relic

In classical antiquity

In ancient Greece, a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying, the remains of a venerated hero as a part of a hero cult. Other venerable objects associated with the hero were more likely to be on display in sanctuaries, such as spears, shields, or other weaponry; chariots, ships or figureheads; furniture such as chairs or tripods; and clothing. The sanctuary of the Leucippides at Sparta claimed to display the egg of Leda.

The bones were not regarded as holding a particular power derived from the hero, with some exceptions, such as the divine shoulder of Pelops held at Olympia. Miracles and healing were not regularly attributed to them; rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, as the tomb of Oedipus was said to protect Athens.

The bones of Orestes and Theseus were supposed to have been stolen or removed from their original resting place and reburied. On the advice of the Delphic Oracle, the Spartans searched for the bones of Orestes and brought them home, without which they had been told they could not expect victory in their war against the neighboring Tegeans. Plutarch says that the Athenians were likewise instructed by the oracle to locate and steal the relics of Theseus from the Dolopians.

The body of the legendary Eurystheus was also supposed to protect Athens from enemy attack, and in Thebes, that of the prophet Amphiaraus, whose cult was oracular and healing. Plutarch narrates transferrals similar to that of Theseus for the bodies of the historical Demetrius I of Macedon and Phocion the Good. The bones or ashes of Aesculapius at Epidaurus, and of Perdiccas I at Macedon, were treated with the deepest veneration.

As with the relics of Theseus, the bones are sometimes described in literary sources as gigantic, an indication of the hero's "larger than life" status. On the basis of their reported size, it has been conjectured that such bones were those of prehistoric creatures, the startling discovery of which may have prompted the sanctifying of the site.

The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have been transported to Lesbos, where it was enshrined and visited as an oracle. The 2nd-century geographer Pausanias reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion, his place of death and a major religious center. These too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual of incubation. The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon the town of Libretha, whence the people of Dion had transferred the relics to their own keeping.

Christianity

History

One of the earliest sources that purports to show the efficacy of relics is found in 2 Kings 13:20–21:

And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites used to invade the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

Also cited is the veneration of relics from the martyr and bishop Saint Polycarp of Smyrna recorded in the Martyrdom of Polycarp, written sometime from 150 to 160 AD. With regard to relics that are objects, an often cited passage is Acts 19:11–12, which says that Paul the Apostle's handkerchiefs were imbued by God with healing power. In the gospel accounts of Jesus healing the bleeding woman and again in the Gospel of Mark 6:56, those who touched Jesus's garment were healed.

The practice of venerating relics seems to have been taken for granted by writers like Augustine, St. Ambrose, Gregory of Nyssa, St. Chrysostom, and St. Gregory Nazianzen. Dom Bernardo Cignitti, O.S.B., wrote, "[T]he remains of certain dead are surrounded with special care and veneration. This is because the mortal remains of the deceased are associated in some manner with the holiness of their souls which await reunion with their bodies in the resurrection." Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) pointed out that it was natural that people should treasure what is associated with the dead, much like the personal effects of a relative. In an interview with Catholic News Service, Fr. Mario Conte, executive editor of the Messenger of St. Anthony magazine in Padua, Italy, said, "Saints' relics help people overcome the abstract and make a connection with the holy ... Saints do not perform miracles. Only God performs miracles, but saints are intercessors."

In the early Church the disturbance of the remains of martyrs and other saints was not practiced. They were allowed to remain in their often unidentified resting places such as in cemeteries and the catacombs of Rome. These places were always outside the walls of the city, but martyriums began to be built over the site of the burial. Since it was considered beneficial to the soul to be buried close to the remains of saints, several large "funerary halls" were built over the sites of martyr's graves, including Old Saint Peter's Basilica. These were initially not regular churches, but "covered cemeteries" crammed with graves, wherein was celebrated funerary and memorial services. It may have been thought that when the souls of the martyrs went to heaven on resurrection day they would be accompanied by those interred nearby, who would thus gain favour with God.

Relics and pilgrimage

Rome became a major destination for Christian pilgrims as it was easier to access for European pilgrims than the Holy Land. Constantine the Great erected great basilicas over the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. A distinction of these sites was the presence of holy relics. Over the course of the Middle Ages, other religious structures acquired relics and became destinations for pilgrimage. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, substantial numbers of pilgrims flocked to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, in which the supposed relics of the apostle James, son of Zebedee, discovered c. 830, are housed. Santiago de Compostela remains a significant pilgrimage site, with around 200,000 pilgrims, both secular and Christian, completing the numerous pilgrimage routes to the cathedral in 2012 alone.

