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Relics are holy objects associated with holy
people such as Jesus or the saints. The use of relics was by no means a new phenomenon, it existed
previously in Judaism, Buddhism and several other religions.
In a world where people believed that evil and
the Devil existed all around in the natural world, it was comforting to
believe that good was also something that could be seen and touched. The
motivation
for most pilgrimages was to see and touch something holy and consequently benefit from being in contact with good. Two
types of relic
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There are two types of
relic. The first kind were called brandea and were the most
common kind of early Christian relic in the centuries immediately following
the death of Christ. These were often ordinary objects which had become holy
by coming into contact with holy people or places. These might include, for
example, pieces of tomb, a handkerchief of a saint or dust from the
Holy Land.The advantage for pilgrims
was that they could and did make their own brandea; by rubbing
a piece of cloth against a holy tomb or by filling a small flask (ampulla)
with holy water, they could take the holiness home with them. In the 6th
century, Gregory of Tours described how this might be done at the tomb of St
Peter: |
| (Above) Flasks
(ampulla) made from lead were an important form of pilgrim souvenirs. They
would be filled with Holy Water at a shrine, such as Canterbury
in England. Holy Water was believed to heal the sick. (source) |
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'He who wishes to pray
before the tomb opens the barrier that surrounds it and puts his head
through a small opening in the shrine...Should he wish to bring back a relic
from the tomb, he carefully weighs a piece of cloth which he then hangs
inside the tomb. Then he prays ardently and, if his faith is sufficient, the
cloth, once removed from the tomb, will be found to be so full of divine
grace that it will be much heavier than before.' (Sumption: 24)
These early relics were
often carried in small, purpose built containers called reliquaries which
were hung around the neck, almost like good luck charms. Of course, medieval
people did not believe in luck, they believed that God controlled everything
(see Church). Therefore, by wearing the relic you
were showing you believed in the Christian faith and consequently you hoped
God would reward you by making good things happen.
| The second kind
of relic which became common after the 7th century were bodily
relics, these were actual pieces of the body of the saint: a bone,
a piece of hair, the head etc. The Church initially outlawed the
movement of the body of a saint from the original burial place but
over time both the movement (translation) and dividing up (partition)
of the body of a saint was allowed. Two factors explain the spread of
relics all over Europe from the 8th century. Firstly, after 787 all
new Christian churches had to have a relic before they could be
properly established or 'consecrated'. During this time, much of
northern Europe was being converted to Christianity and there were
many new churches that required relics. As a consequence, the Church
partitioned and translated a portion of her collection all over
Europe. The second factor which explains the spread of relics was the
value placed on them by influential collectors all over Europe. Owning
a large number of relics became a symbol of status and power for both
private collectors and kingdoms. Emperor Charlemagne (742-814) set a
trend with his massive collection at Aachen that later monarchs of
Europe tried to follow. |
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(Above) Charlemagne's
Reliquary at Aachen |
The craze to collect relics
even gave rise to national rivalries. When in 1244, Westminster Abbey received
the relic of a vase of the blood of Christ, the Bishop of Norwich made a
direct and unfavourable comparison to the recent purchase of part of the
True Cross by the King of France, Louis IX. He argued with impeccable
politician's logic:
'Now it is true that the
Cross is a very holy relic but it is holy because it came into contact with
the precious blood of Christ. The holiness of the Cross derives from the
blood whereas the holiness of the blood in no way derives from the Cross. It
therefore follows that England, which possesses the blood of Christ,
rejoices in a greater treasure than France, which has no more than the
Cross.' (Sumption: 30-1)
| Bodily relics were
particularly important because the spirit of the saint was said to actually
remain in the bodily remains. Wherever the body (or body parts) went the
(holy) spirit was sure to follow. There were some religious critics who
suggested that the cult of relics owed more to pagan traditions than
Christian teaching, but such was the popularity of the relics and the
miracles that surrounded them, it would have been very difficult for the
Church to resist even if it had wanted to. In converting pagan people the
Church needed every trick in the book. In the 13th century, even the great
medieval philosopher and saint, Thomas Aquinas, produced a threefold defence
of the cult of relics. He argued that, firstly, the relic acts as a physical
reminder of the saint, making it easier for people to understand the
importance of the saint. Secondly, because the saint worked miracles through
the body, the body remains holy and is therefore valuable in itself.
Finally, because miracles occur at sites with relics, God must approve of
the preservation and worship of relics. |
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(above) The foot
reliquary of St James, Namur, France |
The relic business:
faking and thieving
When the church began to
allow the partition and translation of relics, the business of trading in
relics began to take off. Even before this time there were many
professionals who made a living out of buying and selling relics. Since it was extremely hard to verify the authenticity of the relics
(there were no DNA-tests or carbon-14 tests in the Middle Ages!) the trade was a
goldmine for all fakers and forgers. This
was particularly the case after 1204, when the fourth Crusade captured
Constantinople, which had perhaps the largest collection of relics in Christendom. The
Constantinople relics found their way into churches all over Europe.
