Among the innumerable treasures and holy relics preserved at the Holy Monastery of St. Paul on Mount Athos (in Greek Άγιον Όρος, meaning “Holy Mountain”) the most precious, and invaluable to Greek Orthodoxy, are the Holy Gifts offered by the three Magi of the East to the newborn Jesus.
Their gift of gold is in the form of twenty-eight painstakingly-carved flat tiles of various shapes (rectangular, trapezoidal, polygonal, etc.) which are about 5 cm x 7 cm (2 X 3 inches) in size. Each tile has a different artistic design.
The precious gifts of frankincense and myrrh are preserved as a mixture in the form of sixty-two small, olive-sized spherical beads.
The three gifts of the Magi had distinct and inescapable spiritual meanings: the gold was a symbol of kingship on earth, the frankincense (a type of incense) symbolized a deity, and the myrrh (used as an embalming oil) was a symbol of death.
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