by
The
purpose of this article will be to identify Matthew 2’s “Star”.
Some
might call it arrogance, while others might recognise it as a personal
conviction that one’s well-researched conclusion is most definitely the correct
one. Whatever about all that, the entertaining Fr.
Dwight Longenecker, Catholic priest, author and lecturer, is utterly convinced
that he has, after a long and serious probe into the matter, properly
identified the enigmatic Magi of Matthew 2.
Fr.
Dwight tells all about it in the following articles:
https://dwightlongenecker.com/the-myth-of-the-magi/
The Myth of the Magi
About this time in 2017 my book The
Mystery of the Magi was published. I had high hopes for it. Of
all my books it was the one I had spent the most time on. I had actually done
something like RESEARCH believe it or not. I mean, the darn thing had footnotes
and a bibliography!!!
Seriously, I had worked hard on the book and thought I
had made some important discoveries about the historical basis of the Magi
story in Matthew’s gospel. I hoped New Testament scholars and historians of the
period might at least read it and that it might be critiqued and if I was wrong
in my speculation, that the book would raise the issues of the possible
historicity of the story of the wise men.
I was not prepared for how difficult it would be to
dislodge centuries of myth about the magi.
Whoa! I hear you say, “Myth! Father, are you a liberal
after all? You don’t believe the Bible? You think the Magi story is a myth?”
Yes and no and not quite so let me explain.
First of all, I don’t think Matthew’s account of the magi
visiting Bethlehem is fiction.
I think the story is based in real events with real
historical characters.
However, I’m aware that
most Biblical scholars think the whole thing is a fanciful fairy tale. In fact,
thinking that the Magi story is a fairy tale is a kind of test of whether you
are a serious Bible or scholar or not.
Raymond Brown admits it and even jokes about it in his
big fat book The Infancy Narratives.
I was told the same thing by several well known
conservative Bible scholars–both Evangelical and Catholic.
“Whoa!” they said, “Don’t you know that if I even suggest
that the Magi story might have some basis in historical truth I’ll be laughed
out of my job and relegated to teaching Sunday School in North Dakota!” (no
offense intended towards the good people of ND)
I had a conversation with one condescending scholar on
the phone who said, “But you are beginning from entirely the wrong premise.
There is no historical basis for the Magi story.”
“Uh. That is what my book is about. The historical basis
for the magi story.”
“You don’t seem to understand. There is NO historical
basis for the magi story.”
“No, YOU don’t seem to understand. That is what my book
is about.”
The conversation ended.
So why do the scholars think the magi story has no
historical basis? Because, of all the stories from the New Testament, the Magi
story actually has become rather mythical, magical and mysterious. I explain in
my book how the Magi story began to be elaborated by the Gnostic writers in the
third and fourth centuries and beyond.
They were very influenced by Manicheanism, and with their
emphasis on secret knowledge and magical lore, the magi story was tailor made.
The gnostic magi became the heroes of far out and
fanciful gnostic apocryphal writings.
Soon they had names, they were kings and they followed a
magical star and rode on camels on a long trek across the desert.
Add a few more centuries and a lot more story tellers and
soon they came from India, China and Africa. One was old, one middle ages and
one young. Then they represented the three main racial groups – African,
Caucasian and Asian.
But none of that is in Matthew’s gospel. This mythical
version became the received version and it is still the version we tell
ourselves at Christmas.
In rejecting this elaborated mythical version, (which
they were right to do) the scholars threw out the magi with the magic. They
decided the magi story was nothing but a fanciful fable made up long after the
birth of Christ by Christians who wanted make him seem more special.
In rejecting the myth they went ahead and created their
own myth–the myth that the magi story can’t possible be historically true, and
that myth is even harder to shift than a myth that is fanciful and magical.
So I decided to dig past all the myths and explore the
culture, history, politics, geography and religion of first century Judea and
Arabia. As I did the research I kept asking why nobody had done this before.
What I was discovering was truly ground breaking and fascinating.
Then I realized, the reason no one had bothered to do the
homework was because they all believed the myth.
