A Home for Sacred Relics
by Bob Brooke
 

A reliquary is a container for relics―the purported or actual physical remains of saints—and may consist of bones, pieces of clothing, or some objects associated with Christian saints and martyrs.

What Are Relics?
Relics—bits of bone, clothing, shoes, or dust—became popular in Western Christianity in the Middle Ages. The cult of relics dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries, when the Romans persecuted and often killed martyrs by fragmenting their bodies. The intention was to desecrate their bodies through execution and burning. By the late 3rd to early 4th centuries, early Christians began to revere the fragments of the martyrs as source of spiritual power and special access to the divine. The Second Council of Nicea in 787 decreed that to relics were necessary to consecrate Christian altars.

Reliquaries, the containers that house relics, took on many forms throughout the Middle Ages. Artisans crafted them in homage to the martyr whose remains contained inside. They created some as ornate caskets depicting images of the saint’s life or martyrdom, while others took the form of busts of the saints or ornate works of glass and metal to display larger, more intact relics, such as bones.

Christian belief in the spiritual power of relics, the physical remains of a holy site or holy person, or objects with which they had contact, is as old as the faith itself and developed alongside it. Relics were more than mementos. The New Testament refers to the healing power of objects touched by Christ or his apostles. The body of the saint provided a spiritual link between life and death, between man and God:

An interesting phenomenon in reliquary art are those shaped like parts of the human body. These gained popularity in the West in the 12th and 13th centuries, and became known as “speaking reliquaries.” Though the shape of the reliquary might have implied the body part beneath; yet we have much evidence that many body-part reliquaries did not in fact contain the bone or body part depicted, these reliquaries often didn’t contain that body part. Instead, they represented the ritual associated with the relic. For example, a reliquary in the shape of an arm could indicate the blessing given by a priest or bishop. And, by the late Middle Ages, reliquaries in the West didn’t contain body parts at all, but instead usually included contact relics, such as bits of clothes or shoes.

The Origin of Reliquaries
The use of reliquaries became an important part of Christian practices from at least the 4th century, initially in the Eastern Churches, which adopted the practice of moving and dividing the bodies of saints much earlier than the West, probably in part because the new capital of Constantinople, unlike Rome, lacked buried saints. Christian churches---Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and some Anglican Churches—all venerate relics.

Since all relics bestowed honor and privileges upon the possessor, monasteries and cathedrals sought to have the most prestigious ones. Some relics were even stolen from one church, only to find a new home in another.

Because of the Christian belief in the afterlife and resurrection, in the power of the soul, and in the role of saints as advocates for humankind in heaven, the veneration of relics in the Middle Ages came to rival the sacraments in the daily life of the medieval church. Indeed, from the time of Charlemagne, it was obligatory that every altar contain a relic.

The holiest of relics were those associated with Christ and his mother. Because of the belief in the resurrection of Christ and the bodily assumption of the Virgin into heaven, physical relics of Christ and the Virgin were—with a few rare exceptions, like the baby teeth of Jesus or the Virgin’s milk—usually objects that they touched in their lifetime, such as the wood from the True Cross or pieces of the Virgin’s veil. The most common relics are associated with the apostles and those local saints renowned for the working of miracles across Europe.

Craftsmen across Europe and Byzantium in the Middle Ages enshrined relics in beautiful boxes or caskets covered with gold, silver, gems, and enameled glass. They also used ivory, for its pure white color was an indication of the holy status of its contents.

Artisans designed many reliquaries to be portable, often being exhibited in public or carried in procession on the saint's feast day or on other holy days. Pilgrimages often centered on the veneration of relics. The faithful often venerated relics by bowing before the reliquary or kissing it. Christian churches distinguished between the veneration of relics of saints to that given to the worship of God.

Sixteenth-century reformers such as Martin Luther opposed the use of relics since many had no proof of historical authenticity, as well as objecting to a cult of saints. During the Reformation, Calvinists and their followers destroyed many reliquaries, particularly in northern Europe, by melting them down or pulling them apart to recover precious metals and gems. Nevertheless, the use and manufacture of reliquaries continues in Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian countries.

Reliquary Forms
Since the relics themselves were considered more valuable than precious stones and more to be esteemed than gold, it was considered only appropriate that they be enshrined in vessels, or reliquaries, crafted of or covered by gold, silver, ivory, gems, and enamel. These precious objects constituted a major form of artistic production across Europe and Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages.

The earliest reliquaries were either simply boxes or caskets based on an architectural design, taking the form of a model of a church with a pitched roof. Known as chasse, those from the 12th to the 14th centuries had wooden frameworks with gilt-copper plaques nailed on, decorated in champlevé enamel. Artisans in the town of Limoges in France produced the greatest number.

Relics of the True Cross, housed in magnificent gold and silver cross-shaped reliquaries decorated with enamels and precious stones, became popular from the 9th century onward. From about the end of the 10th century, reliquaries in the shape of the relics they housed also gained popularity. The skull of Pope Alexander I, for example, was housed in a head-shaped reliquary. Similarly, the bones of saints were often housed in reliquaries that recalled the shape of the original body part, such as an arm or a foot.

A philatory was a transparent reliquary designed to contain and exhibit the bones and relics of saints. This style of reliquary had a viewing portal to view the relic inside. The feretrum was a medieval form of reliquary containing the sacred effigies and relics of a saint.

During the later Middle Ages, Christian churches sometimes used the monstrance, mostly used for consecrated hosts, as a reliquary. These housed the relic in a rock crystal, or glass capsule mounted on a column above a base, enabling the relic to be displayed to the faithful.

Reliquaries were also fashioned into full-body statues, or more abbreviated, but still imposing, bust-length images of saints, often those with local reputations of great authority. Set on an altar and carried in procession, their arrival sometimes heralded by the sounding of ivory horns, these highly decorated works of art made an indelible impression on the faithful.

Reliquaries also took the form of large pieces of gold or silver jewelry, housing tiny relics such as pieces of the Holy Thorn.

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