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Engraving "Departure
of a Magus" dated 1896
by H. Vollet

(France, 19th c.)
Magos Foundation Collection

PARTNERS OF THE MAGI
A RARELY EVOKED THEME.

Jean Hildeshiem, author 1364 of “Historia Trium Regum,” a manuscript that was a reference on the history of the Magi for several centuries, mentions it very briefly: “These monarchs, whom he wants us to think were virgins, never got married.” In 1471, the German Gunther Zainer, in his book “Passional Allemand,” printed in Augsburg, timidly broaches the subject, “the third king was married, and his wife had given birth at the same time as the virgin.” In the 20th century, the German Catholic mystic Therese Neumann, whose beatification procedure was initiated at the Vatican, saw in one of her visions the wife of a Magus. She describes her appearance and cloak as a queen in the greatest finery.