It is Leon's gift to the Three Wise Men. Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar will debut new suits on January 5. They have been made by Mónica Rodríguez Suárez, the seamstress of the Magi from the East. She won a Town Hall contest and has become a royal tailor. A privilege, she says.

Mónica Rodríguez Suárez, Mónica De Trapío —which is the name of her brother's fashion and haute couture workshop— believes that magical things always happen at Christmas. It has happened to her. She has become the seamstress of the Magi from the East.

On January 5, when they arrive with their caravan, they will put on their new costumes for the Cavalcade of Kings, if the covid allows it to be held, and with them they will distribute the toys to the children of León at night. Then they will be taken back to their countries, crossing the desert, heading back to the East.

Quite a challenge to dress the Three Kings. So Mónica De Trapío immersed herself in ancient texts looking for historical references, from the Bible to apocryphal testaments, from history books to works of art. She delved into texts from the 12th century and toured museums until she found the essence.

She wanted the Three Wise Men to take something from León, so she thought that nothing better than engraving the names of the 211 municipalities of the province on their robes. In gold thread. valuable. Indestructible. So that they would never forget León.

She wanted to be true to the story and also to her land. So she looked for a point of union. She found him in the Cathedral of León. Something more universal and at the same time more from here than the Gothic temple consecrated to Santa María? She was the star of it. Like the one that guided the Magi to Bethlehem in search of that child who had been born in a manger to be God, son of God and messiah of the twelve tribes of Israel before whom they prostrated themselves, they say, two thousand twenty-two years ago, some wise men, scholars, astronomers following the trail of a signal in the sky, perhaps a comet, perhaps a strange conjunction of planets, of Jupiter and Saturn.

Mónica Rodríguez 'De Trapío' also had to look up. To the stained glass windows, to the main altar of the Cathedral of León. That was her chair. Because everything was told there, for centuries.

So she entered the Gothic temple and her museum to study colors, layers, crowns, gestures. To find reason in the sanctuary of belief. And there they were, on boards, on stained glass, what she was looking for: the three wise men.

The shoe covers of the Magi. Thick fabrics for Melchor, inspiration from the Arabian Nights for Gaspar and a recreation of golden sandals for Baltasar. Mónica Rodríguez Suárez has not left anything to chance. On the left, the tunic of King Melchor, which is embroidered with the names of the municipalities of valleys and riversides in the province of León.

Melchior, who represents the wisdom of maturity, Europe, the lineage of the old Roman kings. Always dressed in red in the two stained glass windows of the Cathedral, in the Virgen Blanca chapel and in another more hidden one, in the painting in the Staircase Room of the Cathedral Museum, in the Wall Room, in the Treasure, even at the door of San Juan, although there it was in stone, now without polychrome, that there are things that time sweeps away.

So Melchor will wear this January 5, and those to come, a red velvet cape with sleeves, like the wise man on the main altar of the Cathedral, as if he were a Roman emperor, with a gold-colored tunic, with embroidered names of the valleys and riverbanks of the province of León, with a linen shirt in the style of underwear worn in Roman times, a capelina of pure merino wool, a king's crown almost a replica of the ones he wears in the paintings of the Gothic temple —which there do not crown his head but rests on the ground because there is no king but God— a metallic belt with the head of a lion and the attributes of a magician from the East, wise among wise, perpetuator of knowledge, a garment to make great the grandeur of malkî-ôr, the king of light, the bearer of gold, the metal of the sovereigns, of the princes on Earth. All woven in thick fabrics to record its European origin, a continent of cold. And some shoe covers with a buckle, because if there is an element where the Three Wise Men reveal themselves, they discover themselves, they uncover, it is in their shoes. That is why Mónica Rodríguez did not leave anything to chance to always keep magic safe.

In the cathedral

Gaspar was also found in the Cathedral Museum. There he was, representing Asia, the knowledge of the other part of the known world, the wisdom of ancient civilizations, the Persian Kansbar, the 'administrator of the treasure', the one who carried incense, the preparation of aromatic vegetable resins to purify spaces and souls. That is why he has dressed him in fabrics that represent Indian silks, Chinese brocades, gold threads, like an aladdin of knowledge, in green and gold, with his cape with openings, the breeches, the short tunic with buttons as They make those of the regional costumes, with dahlia thread and crowned with a pearl, the names of the towns of the Leonese mountains embroidered, an overcoat imitating ermine fastened with metallic applications with the figure of a lion on the march, which instead of being rampant is passing —the symbol of the Old Kingdom of León, the oldest heraldic emblem in Europe, more than Richard the Lionheart's coat of arms of England—, with his shoes from the stories of the thousand and one nights and with the crown of metallic base and braided wool that is faithful to the representation of the painting in the Sala de la Muralla of the Museum of the Cathedral of León.

He had Baltasar, Africa, the black king, Bel-Sar-Utsor, the one they called 'God protects the King', the bearer of myrrh, the aromatic resinous with medicinal properties to heal the body, anesthetic, antiseptic and healing with the that, in ancient times, they say, the umbilical cord of newborns was anointed. Mónica De Trapío thought that Baltasar would like to dress like the princes of his lineage, with necklaces of beads, stones and bones, with fabrics with geometric drawings, the basis of logic, of mathematical knowledge, with a toga wrapping his entire body in where he will forever carry embroidered the names of Leonese moors and plains, dressed in blue, with a gauze turban adorned with beads, beads and balls attached to the Leonese and with his gold shoes that simulate the effect of sandals, which in León in January is cold.

Every Leon goes in those suits. In the symbols, in the embroidered names, in all the details. Everything from León, everything made or bought in León. Because the seamstress of the Magi, like them, believes in the gift of generosity, in the power of what is shared. For this reason, even the threads, brackets or pins are 'made in León'. Everything. Acquired in fabric stores, in haberdashery, in the workshops of metal, wool and beadwork craftsmen in the province...

“We are a great team,” says Mónica Rodríguez. And it does not hide a point of emotion. “They jumped on the idea. Eva from Almacenes San Froilán, Beatriz González and Rosa María Sánchez at the Museum of the Cathedral of León, the artisans of Val de San Lorenzo, Alberto from madeinslow.com, Juan Antonio, Roberto and Sergio from the Center for Crafts and Plastic Arts, Mario and Belinda, expert artisans in leather and metal for belts, brooches and crowns, Mercedes with her buttons from the regional costumes of the province...».

And then, behind her, at her hands, hers “her favorite team”, it says: The Salesian Ladies and students participating in the Juan Dreamer project.

“It had to be like this. A push for those who need to get ahead and for those who provide educational responses to the most vulnerable youth to encourage their entry into the labor market », she explains.

This Leonese woman knows a lot about effort. An illness changed her life forever. An English philologist, a diagnosis that took five years to arrive forced her to rethink her entire life. And there she began her fight for survival and also for design, fashion and clothing, of that new life in a workshop in the low houses of the Ejido, where she works in her workshop 'De Trapío' on Santo Tirso street. 39.

This offering that the Department of Culture and the City Council of León make to the Three Wise Men is also a great gift for her: to spread hope, to keep faith even in the impossible, to believe that magical things can happen, to leave in her children Sergio and Lola the legacy of an ancient tradition, pay homage to her mother, who taught her to baste and remove the basting.

Being the seamstress of the Three Wise Men is her mission. It is the magic of Christmas.

Melchor's belt, with a detail of a lion, the brooch that closes Gaspar's cape, made of leather with two metal figures assembled with the figure of lions, beads on Baltasar's turban. Above, the new costumes of the three wise men, the gift that León gives them.