The traditional folks continued to believe the myth about
three wise men named Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar going on a long desert
journey on camels following a magical star while the liberals continued to
believe the myth that the whole thing was a myth.
Consequently neither side bothered to look into the
question whether there might have been such characters and where they might
have come from and why they might have been motivated to go on a quest to find
a newborn King of the Jews
The result was The Mystery of the
Magi. Most of those who read it thought highly of the book.
Unfortunately many did not read it.
Why? Because they already figured that they knew about it
already. In other words, they were not concerned with the Mystery of the Magi
because they believed the Myth of the Magi.
….
November 30th, 2019 ….
Fr. Dwight
will come to the conclusion that the Magi were wise Nabataean Arabs from the
fabulous land of Petra:
https://stream.org/mystery-of-the-magi-solved-an-interview-with-fr-dwight-longenecker/
…. Matthew says they came “from the East.”
He was writing to the Jews in the area of
Jerusalem-Judea. For them “the East” was the huge territory controlled by the
Nabateans — present day Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, most of Iraq and Lebanon.
We know this was “the East” for them not
only because that kingdom lies to the East of Judea, but also because in the
Old Testament “the people of the East” most often refers to the various tribes
of the Arabian peninsula.
….
The Stream: So who were
the Nabateans? And why would they … or specifically, counselors to the Nabatean
king … be interested in some Hebrew prophesy about a Messiah?
The Nabateans were a trading nation
controlling the trade routes from Yemen across the Arabian desert to the
Mediterranean port of Gaza and from Egypt North to Syria and beyond. Their
capital of Petra was at the crossroads of these two important routes. They
traded in luxury goods from India and China through Yemen and back with goods
from across the Roman Empire. Gauze? It came from Gaza. Damask fabric? It came
from Damascus.
The Nabatean culture at the time of
Jesus’ birth was a blend of Abrahamic tribes that had wandered in the Arabian
desert, immigrants from Babylon who occupied the Arabian peninsula and the
influence of the Greeks. Petra was therefore a very cosmopolitan city with the
traders bringing not only goods, but culture influences from the ancient world
from China to Greece and Rome and from Africa North to Syria, Persia and
present day Turkey.
As wise men they would have been
astrologers, but also students of the prophecies from the different cultures —
including the Jewish prophecies. At the downfall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., many
Jews went into exile — not only to Babylon, but into the Babylonian controlled
territory of Arabia. Some think the second portion of the book of Isaiah was
actually written there, and this includes the important prophecy in chapter 60. ….
Were the Magi “enlightened pagans’’?
Although Biblical critics claim to find whom they call
“enlightened pagans” all through the Bible (Old and New Testaments), I am not
so sure that they always get this right.
I took a sample of such characters:
Melchizedek;
Rahab;
Ruth;
Achior;
Job;
and concluded - in some cases
following other researchers - that none of these was in reality a pagan
(Gentile). Keeping it very simple by way of summary here:
Melchizedek was, according to Jewish
tradition, the great Shem, righteous son of Noah. Whilst that does not make him
a Hebrew (Israelite/Jew), which tribal concepts did not exist at that early
stage, he, truly blessed as he was (cf. Genesis 9:26-27), was not, as is commonly
thought, an enlightened Canaanite (hence pagan) king.
Melchizedek
was the eponymous Semite (Shem-ite), whose “slave” Canaan was (9:26).
Rahab the prostitute, in the
Book of Judges, was truly enlightened (Hebrews 11:31): “By
faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with
those who were disobedient”, but she, actually Rachab, may need to be
distinguished from (the differently named) Rahab of Matthew’s Genealogy of
Jesus the Messiah (Matthew 1:5).
Ruth was a Moabite only geographically, but
not ethnically, otherwise she would have encountered this ban from Deuteronomy
23:3-4:
No
Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the Assembly of
the Lord, not even
in the tenth generation. For they did not come to
meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and
they hired Balaam son of Beor … to pronounce a curse on you.
Achior. The same comment would thus apply to Achior ‘the
Ammonite’, presuming that he truly was an Ammonite.
