January 6: Feast of the Epiphany

The Feast of the Epiphany is the continuation of the mystery of Christmas; but it presents itself, on the Christian Cycle, with a grandeur of its own. Its name, which means Manifestation, clearly indicates that it is intended to honor the appearance of a God among men!

This day, in fact, was dedicated for several centuries to celebrating the Birth of the Savior; and when, around the year 376, the decrees of the Holy See obliged all the Churches to celebrate henceforth, with Rome, the mystery of the Nativity on December 25, January 6 was not entirely deprived of its ancient glory. The name Epiphany remained with the glorious memory of the Baptism of Jesus Christ, whose anniversary tradition fixes on this day.

The Greek Church gives this Feast the venerable and mysterious name of Theophany, so famous in antiquity to signify a divine Apparition. We find this name in Eusebius, in Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, in Saint Isidore of Peluse; it is the proper title of the Feast in the liturgical books of the Greek Church.

The Orientals still call this solemnity the Holy Lights, because of the Baptism which was formerly conferred on this day, in memory of the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan. We know that Baptism is called in the Fathers illumination, and those who received it enlightened.

Finally, in France, we colloquially call this festival the Feast of the Kings, in memory of the Magi, whose coming to Bethlehem is particularly solemnized today.

Epiphany shares with the Feasts of Christmas, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, the honor of being described as a most holy day, in the Canon of the Mass; and it is ranked among the cardinal feasts, that is to say among the solemnities on which the economy of the Liturgical Year is based. A series of six Sundays borrows its name from it, as other Sunday successions are presented under the title of Sundays after Easter, Sundays after Pentecost.

Following the Convention made in 1801 between Pius VII and the French Government, the Legate Caprara proceeded to a reduction of the festivals, and the piety of the faithful saw, with regret, a large number of them suppressed. There were solemnities which were not suppressed, but whose celebration was postponed until the following Sunday. Epiphany is one of those which suffered this fate; and every time that January 6 is not a Sunday, our Churches see the pomp which accompanies such a great day throughout the Catholic universe delayed until the following Sunday. Let us hope that better days will finally shine upon our Church, and that a happier future will restore to us the joys from which the wise condescension of the Holy See has weaned us for a time.

This day of the Epiphany of the Lord is therefore truly a great day; and the joy in which the Nativity of the divine Child plunged us must blossom, all over again, in this solemnity. Indeed, this second radiance of the Christmas Feast shows us the glory of the Word incarnate in a new splendor; and without making us lose sight of the ineffable charms of the divine Child, he manifests in all the splendor of his divinity the Savior who appeared to us in his love. It is no longer only the shepherds who are called by the Angels to recognize the WORD MADE FLESH, it is the human race, it is the entire nature that the voice of God himself invites to adore and listen to it.

Now, in the mysteries of his divine Epiphany, three rays of the Sun of justice descend to us. This sixth day of January, on the cycle of pagan Rome, was assigned to the celebration of the triple triumph of Augustus, author and peacemaker of the Empire; but when our peaceful King, whose empire is limitless and forever, had decided, by the blood of his martyrs, the victory of his Church, this Church judged, in the wisdom of heaven which assists it, that a triple triumph of the immortal Emperor was to replace, on the regenerated Cycle, the three triumphs of Caesar’s adopted son.

January 6 therefore restored to December 25 the memory of the Birth of the Son of God; but, in return, three manifestations of the glory of Christ came together in the same Epiphany: the mystery of the Magi, who came from the East under the guidance of the Star, to honor the divine Royalty of the Child of Bethlehem ; the mystery of the Baptism of Christ, proclaimed Son of God, in the waters of the Jordan, by the very voice of the heavenly Father; finally the mystery of the divine power of this same Christ, transforming water into wine, at the symbolic feast of the Wedding at Cana. Is the day dedicated to the memory of these three prodigies at the same time the anniversary of their accomplishment? This question is debated among scholars. In this book, where our aim is none other than to promote the piety of the faithful, we will not enter into these purely critical discussions; we will content ourselves with saying that the adoration of the Magi took place on this very day, according to the grave feeling of Baronius, of Suarez, of Théophile Raynaud, of Honoré de Sainte-Marie, of Cardinal Gotti, of Sandini , and an infinity of others, to whose opinion the enlightened suffrage of Benedict XIV expressly joins. The Baptism of Christ, on January 6, is a fact recognized by the most demanding critics, by Tillemont himself, and which has only been contested by an imperceptible minority of writers. As for the miracle of the Wedding at Cana, the certainty of the precise day of its accomplishment is less great, although it is impossible to demonstrate that this prodigy did not take place on January 6. But it is enough for the children of the Church that their Mother has fixed the memory of these three manifestations in today’s Feast, for their hearts to applaud the triumphs of the divine Son of Mary.

Dom Prosper Guéranger