Melchior, it would be called "The Melchiest Magus".  According to western Christian traditions, Melchior was a king from Persia, and his gift to the Christ-child is gold, signifying the child's kingship over all the world.   Either that or Melchior couldn't be bothered to think of anything creative and so he's giving the Savior of the World the 1st century equivalent of a $1,000 gift card to Sunglass Hut.

Additional facts:
  • According to western Christian tradition, Melchior was the oldest of the three Magi and first of them to die following a reunion between them at a celebration of Christmas in Armenia.  He is said to have been 116 years old when he died on January 1, 55 A.D. 
  • In St. Bede's Excerpta de Collectanea from the 8th century, Melchior is described as "an old man with white hair and a long beard," but in the 1968 Rankin/Bass TV special The Little Drummer Boy, he is portrayed as a young-to-middle-aged man with a luxurious blonde beard and Henry VIII's hat.  You'll have to decide for yourselves.

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