Gathering the Saints
Christians who travel to a major pilgrimage center often return home with a small memento like a medallion, or a badge. This tradition finds its basis in the belief that an object that comes from a holy place retains the sanctity of its origins.
Read more »
The practice of collecting mementos, or eulogiai, associated with a holy place began some time in the fourth century, when pilgrims first made their way to Jerusalem. One of their most coveted items was a piece of the True Cross, reportedly discovered by Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. However, only the most well connected pilgrims were able to attain such a prize, with most having to settle for flasks of oil that had come into contact with the wood of the cross.
Indeed, the trade in relics, as it developed over the course of the Middle Ages, is indicative of contemporary social hierarchies. Thus, the emperor was able to collect some of the most important relics for his palace chapel in Constantinople, including the lance that was reportedly pierced Christ's side during his crucifixion, but so could the pope.
Pope Gregory the Great made this clear when he refused to give the head of Saint Paul to the Empress Constantina, wife of the Emperor Saint Maurice, citing the ancient prohibition against bodily dismemberment. Of course, the popes had no problem receiving parts of saints's bodies as gifts, as evidenced by the contents of the Sancta Sanctorum, located in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
Dedicated to Saint Lawrence, the Sancta Sanctorum, served as the private chapel of the popes for centuries, and to this day contains some of the most venerated relics in Christendom, including an achaeiropoietos—a term used to describe an image not made by human hands—that depicts Christ.
Arm Reliquary of the Apostles
This reliquary belongs to a class of objects often referred to as body-part, shaped, or "speaking" reliquaries. Imitating the form of a clothed lower arm with an outstretched right hand, it gives visual expression to the very body part it contains.
Reliquary of the True Cross
This is one of the earliest examples of a precious container for relics of the True Cross to have survived.
Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude
This portable altar belongs to a group of precious liturgical objects commissioned by Countess Gertrude of Braunschweig shortly after the death of her husband, the powerful Count Liudolf in 1038.
Ostensorium with "Paten of St. Bernward"
This unusual ostensorium was made to facilitate the display and veneration of ten relics, most prominent among them an elaborate liturgical paten, a shallow plate for the elevation of the Eucharist during Mass.
Double-Arm Reliquary Cross
This elegant double-arm gold cross shares a number of decorative features with a group of silver crosses that can be attributed to a leading goldsmith workshop in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during the twelfth century.
Reliquary Cross
This cross is one of the earliest surviving French examples of a double-arm reliquary cross.
Panel-shaped Reliquary of the True Cross
A lengthy Latin inscription, executed in niello, frames the reliquary's central panel in two layers on all four sides. It records the colorful history of the relic of the True Cross.
Reliquary Box with Scenes from the Life of John the Baptist
The painted wood box likely served as a container for one of the saint's relics. Several such relics were kept and venerated in churches and monasteries at Constantinople into the late Byzantine period.
The Holy Thorn Reliquary
This reliquary, with its magnificent vision of the Last Judgment, was made to contain a thorn that the Latin inscription asserts, came originally from the Crown of Thorns placed on Christ's head before the Crucifixion.