He wasn’t.
Achior needs some special extra treatment (see further on).
Job was, in my firm opinion, Tobias, the son of Tobit,
a genuine Israelite from the tribe of Naphtali, in Ninevite captivity.
And I
suspect, too, that others could be added to the list, as Israelites, not
pagans.
The Magi,
for one.
Delilah, a
presumed Philistine. Whilst she may not deserve the epithet, “enlightened”,
Delilah most probably was an Israelite - as convincingly explained by George
Athas:
https://withmeagrepowers.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/samson-and-delilah-the-israelite-woman/
Achior, his conversion and circumcision
Various significant misconceptions abound about this
important character, Achior. First
of all, Achior of the Book of Judith (and the Douay’s Tobit) was not an
Ammonite.
The Book of Judith, as we now have it, suffers from an
unfortunate confusion of names (people and places), making it most difficult to
make sense of it.
“… Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites” (Judith 5:5),
should read, instead, “… Achior, leader of all the Elamites”. Not that Achior
was ethnically an Elamite, but because king Esarhaddon had assigned him to
govern Elam. For Achior was the same person as the famous Ahikar, governor of
Elam, of whom the blind Tobit tells (2:10): “… Ahikar took care of me for two years
before he went to Elymaïs [Elam]”.
To confuse matters even further, the
Book of Judith has a gloss (1:6), in which Achior/ Ahikar is now called
“Arioch”: “Rallying to [the king] were all who lived in the hill
country, all who lived along the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Hydaspes, as
well as Arioch, king of the Elamites …”.
As noted
further back, had Ruth been a Moabite, or Achior an Ammonite – as is commonly
thought – then the Deuteronomical ban against these two nations (23:3-4) would disallow
either from being received into the Assembly of Israel – which, in fact, Achior
was, after the triumphant Judith had shown him the head of his
Commander-in-chief, “Holofernes” (Judith 14:6-7, 10):
When [Achior] came and saw the head of
Holofernes … he fell down on his face in a faint. When they raised him up
he threw himself at Judith’s feet and did obeisance to her and said, ‘Blessed
are you in every tent of Judah! In every nation those who hear your name will
be alarmed’.
….
When Achior saw all that the God of
Israel had done, he believed firmly in God. So he was circumcised and joined
the House of Israel, remaining so to this day.
The unfortunate misconception that Achior was an Ammonite,
who would join the Assembly of Israel despite the Deuteronomical ban, is one of
the primary reasons why the Jews (Protestants) did not accept the Book of
Judith into their scriptural canons.
The confusion of names (people and places), as already
mentioned, is another reason. But this, too, can be rectified.
Tobit himself tells us precisely who was this Ahikar
(Achior) (Tobit 1:21-22):
But not forty days passed before two
of Sennacherib’s sons killed him, and when they fled to the mountains of
Ararat, his son Esarhaddon reigned after him. He appointed Ahikar, the
son of my brother Hanael, over all the accounts of his kingdom, and he
had authority over the entire administration. …. Now Ahikar was chief
cupbearer, keeper of the signet, and in charge of administration and accounts
under King Sennacherib of Assyria, so Esarhaddon appointed him as
second-in-command. He was my nephew and so a close relative.
The Magi were genuine Israelites
Whilst I
greatly enjoyed reading Fr. Dwight Longenecker, and I admire both his
infectious enthusiasm and his genuine efforts to identify the Magi, my own tentative
estimation is that they were - like those other alleged biblical “enlightened
pagans” - true Israelites.
