FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH

By Fr. James Heinsch, OFM The Sultanate of Oman is so tiny a country, you might never have heard of it before now. No bigger than the State of Kansas, a thin strip of land, 1000 miles long along the south-eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula, it lies along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. The interior of this narrow country is all plateau nestled against the mountains. But the western coast is an idyllic winter haven for peoples of surrounding countries. The warm Arabian Sea beckons them to leave the cold mountainous regions nearby . In July of 1970, there was a palace coup. The son of the Sultan, Sa’id bin Taimur, took the country from his father’s rule, and promised to establish a modern government, and use their new-found wealth (oil) to aid their people. Yet this is not why I write about Oman. My purpose in sharing this information with you is to test your curiosity. You see, from the small town of Salalah, along the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, comes the best frankincense and myrrh in the entire world. This region of Southern Arabia is quite unique. It is not desert. Watered by rains from the mountains, spectacular kingdoms arose here. They dazzled the eyes of travelers. As Strabo the Greek historian wrote: the people here possess "a great quantity of articles wrought in gold and silver, as couches, tripods, basins, drinking vessels, to which we must add the costly magnificence of their houses, for the doors, walls and roofs are variegated with inlaid ivory, gold, silver and precious stones." They even had a palace with a roof of one single slab of marble. It was so translucent that you could distinguish the different birds as they flew over it. These people bartered their spices for gold, silver, and precious stones which came from Africa. They had no need to import wheat or wine, for their own lands produced a abundance of these along with all kinds of delicious fruits. It was not because they had so much rain that their lands were so productive. They had created a method of irrigation unparalleled in their time. Dams, reservoirs and irrigation channels carried the mountain rains down to terraced mountain slopes. The result: a rich harvest of rice, dates, almonds, pomegranates and melons. There were, however, two items they grew and produced that made them forever famous. They were not found along the fertile valleys, but higher up on the arid plateaus: Frankincense and Myrrh.

Frankincense comes from a small tree; myrrh from a bush. Each is a resin. Growing on the arid plateaus, the people slash the roots and branches where the bark seems fullest. The gum oozes out, hardening in lumps. These lumps are then gathered and stored in mountain caves for 6 months to dry. The Sabaean people used these resins for religious rites, made them into medicines, and created the ancient perfumes used for public and personal sanitation. Combined together, or with other spices such as cinnamon, cassia and iris, they created a myriad of scents. The fragrant smoke that burned in censers was offered to guests to make clothes, hair or beard smell pleasant. The smoke wove its way through the ancient market places inviting all to "stay a bit longer" amid such "heavenly aromas. With time, frankincense and myrrh were used for religious and state ceremonies all through the ancient Mid-east. It was believed that the souls of the dead and the prayers of priests would ascent to heaven amidst the gentle wafts of incense. Egyptians used these in funeral rites. The priests at the Temple in Jerusalem burnt a kilogram of incense each day with their prayers. The Greeks honored their heroes with incense. Ptolemy II, in 278 BC, tried to impress everyone with a procession of women carrying censers 3 meters tall. Behind them came boys in purple tunics carrying frankincense and myrrh on golden dishes, followed by formations of elephants and zebras drawing chariots. And then came a herd of camels bearing 135 kilograms of frankincense, 135 kilograms of myrrh, and 90 kilograms of spices. Besides religious uses, frankincense and myrrh had very practical purposes. The sweet smoke dispelled the unwanted scents of unwashed bodies, of refuse in the streets, or was an insect repellant. Most of all, these resins were used as combinations in medicine. They eased headaches, the pains of childbirth, stiffness in joints, ulcers and abscesses. They were an antidote for hemlock poisoning or insect bits ... used to stem nosebleeds, coughing and nausea, stinging eyes and ear aches. These two aromatics were used throughout the ancient world. They all bought their incense and myrrh from the Arabs, but the best came from the region of Salalah in Oman. (It is interesting to note that the Greek Orthodox Medical Clinic in Jerusalem has an ancient title written above their doorway: The Myrrh Bearers.)

For centuries, until boats finally discovered a way around the Horn of Africa, only camel caravans carried this precious cargo through the bleak Arabian deserts. Primarily, they traveled two routes, one went inland to Shabwa. There they weighed the incense, myrrh, gold, silver, etc. and then levied taxes on the caravans before they carried it north to the Mediterranean. The other caravan route went west along the Red Sea coast The camel was God’s blessing to them. No other animal could walk these barren deserts and yet carry loads of more than 180 kilograms. The camel was made for the desert. Its padded feet could walk the shifting, scorching, sands of the Arabian desert. It could eat the toughest thorn bushes as food. It drank up to 150 liters of water, often too salty for humans, and then could walk for ten days because its body could retain moisture. In addition, the camel offered milk to the drivers, and hair to make cloth and rope. Camel skins were used for saddle-bags, sandals, and water buckets. Its dry dung was a ready supply of cooking fuel in the treeless desert. Truly, the camel was a great blessing. A caravan could be as big as 2,500 camels and 300 persons. The caravan route would take no less than 65 days, with at least that many stops along the way at oasis-villages. Also, I might add, there was taxation at every stop along the way. Sometimes, the trip took months. It all contributed to make frankincense and myrrh expensive, precious and rare. Is it any wonder that the Three Magi brought these gifts ... "worthy of a king" to the Christ Child? Matthew 2:1-2, 10-11: After Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of King Herod, astrologers from the east arrived one day in Jerusalem inquiring "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage." ... They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house, found the child with Mary his Mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their coffers and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. © copyright 1998

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