Esther.
Artist: John Everett Millais (1829–1896).
Date: 1865.
Source/Photographer: [1]
This File: 4 September 2007.
User: Mrostam
(Wikimedia Commons)
Queen Esther.
Artist: Hugues Merle (1822–1881).
Date: 1875.
This File: 4 January 2024.
User: Cosmophilus
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.
Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible.
According to the Biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian King, Ahasuerus, falls in love with Esther and marries her.[1]
His Grand Vizier, Haman, is offended by Esther’s cousin and guardian, Mordecai, because of his refusal to bow before him.
Artist: Ernest Normand (1857–1923).
Date: 1888.
This File: 11 March 2011.
User: OliverTwisted
(Wikimedia Commons)
When confronted, Mordecai’s excuse was simply that he was a Jew. Various interpretations have been offered as to what Mordecai’s concern was.
Consequently, Haman plots to have all of Persia’s Jews killed, and eventually convinces Ahasuerus to permit him to do so.
However, Esther foils the plan by revealing and decrying Haman’s plans to Ahasuerus, who then has Haman executed and grants permission to the Jews to take up arms against their enemies;[2]
Esther is hailed for her courage and for working to save the Jews of Persia from eradication.
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The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost.
Semi-Double.
Green Vestments.
About this time (Fifth Sunday in September) the story of Esther is read in the Divine Office.
In order, therefore, that with The Church, we may every year review these Old Testament types, and also continue our study of The Sundays After Pentecost in the light of The Breviary, we may usefully make Esther the subject of our exposition today.
Assuerus, King of Susa in Persia (482 B.C.-472 B.C.), had chosen Esther, niece of Mordechai, as his Queen.
Aman, the Major-Domo of the Palace, noticing that Mordechai refused to bow the knee before him, flew into a rage, and knowing Mordechai to be a Jew, swore to exterminate at one blow all the members of his race.
Esther’s Banquet.
Artist: Johannes Spilberg the Younger.
Date: Circa 1644.
Photo: 23 March 2015.
Source: Own work.
This File is licensed under the
Share Alike 4.0 International Licence.
This File: 8 February 2016.
User: MSRau1912.
Author: Rauantiques
(Wikimedia Commons)
To this end, he laid a complaint before the King against these foreigners, who were settled in all the Towns of his Kingdom, and obtained a decree authorising their wholesale massacre.
Upon learning of this decree, Mordechai indulged in great lamentations, the Jewish community, as a whole, being, naturally, plunged into extreme mourning, while Modochai took the further step of telling Esther that, if the opportunity presented itself, she ought, even at the peril of her life, to inform the King of Aman’s plot. “Who knoweth whether thou art not come to the Kingdom that thou mightest be ready for such a time as this ?”
Whereupon, Esther, after fasting three days with her servants, presented herself the third day, royally dressed before the King with the request that he would join her in a feast, together with Aman.
This the King promised to do. In the course of the banquet, the Queen began her complaint to the King: “We are given up, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish.”
Esther and Mordecai
Writing the First Purim Letter.
Ester y Mardoqueo escribiendo la
primera carta del Purim (Ester, 9:20-21).
Esther et Mordechaï écrivant les lettres aux juifs.
Artist: Arent de Gelder (1645-1727).
Date: 1675.
Collection:
Source/Photographer: Google Art Project.
This File: 21 February 2015.
User: Crisco
(Wikimedia Commons)
And Assuerus, learning that Esther was a Jewess and that Mordechai was her uncle, answered and said: “Who is this, and of what power that he should do these things ?”
And Esther said: “It is this Aman that is our adversary and most wicked enemy.” Upon this, the King, enraged against his Minister, rose up and commanded that Aman should be hanged on the gibbet that he had prepared for Mordechai, this sentence being carried out immediately, while the edict against the Jews was revoked.
Esther had saved her people and on the same dayMordechai became the King’s favourite Minister and “going forth from the Palace, and from the King’s presence, shone in Royal apparel: To wit, of Violet and Sky Colour, wearing a Golden Crown on his head, and clothed with a Cloak of Silk and Purple”, and with the King’s Ring on his finger.
This Bible narrative shows how God watched over His people and preserved them, for the sake of the promised Messiah. “I am the salvation of the people,” saith the Lord, “in whatever tribulation they shall cry to me, I will hear them; and I will be their Lord forever” (Introit).
The Festival of Esther.
Artist: Edward Armitage (1817–1896).
Date: 1865.
Collection: Royal Academy of Arts.
Source: Art UK.
This File: 5 May 2025.
User: BotMultichillT
(Wikimedia Commons)
“If I walk in the midst of tribulation, Thou wilt quicken me, O Lord; and Thou wilt stretch forth Thy hand against the wrath of my enemies; and Thy Right-Hand shall save me” (Offertory).
The Communion Psalm speaks of the Just man, weighed down by misfortune, whom God forsakes not, while that of the Gradual shows, how in answer to the cry of those who hope in Him, God causes the sinner to fall into his own net and, again, that of the Alleluia, sings of all the marvels which God has wrought for the deliverance of His people.
All this is a type of what God is constantly doing for His Church and of what He will do in a special way at the end of time. Aman, whom the King condemned at Esther’s banquet, is like the man spoken of in the Gospel who came to the wedding feast and was cast by the King’s command into exterior darkness because he had not on a wedding garment, that is, because he had not “put on the new man, who, according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth”, and for not having put away lying and those feelings of anger against his neighbour which he cherished in his heart (Epistle).
Thus will Almighty God treat all those who, while belonging to the body of The Church by their Faith, are found within the wedding-chamber without being clothed, as Saint Augustine puts it, with the robe of Charity.
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Queen Esther.
Artist: Edwin Long (1829–1891).
Date: 1878.
Collection:
National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.
Source/Photographer:
This File: 21 June 2025.
User: Joalbertine
(Wikimedia Commons)
Since they are not quickened by Sanctifying Grace, they have no share in the Soul of the mystical body of Christ.
“Wherefore”, says Saint Paul, “putting away lying, speak the truth of everyone with his neighbour, for we are members one of another . . . Let not the Sun go down upon your anger” (Epistle).
Those who do not fulfil this command will be cast by the Supreme Judge into the torments of Hell, like the Jews who refused the invitation to the wedding feast of the King’s son, that is of Jesus Christ with The Church, His Bride (Second Nocturn), and who slew the Prophets and Apostles who were sent to bear the invitation.
Assuerus, in his anger, caused Aman to be hanged. So also the King in the Gospel “was angry; and he destroyed those murderers and burnt their City”.
This is an artistic rendering of the Palace at Susa, Persia, around the time of Esther, including the King’s Gate, the Apadana, the Courtyards, and the Throne Hall.
Date: 11 February 2025.
Source: Own work.
This File is made available under the
Author: Niqmadu22
(Wikimedia Commons)
More than a million Jews perished at the time of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, the Roman General, when the City was destroyed, and the Temple burned.
The faithless Aman was replaced by Mordechai; the wedding guests by those whom the King’s servants found in the highways; the Jews by the Gentiles. To these last, at Pentecost, the Apostles turned, filled with The Holy Ghost.
And at the Last Judgement, foretold on these last Sundays of the Cycle, these rewards and punishments will be final.
The Elect will take part in the eternal marriage feast, while The Damned will be cast into exterior darkness, into the avenging flames, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Every Parish Priest Celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
![[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Esthermillais.jpg){kind=link}
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