Tradition says that the Three Kings who visited the Child Jesus remained close after that life-changing visit, and died with days of each other in January 54 AD.
Deciding that the three kings should be buried together, their common grave was re-dug as each of the kings died, and the new body added.
Their tomb in Persia was said to be discovered in the fourth century. Their bones were taken to Constantinople, and eventually to Milan.
When the German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, invaded and conquered the Italian city, the bones of the kings came in his possession. The emperor, in turn, gave them to the Abbot of Cologne as his share of the spoils of the war.
For many years, various popes tried to regain the bones, but Cologne refused to relinquish them.
In 1903, it was rumored that Cologne was finally going to give them to the Vatican. However, the bones of he three kings remain today at the cathedral in Cologne.
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