Acta Sanctorum

Melchior

6 January · commentary
Latin source: Heiligenlexikon
St. Melchior, one of the three Magi Kings, venerated on January 6 in the Cologne and German Martyrologies. He is said to have been a bishop who died after celebrating the divine sacrifice; the manuscript Florarium reports he died at age 116. 1st century

ON ST. MELCHIOR THE KING.

Commentary

Melchior, Magi King in the East (S.)

We said on January 1, when treating of St. Gaspar, that the individual holy Magi Kings are celebrated with some particular devotion on various days in certain churches. St. Melchior is venerated on January 6, as is clear from the Cologne and German Martyrologies, which report that he had been a bishop and, having first celebrated the divine sacrifice, fell asleep in the Lord in holiness. Others believe those three heroes were crowned with martyrdom; and indeed the Chronicle of Dexter records them as having suffered in the year of Christ 70, at Sessania in Arabia Felix. The manuscript Florarium reports under January 1 that St. Melchior died at the age of 116. On him again, July 23.