{A BIG correction needed: Actually I have had to re-write this article due to a geographical
misconception under which I had formerly laboured. I had followed a somewhat
thin tradition that the Magi were descendants of the righteous prophet Job – a
view to which I still, in fact, adhere. But I, having failed to give full
attention to the geography of the Book of Tobit, which - with Tobit’s son,
Tobias, being my Job - provides the template for the geography of the Book of
Job, had persisted with a strong tradition that Job’s dwelling place, “Uz”, was
in the Hauran (Ausitis) region, and that this was “the East” from where
I thought that the Magi had come. In the following article I have tried to
correct this, having Job’s “Uz” in the Nineveh region where Tobias-Job had
lived out nearly all of his life}:
Book of
Tobit provides template for the geography of Job-Tobias
(4) Book of Tobit provides template for the geography of
Job-Tobias
Previously I had written:
Fr. Dwight was right to look for a biblical East,
rather than for a more global one, for the home of the Magi. We recall that he
wrote:
Matthew says they came “from the East.” He was
writing to the Jews in the area of Jerusalem-Judea. For them “the East” was the
huge territory controlled by the Nabateans — present day Saudi Arabia, Jordan,
Syria, most of Iraq and Lebanon. We know this was “the East” for them not only
because that kingdom lies to the East of Judea, but also because in the Old
Testament “the people of the East” most often refers to the various tribes of
the Arabian peninsula. ….
That, too, the
biblical approach, is the one that I favour. ….
A tradition,
referred to by the mystic, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, has the Magi
descended from the prophet Job – an idea that appeals to me.
However, I have not yet
been able to take this any further.
There are complications.
For one, I have
reverted to the new idea that Job’s “land of Uz” could not have been in the
Bashan-Hauran region, as previously I had thought, but that it must have been
in the Nineveh region.
And I have fixed
upon Alqosh, Alquš as Uz.
But it is also
apparent from the Book of Tobit, that Tobias with his family (Job), lived out
the final part of his life in Media, from where tradition has the Magi
approximately hailing, anyway (Tobit 14:14): “He died in Ecbatana of
Media …”.
There is another major
complication.
The land of Media
is no longer to be sought where we have all imagined it was, to the east
of Nineveh. The Book of Tobit makes quite clear that, to reach Media, one must
travel westwards, beyond the Tigris River, and beyond even Haran.
Royce Erickson
has recently (2020) show, quite independently of all of this, that Elam, Media
were situated in Anatolia:
A
PROBLEM IN CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
(8) A PROBLEM IN
CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
The holy
Naphtalian descendants of Job patiently awaited the return of “His Star”
(Matthew 2:2).
But how did they
know that it was coming? And how did they know that it was “His”?
….
A key to this, and to the identification of the “Star”
itself, may be Tobit 13.
Old Tobit (now dying), a possible ancestor of the Magi, proclaimed this
to his son, Tobias (i.e. Job) (13:11-18):
A bright light will shine to all the remotest parts of the earth;
many nations will come to you from far away,
the inhabitants of the
ends of the earth to your holy name,
bearing gifts in their hands for the King of
heaven.
Generation after generation will give joyful praise in you;
the name of the chosen city will endure forever.
Cursed are all who reject you
and all who blaspheme you;
cursed are all who hate
you
and all who speak a harsh word against you;
cursed are all who
conquer you
and pull down your walls,
all who overthrow your
towers
and set your homes on fire.
But blessed forever will be all who build you up.
Rejoice, then, and exult over the children of the
righteous,
for they will all be gathered together
and will bless the Lord of the ages.
Happy will be those who love you,
and happy are those who will rejoice in your
peace.
Happy also all people
who grieve with you
because of your afflictions,
for they will rejoice
with you
and witness all your joy forever.
My soul blesses the Lord, the great King,
for Jerusalem will be
rebuilt as his House for all ages.
How happy I will be if a remnant of my descendants should
survive
to see your glory and acknowledge the King of
heaven.
The gates of Jerusalem will be built with sapphire and
emerald
and all your walls with precious stones.
The towers of Jerusalem
will be built with gold
and their battlements with pure gold.
The streets of Jerusalem
will be paved
with ruby and with stones of Ophir.
The gates of Jerusalem
will sing hymns of joy,
and all her houses will cry, ‘Hallelujah!
Blessed be the God of
Israel!’—
and the blessed will bless the holy name forever
and ever.”
