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According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James seems to be the earliest that mentions them. The mother of Mary is mentioned but not named in the Quran.
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, shamanism, and many other religions. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.
The Holy Prepuce, or Holy Foreskin, is one of several relics attributed to Jesus, a product of the circumcision of Jesus. At various points in history, a number of churches in Europe have claimed to possess Jesus's foreskin, sometimes at the same time. Various miraculous powers have been ascribed to it.
A number of alleged relics associated with Jesus have been displayed throughout the history of Christianity. While some individuals believe in the authenticity of Jesus relics, others doubt their validity. For instance, the sixteenth-century philosopher Erasmus wrote about the proliferation of relics, and the number of buildings that could be constructed from wooden relics claimed to be from the crucifixion cross of Jesus. Similarly, at least thirty Holy Nails were venerated as relics across Europe in the early 20th century. Part of the relics are included in the so-called Arma Christi, or the Instruments of the Passion.
According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the instruments of the Passion, employed by Jesus' captors both to cause him pain and to mock his claim of authority. It is mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John, and is often alluded to by the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen and others, along with being referenced in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter.
A reliquary is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a fereter, and a chapel in which it is housed a feretory.
Saint Faith or Saint Faith of Conques is a saint who is said to have been a girl or young woman of Agen in Aquitaine. Her legend recounts how she was arrested during persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire and refused to make pagan sacrifices even under torture. Saint Faith was tortured to death with a red-hot brazier. Her death is sometimes said to have occurred in the year 287 or 290, sometimes in the large-scale persecution under Diocletian beginning in 303. She is listed as "Sainte Foy, Virgin and martyr", in the martyrologies.
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Saints Digna and Emerita are venerated as saints by the Catholic Church. They were Roman maidens seized and put to the torture as Christians in the persecution of Valerian at Rome.
In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony. Translations could be accompanied by many acts, including all-night vigils and processions, often involving entire communities.
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Patrick J. Geary is an American medieval historian. He is Professor Emeritus of Western Medieval History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. From 2004 to 2011, he also held the title of Distinguished Professor of Medieval History Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Diarium Europaeum was a journal of history and current affairs founded by Martin Meyer, who wrote under the name Philemerus Irenicus Elisius. It was published between 1659 and 1683 in 45 volumes, and later renamed Allgemeine Schau-Bühne der Welt. Wilhelm Serlin served as publisher from the journal's inception until Serlin's death.
According to the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, after attaining parinirvana, the body of Buddha was cremated and the ashes divided among his lay followers.
Saint Sanctinus of Meaux was a Gallo-Roman bishop and missionary, traditionally named as the first bishop of Meaux and also of Verdun.
The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France, was a popular stop for pilgrims traveling the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain. The main draw for medieval pilgrims at Conques were the remains of Sainte-Foy, a young woman martyred during the fourth century. The relics of Sainte-Foy arrived in Conques through theft in 866. After unsuccessful attempts to acquire the relics of Saint Vincent of Saragossa and then the relics of St. Vincent Pompejac in Agen, the abbey authorities set their sights on the relics of Sainte-Foy at the ancient St. Faith's Church, Sélestat. The Conques abbey opened a priory next to the shrine in Sélestat. A monk from Conques posed as a loyal monk in Agen for nearly a decade in order to get close enough to the relics to steal them. The abbey church is a listed monument since 1840.
Alfred, son of Westou was a medieval English priest and relic collector, active in Northumberland. He is now best known for allegedly stealing the remains of Bede and bringing them in secret to the shrine of St Cuthbert in Durham, although some modern scholars consider this unlikely. He is also documented as having translated the remains of Boisil of Melrose Abbey, as well as numerous northern English minor saints of the 7th and 8th centuries: the anchorites Balther and Bilfrid; Acca, Alchmund and Eata, bishops of Hexham; Oswin, king of Deira; and the abbesses Ebba and Æthelgitha. He served as the sacristan at Cuthbert's shrine under three bishops, and was renowned for his devotion to the saint.
House-shaped shrine are early medieval portable metal reliquary formed in the shape of the roof of a rectangular building. They originate from both Ireland and Scotland and mostly date from the 8th or 9th centuries. Typical example consist of a wooden core covered with silver and copper alloy plates, and were built to hold relics of saints or martyrs from the early Church era; a number held corporeal remains when found in the modern period, presumably they were parts of the saint's body. Others, including the Breac Maodhóg, held manuscripts associated with the commemorated saint. Like many Insular shrines, they were heavily reworked and embellished in the centuries following their initial construction, often with metal adornments or figures influenced by Romanesque sculpture.
References
- ↑ Geary, Patrick J. (2011). Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages - Revised Edition. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-2020-7.
- ↑ Galdi, Amalia (2020). "Furta sacra in southern Italy in the Middle Ages". In Pazos, Antón M. (ed.). Relics, Shrines and Pilgrimages: Sanctity in Europe from Late Antiquity (1 ed.). Routledge. 146-163 at 147. doi:10.4324/9780429198908-11. ISBN 978-0-429-19890-8. S2CID 216219413.
- ↑ Weakland, John E. (1994). "Furta Sacra". History of European Ideas. 18 (1): 107–109. doi:10.1016/0191-6599(94)90155-4. ISSN 0191-6599.
- ↑ Ashley, Kathleen; Sheingorn, Pamela (1992). "An Unsentimental View of Ritual in the Middle Ages Or, Sainte Foy was no Snow White". Journal of Ritual Studies. 6 (1). pp. 63–85, at p. 69. ISSN 0890-1112. JSTOR 44398527.