Epiphany

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Epiphany (Gk., epiphaneia, ‘manifestation’). An appearance of a divine or superhuman being. In Christian use it refers specifically to a feast celebrated on 6 Jan. It originated in the E., where it celebrated the baptism of Jesus and, at least in a secondary way, his birth. Epiphany spread to the W. Church in the 4th cent., but here it became associated with the ‘manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles’ in the person of the Magi of Matthew 2. 1–12.

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