Some time later, as the Temple about which Tobit spoke here
was nearing completion, the motivating prophet Haggai will promise the return
to the Temple of the Glory of the Lord, commonly known as Shekinah (a
name that does not, however, appear in the Bible). Haggai announces (2:6-9):
This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In
a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the
sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations
will come, and I will fill this House with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and
the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present House [Temple] will be greater
than the glory of the former House,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares
the Lord Almighty.
His Star “Stopped”
What
a contrast in attitudes (personalities?)!
Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s complete certainty that he has identified the
Magi, and Matthew Erwin’s almost matter-of-fact right identification (so I
think) of the “Star”.
Once
again, as in the case of Fr. Dwight, the biblical approach is taken.
Previously
I wrote regarding Matthew Erwin and his identification of the “Star”:
At last I have found an article that, for me, makes proper
sense of the Nativity Star. Professor Matthew Ervin, in December 2013,
explained it as the Glory of the Lord. He uses the word, Shekinah, which
word, however, is not found in the Bible.
I would prefer:
Glory of the Lord (כְבוֹד יְהוָה), Chevod Yahweh (e.g. 2 Chronicles 7:1).
Matthew Ervin writes in a simple
blog:
https://appleeye.org/2013/12/15/the-star-of-bethlehem-was-the-shechinah-glory/
The
Star of Bethlehem Was the Shekinah Glory
….
Theories
as to what the Star of Bethlehem was are myriad. The usual answers look to
celestial objects ranging from real stars to comets. Indeed, the inquiry
has been so wide sweeping that virtually every object appearing in the sky has
been posited as the Bethlehem Star. However, when Scripture is examined
the identity of the Star is evident. The Greek ἀστέρα or astera simply
identifies a shining or gleaming object that is translated as star in
Matthew 2:1-10.
The magi
specifically referred to it as, “His star” (v. 2). In addition, the behavior of
this Star alone is enough to discount any natural stellar phenomenon. ….
If not a
regular stellar object then what exactly was the Star of Bethlehem? The
synoptic narrative in Luke’s Gospel provides an answer:
And in the same region
there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by
night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the
Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
Luke 2:8-9 (ESV)
The glory of the
Lord here is a powerful example of the Shekinah Glory.
This type of glory is
a visible manifestation of God’s presence come to dwell among men. The Shekinah was
often accompanied by a heavenly host (e.g. Ezek. 10:18-19) and so it was at the
birth of Christ (Luke 10:13). The Shekinah Glory declared
Messiah’s birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-11). The Star of Bethlehem likewise
declared to the magi that Messiah had arrived (Matt. 2:9-10). No doubt this is
because Matthew and Luke were describing the same brilliant light in their
respective gospels.
Although the Shekinah takes
on various appearances in Scripture, it often appears as something very
bright. This includes but is not limited to a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24), a
burning bush (Ex. 3:1-5; Deut. 33:16), a pillar of cloud and fire (Ex.
13:21-22), a cloud with lightning and fire (Ex. 19:16-20), God’s afterglow (His
“back”) (Ex. 33:17-23), the transfiguration of Jesus (e.g. Matt. 17:1-8), fire
(Acts 2:1-3), a light from heaven (e.g. Acts 9:3-8) and the lamp of New
Jerusalem (Rev. 21:23-24).
It was the Shekinah Glory
that dwelled in the Holy of Holies. It was last in Solomon’s temple but
departed as seen by Ezekiel (Ezek. 9:3; 10:4-19; 11:22-23). Haggai
prophesied that the Shekinah Glory would return to the temple
in Israel and in a superior way (Hag. 2:3; 2:9). And yet it would seem that
this never happened for the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. Perhaps
though the Shekinah did return. The Star of Bethlehem was the Shekinah Glory
declaring the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and residing in His
person. And why not?
The Messiah was prophesied
to come as a star (Num. 24:17), and Jesus is called the, “bright morning star”
(Rev. 22:16). ….
[End of quote]
The
family of Job-Tobias knew, from what we now have written in Tobit 13, that the
Glory of the Lord was going to return after the Exile.
And
the prophet Haggai had advised the people, disappointed at the sight of the
second Temple, that the Glory of the Lord would return to it.
