06/01/2026
Wise Women Also Came
Wise women also came.
The fire burned
in their wombs
long before they saw
the flaming star
in the sky.
They walked in shadows,
trusting the path
would open
under the light of the moon.
Wise women also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission
from any king.
They came
by their own authority,
their own desire,
their own longing.
They came in quiet,
spreading no rumors,
sparking no fears
to lead
to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s
inconsolable lamentations.
Wise women also came,
and they brought
useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.
Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her
in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings
into her ear.
Wise women also came,
and they went,
as wise women always do,
home a different way.
- Poetry and art, Jan Richardson
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Did you know the Magi might have been women? Biblical scholar Professor Emeritus Dominican Fr. Benedict Viviano (author of commentary on Matthew in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary) points to "feminine resonances" in the text and Matthew's Jewish audience. He highlights the Queen of Sheba's parallel: her quest for Solomon's wisdom and kingly gifts of gold, spices, and myrrh.
The wise ones may have been Zoroastrian scholars and astrologers... Zorastrianism welcomed women in these roles.
Openness to these stories expands our imagination, placing women—and all genders—in roles where power has long excluded them.
