Now, remember scripture says, "there were wise men from the east" and they brought "gold, frankincense and myrrh". Now there were three gifts but we do not know how many wise men there were. St John Chrysostom says there were forty!
Why did they need French, that is frank-incense. Was one of them French?
2 comments:
The wise men..3 of them! Are significant in Miles Jesu..so it's a special Feast Day for us..
I so agree with Fr. Ray on this one.
Frankincense seems to derive from the Old French "franc encens".
The dictionaries explain that incense is a gum resin from trees of the genus "Boswellia".
Frankincense appears to mean incense of superior quality , "frank" meaning "the best".
This seems to be because "frank" was and is used as an adjectival prefix to mean "fully free or completely free".
At least, that is the best explanation I was able to find !
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