# Epiphany chalk

*C+M+B*

**Known today as.** Chalk blessed at the Epiphany, with which the lintel of the house is marked for the new year, as 20+C+M+B+26.

Kind: Sacramental

## What was it used for?

The letters are the initials of the Magi, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and of the prayer *Christus mansionem benedicat*, “May Christ bless this house”; the marking guards the household for the year.

## What does modern science say?

Widely kept in Central Europe and increasingly elsewhere.

## What lore surrounds it?

In German-speaking lands it is written by the *Sternsinger*, children dressed as the three kings who go from house to house.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia's Epiphany article knows the feast as one in which “very different manifestations of Christ's glory and Divinity were celebrated … especially the Baptism, the miracle at Cana, the Nativity, and the visit of the Magi,” and in the Magi article gives the names written over the door, “Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar,” as appearing among the Latins only “from the seventh century,” the Martyrology mentioning “St. Gaspar, on the first, St. Melchior, on the sixth, and St. Balthasar, on the eleventh of January.”

## Sources

- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Epiphany.” newadvent.org/cathen/05504c.htm
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Kings.” newadvent.org/cathen/09527a.htm
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Exorcism.” newadvent.org/cathen/05709a.htm

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*Epiphany chalk.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/epiphany-chalk

Historical description, not medical advice.