Saint Balthazar
Detail of Balthazar inAdoration of the Kings byGerard David, c. 1515
Three Magi, Three Kings, Three Wise Men
Venerated in	Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Lutheranism
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Majorshrine	Shrine of the Three Kings,Cologne Cathedral
Feast	6 January (Epiphany) 6 January (date of his death)
Attributes	King bearing gifts, king on acamel, threecrowns,dark skin
Patronage	Epilepsy,thunder,motorists,pilgrims,playing card manufacturers, sawmen,sawyers,travellers,travelling merchants,Cologne,Germany,Saxony

Balthazar, also calledBalthasar,Balthassar, andBithisarea,^[1] was, according toWestern Christian tradition, one of the threebiblical Magi (also known as wise men or kings) along withCaspar andMelchior who visited the infantJesus after he wasborn. Balthazar is traditionally referred to as the King of Arabia and gave the gift ofmyrrh to Jesus.^[2] In theCatholic Church, he is regarded as a saint (as are the other two Magi).

The Gospel of Matthew does not give the names of the Magi (or even how many there were), but their traditional names are ascribed to a Greek manuscript from 500 AD translated into Latin and commonly accepted as the source of the names.^[3] In this original manuscript, Balthazar is called Bithisarea, which later developed into Balthazar in Western Christianity.^[1]

In early artistic depictions, Balthazar was represented as a white man.^[4] In an8th century text by the authorPseudo-Bede, he is described as being "a dark, fully bearded king”.^[4] From the 13th century onwards, he was occasionally depicted with black African servants.^[4] Balthazar was first depicted as a black African himself in the15th century, in EuropeanRenaissance art.^[5] The increase in depictions of Balthazar as a black man from the 15th century onwards coincided with the development of thePortuguese Atlantic slave trade in the late 15th century.^[6]

As part of the Magi, Balthazar followed theStar of Bethlehem first to the palace ofHerod the Great, who instructed them to return to him when they had found theChild Jesus. When they arrived at the manger,^[7] the Magi worshipped him and presented their gifts. Balthazar gave the gift of myrrh, which symbolised thefuture death of a king, as myrrh was an expensive item at the time.^[8][9] Following his return to his own country, avoiding King Herod, it is purported that Balthazar celebrated Christmas with the other members of the Magi inArmenia in 54 AD but later died on 6 January 55 AD, aged 112. The feast day of Balthazar is also 6 January, as the date of his death.

Balthasar andGaspar, another of the Magi, are characters in the 1880 novelBen-Hur: A Tale of the Christ andthe various film adaptions of the novel, which chronicles his later years.

• 
  The Three Magi,Byzantine mosaic, c. 565 AD,Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo,Ravenna, Italy. Balthazar is depicted on the left.

It is generally assumed that the Magi were of Zoroastrian origin. TheEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has an ancient tradition identifyingBalthazar withBazen of Axum.^[10][11][12]

Balthazar, along with the other Magi, are purported to be buried in theShrine of the Three Kings inCologne Cathedral following his remains being moved fromConstantinople byEustorgius I in 344 AD toMilan. In 1164,Holy Roman EmperorFredrick Barbarossa moved them to Cologne.^[13] Balthazar is commemorated onEpiphany with the other members of the Magi but in Catholicism, Balthazar's feast day is on 6 January because it was the day that he died.^{[14][failed verification]}

Many traditionally Christian countries stagepageants that include roles for the three wise men. In some European countries it is customary for Balthazar to be portrayed by a man inblackface. In the 21st century, as modern immigration increased theSub-Saharan African population, a number of campaigns in Spain pushed for an actual black person to play Balthazar, which potentially goes against the tradition that local city councillors play the role.^[15]

Since King Balthazar, in traditional pictorial representations from the Late Middle Ages, is often represented as a black person (as an integrating or cosmopolitan graphic symbol, in the tradition that the "wise men" or "magi" who worshipped Jesus in Bethlehem represented the peoples of the whole world), fitting in with this traditional icon motivated his representation in the cavalcades of Three Wise Men by a person made up in black. In many Spanish towns that custom continues, while others now ask a prominentresident of African descent to take on this role in the cavalcades.^[16]

• 
  A black man parading as Balthazar in Zaragoza in 2009
• 
  The three magi inMassalfassar in 2019. Balthazar and his servant are played by white people in blackface.
• 
  Adorazione dei Magi (Adoration of the Magi) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1655 (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio)

• San Baltasar

• Biblical Magi
• Christmas characters
• Unnamed people of the Bible
• Saints from the Holy Land
• 1st-century BC Christian saints
• Christian saints from the New Testament
• Black people in European folklore
• Paintings of black people

• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
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