The only way of
guaranteeing yourself a widely acknowledged, 'authentic' relic was to steal
one. Many of the most famous pilgrimage sites in Europe included stolen
relics in their collection. The theft was easily justified. Often the idea
for the theft came in the form of a dream or vision, which was widely
considered to be the way God and saints communicated . Often the saint
itself decided. If the saint allowed itself to be taken without punishing
the thieves and if the saint continued to produce miracles, then clearly he
or she was happy in their new home.
But there was only really a problem for the Church when two shrines
claimed to have the same relic (in the 11th century, there were at least
three heads of John the Baptist in circulation and this was true of a number
of equally 'unique' relics) or when a church claimed to have a relic of
obviously questionable validity. This was particularly the case with bodily
relics of Christ. His adult body was, of course, resurrected to heaven,
leaving no bones for collectors to hoard. But there were parts of his body
separated from his body, that did remain on earth. There were multiple
copies of everything imaginable, from umbilical cords, to milk teeth, all
over Europe.
In the 11th century, the popes' private chapels in Rome contained the
umbilical cord and foreskin of Christ in a gold and jewelled crucifix and
preserved in oil, along with the following impressive list of relics: a
piece of the true cross, the heads of the saints Peter and Paul, the ark of
the covenant, the tablets of Moses, the rod of Aaron, a golden urn of manna,
the tunic of the Virgin, various pieces of clothing worn by John the Baptist
including his hair shirt, the five loaves and two fishes which fed the five
thousand and the table used at the Last Supper. (Sumption: 222-3) Relics
were big business!
Reliquaries
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As long as a relic was
never moved or never stolen, there was less of a problem in guaranteeing the
authenticity of the relic. In 1215, the Church decided that to minimize
theft, all relics should be stored and displayed in a special box, a
'reliquary'. In 1255, it was further decided that under no account should
relics be removed from reliquaries. Reliquaries had
existed long before the 13th century. The earliest reliquaries of
body-relics reflected the belief that the medieval belief that the
saint actually inhabited the church where their relics were kept.
These statue-reliquaries originated in southern France in the 10th
century. The statue of St. Foy in Conques is a particularly good
example. It is made of gold and is covered in precious stones. (see
left)
It illustrates the extent to which
churches were prepared to compete with rival pilgrimage sites.
Pilgrims expected to be impressed by the quality of the reliquary. If
a reliquary was beautifully made by the finest craftsmen, out of the
most precious materials, it not only represented the power of the
saint, it also meant that lots of previous pilgrims had been impressed
with the saint's power. The tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury was
completed at enormous expense in 1220. When Henry VIII closed the
monasteries during the English Reformation, the jewels and precious
metals from the tomb of St. Thomas alone filled 26 carts!
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(above) Statue-reliquary
of St. Foy at Conques, France |
Other religious memorabilia
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Apart from the relics and magnificent
reliquaries, the pilgrimage churches found other ways to commemorate
the miracles of their saints. Artists might be commissioned to paint
murals on the walls of the church that described the story of the
saints. Churches also had sculptures and tapestries that told the
stories of the miracles. In a society where few could read or write,
pictorial communication was vital. |
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(Above) A detail
from Bourges cathedral France showing the Last Judgement. |
Many of artistic riches of the churches
came from grateful pilgrims as offerings of their thanks. Perhaps
the strangest way of thanking the saint, involved the pilgrim making a
wax model to represent the part of the body that had been miraculously
healed. Churches encouraged this tradition because, as with the
magnificent reliquaries, the exhibited wax body parts were proof of
previous miracles. Sometimes these offerings of proof could be a
little bit gory: Henry of Maldon's tapeworm was hung on the altar
of Canterbury cathedral, alongside a real finger of the shepherd
who hoped that St. Thomas would help him grow another!
In general, shrines expected to receive more useful offerings from
their pilgrims. Pilgrims were expected to offer as much money or
jewels as they could afford. The miracle stories were full of accounts
which told of the dreadful consequences of failing to be appropriately
generous. One
lady pilgrim who left the basilica of Conques with a valuable ring on
her finger, became suddenly ill and was only cured when the monks
thoughtfully removed the ring and placed it in their treasury.
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the most famous of this type of story concerned Sir Jordan Fitz- Eisulf; a
story told through the stained class at Canterbury (see right). Having been saved
from the plague by drinking the holy water of St Thomas, Fitz-Eisulf
collected four silver coins as an offering to the saint. When he
failed to give the coins to the shrine as promised, the plague returned and killed his
oldest son. In the stained glass, Fitz-Eisulf can be seen pouring a
big sack, full of coins over the shrine. |
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(Above) St Thomas
appears from above spreading the plague amongst the family of
Fitz-Eisulf. |
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