To Rome for Christmas! – I thought some weeks ago, yet for various reasons, including sickness, I am simply at home for Christmas. When, having returned to my apartment after Midnight Mass on the 25th December, I once more read Jacobus de Voragine’s article on the birth of Jesus Christ in his Golden Legend, my attention was drawn to the miracles that happened in the city of Rome during that most holy night when the Savior was born in the city of David.
The historic time, day and hour of Christ‘s birth
“(…) but when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman (…).“
Galatians 4: 4
“(…) Octavian was the Roman emperor at the time. His first given name was Octavian: he was called Caesar after Julius Caesar whose nephew he was, Augustus because he augmented the state, Emperor to pay honor to his dignity by distinguishing him from the earlier kings, he being the first to bear this title. When the Son of God became incarnate, the universe enjoyed such peace that the emperor of the Romans reigned alone and peacefully over the whole world. It was the Lord‘s will that since he was coming to give us peace in time and in eternity, temporal peace should lend luster to the time of his birth.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 37
First of all, Jacobus de Voragine elaborates on the fact that it was the Roman emperor who contributed with this temporal decisions to the unfolding of salvation history as foretold by the prophets:
“In those days Caesar Augustus, being master of the world, wished to know how many provinces, cities, fortresses, villages, and men there were in the world. He therefore decreed, as we read in the Scholastic History, that all the men in his empire should go to the city from which they drew their origin (…).“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 37
In the city of their origin, people had to pay a head tax and were “enrolled“, which means that they were counted in the worldwide census – “given a number which was recorded in the rolls“ (ibid. p. 37). And so Joseph traveled with Mary and the child in her womb from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
“So Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem. They were poor and could find no lodging in the inns, which already were full of people who had come for the same purpose; so they had to take shelter in a public passage. This passage, according to the Scholastic History, was located between two houses. It provided some overhead covering and served as a meeting place for townspeople who came there to talk or eat together in their free time, or when the weather was bad. Perhaps Joseph set up a manger for his ox and his ass, or, as some think, peasants coming in to market were used to tying up their animals there and the crib was ready to hand. In that place, at midnight, the eve of Sunday, the blessed Virgin gave birth to her Son and laid him on hay in the manger.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 38
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.“
Luke 2: 7
“The Temple of Peace“ crumbling in Rome
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: I have come to bring not peace, but a sword.“
Matthew 10: 34
“As Pope Innocent III testifies, during the twelve years when Rome enjoyed peace, the Romans built a Temple of Peace and placed a statue of Romulus in it. Apollo was asked how long the temple would stand, and the answer was that it would be until a virgin bore a child. Hearing this, the people said that the temple was eternal, for they thought it impossible that such a thing could happen; and an inscription, TEMPLUM PACIS AETERNUM, was carved over the doors. But in the very night when Mary bore Christ, the temple crumbled to the ground, and on its site the church of Santa Maria Nuova stands today.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 38-39
The miraculous spring of oil flowing into the Tiber River
“And every living creature that creepeth whithersoever the torrent shall come, shall live: and there shall be fishes in abundance after these waters shall come thither, and they shall be healed, and all things shall live to which the torrent shall come.“
Ezekiel 47: 9
“(…) in the night of the Lord‘s birth the darkness of night was turned into the brightness of day. In Rome it also happened (as attested by Orosius and Pope Innocent III) that a fountain of water turned to oil and burst into the Tiber, spreading very widely all the day; and the Sybil had foretold that when a fountain of oil sprang up, a Savior would be born.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 40
