Footnotes: 1. St. Aug. Serm. 203, ol. 64, de div. 2. According to Papebroch, it was pope Julius the First, in the fourth century, by whom the celebration of these two mysteries, the nativity and manifestation of Christ to the Magi, was first established in the western church on distinct days. The Greeks still keep the Epiphany with the birth of Christ on Christmas-day, which they call _Theophany_, or the manifestation of God, which is the ancient name for the Epiphany in St. Isidore of Pelusium, St. Gregory Nazianzen, Eusebius, &c. See Thomassi Tr. des Fotes, Martenne Anecd. T. 5, p. 206, B. et in Nota, ib. 3. Matt. iii. 17. 4. Footnote: Jo. ii. 11. 5. Bollandus (Pref. gen. c. 4) and Ruinart (in Cal. in calce. act. Mart.) quote a fragment of Polemeus Sylvius written in 448, in which is said that all these three manifestations of Christ happened on this day, though S. Maximus of Turin was uncertain. 6. Acts xvii. 30. 7. Rom. i. 8. Ps. ii. 8. 9. 1 Tim. ii. 4. 10. Eph. ii. 17. 11. Luke ii. 10, 11. 12. This phenomenon could not have been a real star, that is, one of the fixed, the least or nearest of which is for distance too remote, and for bulk too enormous, to point out any particular house or city like Bethlehem, as St. Chrysostom well observes; who supposes it to have been an angel assuming that form. If of a corporeal nature, it was a miraculous shining meteor, resembling a star, but placed in the lower region of our atmosphere; its motion, contrary to the ordinary course of the stars, performing likewise the part of a guide to these travellers; accommodating itself to their necessities, disappearing or returning as they could best or least dispense with its guidance. See S. Thomas, p. 3, quaest 36, a. 7. Federicus Miegius Diss. _De Stella a Magis conspecta_ in Thesauro Dissertationum in Nov. Testament. Amstelodami. An. 1702, T. 1, Benedictus XIV. de Canoniz. l. 4, part 1, c. 25. 13. What and where this East was, is a question about which interpreters have been much divided. The controverted places are Persia, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, and Arabia Felix. As they lay all more or less eastward from Palestine, so, in each of these countries, some antecedent notions of a Messias may be accounted for. In Persia and Chaldea, by the Jewish captivity and subsequent dispersion; also the prophecies of Daniel. In Arabia, by the proximity of situation and frequent commerce. In Mesopotamia, besides these, the aforesaid prophecy of Balaam, a native of that country. 14. Num. xxiv. 17. 15. In the eastern parts, particularly in Persia,_Magi_ was the title they gave to their wise men and philosophers. In what veneration they were there held appears from the most important affairs, sacred and civil, being committed to their administration. They were deemed the oracles of the eastern countries.