Relics outside Spain

[Roland49]

In my rehab after my heart-attack I had the chance to visit the city of Halberstadt with it's known cathedral and cathedrals treasure. Very interesting place to learn a lot of medieval middle Europe and the pilgrimages many people did in those times.

There were also two arm-relics of the Saint James the older (Saint James or Santiago) and Saint James the younger (maior and minor) on display, so the town of Halberstadt was a place of pilgrimage in central germany, too.

 

[NorthernLight]

I ended the European Peace Walk by continuing on and ending at San Marco’s Basilica in Venice, wherein reside the relics of St Mark. I believe some relics of Mohammed were on display in Topkapi palace in Istanbul once upon a time. And the temple in Kandy, Sri Lanka has one of the Buddha’s teeth.

Sadly there was a thriving forgeries business in the middle ages wherein the putative bits and pieces of various saints were sold and then displayed. I guess they still focus one’s thoughts.

 

[Bradypus]

Sadly there was a thriving forgeries business in the middle ages wherein the putative bits and pieces of various saints were sold and then displayed. I guess they still focus one’s thoughts.

The most striking example might have been the Holy Foreskin. As Jesus ascended bodily into heaven only bits that would normally be lost during a lifetime could be physical relics. And he was a Jewish boy. The Wikipedia article on it says "According to Farley, "Depending on what you read, there were eight, twelve, fourteen, or even 18 different holy foreskins in various European towns during the Middle Ages." Including one in Santiago.

 

[SabsP]

Alleged relic of St James in Oignies, Namur ( Belgium ).

Pied-reliquaire de saint Jacques le Majeur | Patrimoine FRB

oignies.collectionkbf.be

Will have to search in my archives for the older ( paper version ) magazines of the Flemish Confraternity of St James. I think I remember an article on relics.


For those who want to read more about relics in general.

The History Of Relics And Why They Matter

The early Church Fathers were unanimous in their approval of the veneration of relics. However, they were careful to note that the veneration of relics is not the worship that is due only to God, but a lesser form of honor.

www.coraevans.com

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/relc/hd_relc.htm

 

[rappahannock_rev]

Believe it or not!

The hand of St James is now on show in Reading - Wokingham.Today

THE MUMMIFIED Hand of St James is making a return to Reading, and it has inspired a new campaign to help the town reclaim its heritage. Yesterday, the ancient relic, which attracted pilgrims to the area in medieval times, was put on display by St James’ Church in the Abbey Quarter for people to see

wokingham.today

 

[Jeff Crawley]

The most striking example might have been the Holy Foreskin. As Jesus ascended bodily into heaven only bits that would normally be lost during a lifetime could be physical relics. And he was a Jewish boy. The Wikipedia article on it says "According to Farley, "Depending on what you read, there were eight, twelve, fourteen, or even 18 different holy foreskins in various European towns during the Middle Ages." Including one in Santiago.

Sounds a bit like the Holy Gourd (Monty Python's Life of Brian) to me!

 

[Bradypus]

Sounds a bit like the Holy Gourd (Monty Python's Life of Brian) to me!

Much smaller

 

[sillydoll]

In 2015 I put a post on Facebook listing the numerous places in Europe that claimed to have a relic of St James the Greater. Santiago wasn't the first town to claim a relic of Saint James - various relics had been around for almost 300 hundred years before he was identified in Spain.

“In France alone, there were three tombs containing his body, nine heads and numerous limbs. In 1354 the Saint-Sernin basilica in Toulouse was home to the head and the body of St. Jacques le Majeur.” www.saint-jacques.info/anglais/spotlights.htm

“In 1385 the body of St. Jacques was transferred to a luxurious arch-shaped church. It was the most magnificent reliquary of the church after that of St. Saturnin.” http://ultreia.pagesperso-orange.fr/toulouse.htm

In his book “The Cult of Santiago: traditions, myths and pilgrimages” (1927) the Rev. James S. Stone writes about the many relics of St James found in Europe.
“In addition to the body at Compostella, a body in St. Sernin at Toulouse and another in the church at Zibili near Milan are equally authentic. There are two of his heads in Venice - one in St. George's church, and the other in the monastery of St. Philip and St. James. A head can be found in Valencia, a fourth head at Amalfi, a fifth head at St. Vaast in Artois as well as part of a head at Pistoja. In the Church of the Apostles in Rome are preserved a piece of the Apostle's skull and some of his blood. There are bones, hands, and arms in Sicily, on the island of Capri, at Pavia, in Bavaria, at Liege and Cologne, in Segovia, Burgos and elsewhere.”
According to Armenian tradition, the head of James the Greater is buried in the church of Saint James the Less in Jerusalem and only his body is in Santiago. On the left side of the church, opposite one of the four square piers supporting the vaulted ceiling, is its most important shrine, the small Chapel of St James the Greater. A piece of red marble in front of the altar marks the place where his head is buried, on the reputed site of his beheading. (Church of St James the Less in Jerusalem)


Even America has a piece of the true cross and a Sant Iago relic. St James the Less Catholic Church in Wisconsin houses a great collection of relics: “The most precious relics we have are those of the true cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of St. James the Less, our Patron. Just a few of the other relics are: ….and St. James the Great, Apostle.”

 

[Paladina]

The most striking example might have been the Holy Foreskin. As Jesus ascended bodily into heaven only bits that would normally be lost during a lifetime could be physical relics. And he was a Jewish boy. The Wikipedia article on it says "According to Farley, "Depending on what you read, there were eight, twelve, fourteen, or even 18 different holy foreskins in various European towns during the Middle Ages." Including one in Santiago.

In addition to the foreskin of Christ, there were innumerable phials of the Virgin Mary's breast milk. I'd never credited Calvin with a sense of humour until I read his wry comment that all the cows in the state could not have produced the volume of milk expressed by the Holy nursing mother. A medieval milk lake?

 

[henrythedog]

On the streets of Bethlehem even now you can buy guaranteed-authentic crowns of thorns by the container-load. I bought one for my mother, but she was surprisingly reluctant to wear it. I was tempted by the complete set of Joseph’s chisels on offer at a reasonable price.

I suppose the value in these things is faith and what harm is there in a logically three (correction - four thanks @sillydoll )-headed St James if it allows multiple congregations to express their devotion?

 

[sillydoll]

According to different traditions, no fewer than four locations lay claim to the murdered saint’s head. In Damascus, Syria, the Umayyad Mosque was built in the eighth century A.D. on the site of a Christian church named for John the Baptist; his head is said to be buried in a shrine there. A skull identified as the head of John the Baptist is on display at the Church of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome, built to house artifacts from the Roman catacombs. The 13th-century cathedral in Amiens, France was built specifically to house the head of John the Baptist, which a Crusader supposedly brought back from Constantinople in 1206. And in Munich, Germany, the Residenz Museum includes John’s skull among a number of relics collected by Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria with the Pope’s permission in the mid-16th century. The skull is also the main relic in the church at St Jean de Angely in the south of France.