And
return again it did, with the Birth of Jesus Christ, the New Temple, who would
render obsolete “the old stone Temple” (pope Benedict XVI).
In
other words, the second Temple was only ever to be temporary, and would be
dramatically replaced (destroyed even) by He who is the true Temple of God.
The
Shepherds saw the Light at close hand and were able to go directly to the
stable. For the Magi, the guiding Light conveniently stopped, just as
the shining Cloud was wont to do during the Exodus (Numbers 9:17): “When the cloud moved from its place
over the Tent, the Israelites moved, and wherever the cloud stopped, the
Israelites camped”.
The
Magi had long been expecting it. Their possible ancestor, Tobit, had foretold
its return.
The
prophet Haggai, had confirmed it some time later.
The
Magi, who - as descendants of Job, as I think - were undoubtedly clever and
educated, did not really need, though, to be able to read the heavens and
constellations (as Job almost certainly could, Job 38:31-33) to identify the
Star.
They
were expecting it and they simply had to wait until they saw it.
This
was a manifestation for Israel, to be understood by Israel, which is a solid
reason why I think that the Magi must have been Israelites, not Gentiles.
The
Nativity Star of relevance to Israel determined the ethnicity of Matthew’s
Magi.
Child
Jesus at Pontevedra stands on a luminous cloud
The
resplendent Christ Child appeared again, with his holy Mother, at Pontevedra,
Spain, 10th December, 1925, likewise “elevated on a luminous cloud”.
We read
about it at:
https://fatima.org/news-views/the-apparition-of-our-lady-and-the-child-jesus-at-pontevedra/
On July 13, 1917, Our Lady promised at
Fatima:
“If what I say to you is
done, many souls will be saved … I shall come to ask for the Consecration of
Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First
Saturdays.”
As Fatima scholar Frère Michel de la
Sainte Trinité tells us, this first secret of Our Lady “is a sure and easy way
of tearing souls away from the danger of hell: first our own, then those of our
neighbors, and even the souls of the greatest sinners, for the mercy and power
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are without limits.” ….
Circumstances of the Apparition ….
The promise of Our Lady to return was
fulfilled in December 1925, when 18-year-old Lucia was a postulant at the
Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, Spain. It was here, during an apparition of
the Child Jesus and Our Lady, that She revealed the first part of God’s plan
for the salvation of sinners: the reparatory Communion of the First Saturdays
of the month. Lucia narrated what happened, speaking of herself in the third
person – perhaps, in humility, to divert attention from her role in the event:
“On December 10, 1925, the
Most Holy Virgin appeared to her [Lucia], and by Her side, elevated on a
luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus.
The Most Holy Virgin rested
Her hand on her shoulder, and as She did so, She showed her a heart encircled
by thorns, which She was holding in Her other hand. At the same time, the Child
said:
“‘Have compassion on the Heart of your Most
Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce It at every
moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.’
“Then the Most Holy Virgin
said:
“‘Look, My daughter, at My
Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every
moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.
You at least try to console
Me and announce in My name that I
promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for
salvation, all
those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess
… receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me
company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the
Rosary, with the intention
of making reparation to Me.’”
The
Great Promise and Its Conditions
As Fatima author, Mark Fellows, noted:
“The Blessed
Virgin did more than ask for reparatory Communion and devotions on five First
Saturdays: She promised Heaven to those who practiced this devotion sincerely
and with a spirit of reparation. Those who wonder whether it is Mary’s place to
promise eternal salvation to anyone forget one of Her illustrious titles:
Mediatrix of all Graces.” ….
Our Lady promises the grace
of final perseverance – the most sublime of all graces
– to all those who devoutly practice this
devotion. The disproportion between the little requested and the immense grace
promised reveals the great power of intercession granted to the Blessed Virgin
Mary for the salvation of souls. Furthermore, this promise also contains a
missionary aspect. The devotion of reparation is recommended as a means of
converting sinners in the greatest danger of being lost.
….
For more information, see The Magnificent Promise for
the Five First Saturdays (Section III, pp. 8-16). ….
https://fatima.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/cr49.pdf