By venerating relics through visitation, gifts, and providing services, medieval Christians believed that they would acquire the protection and intercession of the sanctified dead. Relics of local saints drew visitors to sites like Saint Frideswide's in Oxford, and San Nicola Peregrino in Trani. Instead of having to travel to be near to a venerated saint, relics of the saint could be venerated locally.

Believers would make pilgrimages to places believed to have been sanctified by the physical presence of Christ or prominent saints, such as the site of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

As holy relics attracted pilgrims and these religious tourists needed to be housed, fed, and provided with souvenirs, relics became a source of income not only for the destinations that held them, but for the abbeys, churches, and towns en route. Relics were prized as they were portable. They could be possessed, inventoried, bequeathed, stolen, counterfeited, and smuggled. They could add value to an established site or confer significance on a new location. Offerings made at a site of pilgrimage were an important source of revenue for the community who received them on behalf of the saint.

According to Patrick Geary, "[t]o the communities fortunate enough to have a saint's remains in its church, the benefits in terms of revenue and status were enormous, and competition to acquire relics and to promote the local saint's virtues over those of neighboring communities was keen." Local clergy promoted their own patron saints in an effort to secure their own market share. On occasion guards had to watch over mortally ill holy men and women to prevent the unauthorized dismemberment of their corpses as soon as they died. Geary also suggests that the danger of someone murdering an aging holy man in order to acquire his relics was a legitimate concern.

Counterfeits

In the absence of real ways of assessing authenticity, relic-collectors became prey to the unscrupulous, and some extremely high prices were paid. Forgeries proliferated from the very beginning. Augustine already denounced impostors who wandered around disguised as monks, making a profit from the sale of spurious relics. In his Admonitio Generalis of 789, Charlemagne ordered that "the false names of martyrs and the uncertain memorials of saints should not be venerated." The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) of the Catholic Church condemned abuses such as counterfeit relics and exaggerated claims.

Pieces of the True Cross were one of the most highly sought-after of such relics; many churches claimed to possess a piece of it, so many that John Calvin famously remarked that there were enough pieces of the True Cross to build a ship from. By the middle of the 16th century, the number of relics in Christian churches became enormous, and there was practically no possibility to distinguish the authentic from the falsification, since both of them had been in the temples for centuries and were objects for worship. In 1543, John Calvin wrote about fake relics in his Treatise on Relics, in which he described the state of affairs with relics in Catholic churches. Calvin says that the saints have two or three or more bodies with arms and legs, and even a few extra limbs and heads.

Due to the existence of counterfeit relics, the Church began to regulate the use of relics. Canon Law required the authentication of relics if they were to be publicly venerated. They had to be sealed in a reliquary and accompanied by a certificate of authentication, signed and sealed by someone in the Congregation for Saints, or by the local Bishop where the saint lived. Without such authentication, relics are not to be used for public veneration. The Congregation for Saints, as part of the Roman Curia, holds the authority to verify relics in which documentation is lost or missing. The documents and reliquaries of authenticated relics are usually affixed with a wax seal.

Classifications and prohibitions in the Catholic Church

In Catholic theology, sacred relics must not be worshipped, because only God is worshipped and adored. Instead, the veneration given to them was "dulia". Saint Jerome declared, "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are."

Until 2017, the Catholic Church divided relics into three classes:

First-class relics: items directly associated with the events of Christ's life (the Manger, True Cross, etc.) or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, skull, a limb, blood, etc.). Traditionally, a martyr's relics are often more prized than the relics of other saints. Parts of the saint that were significant to their life are also more prized; King St. Stephen of Hungary's right forearm is especially important due to his status as a ruler. A famous theologian's head may be his most important relic; the head of St. Thomas Aquinas was removed by the monks at the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova where he died. If a saint travelled often, then the bones of his feet may be prized. Catholic teaching prohibits relics to be divided up into small, unrecognizable parts if they are to be used in liturgy (i.e., as in an altar; see rubrics listed in Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar).

Second-class relics: items that the saint owned or frequently used, for example, a crucifix, rosary, book, etc. Again, an item more important in the saint's life is thus a more important relic. Sometimes a second-class relic is a part of an item that the saint wore (a shirt, a glove, etc.) and is known as ex indumentis ("from the clothing").

Third-class relics: any object that has been in contact with a first- or second-class relic. Most third-class relics are small pieces of cloth, though in the first millennium oil was popular; the Monza ampullae contained oil collected from lamps burning before the major sites of Christ's life, and some reliquaries had holes for oil to be poured in and out again. Many people call the cloth touched to the bones of saints "ex brandea". But ex brandea strictly refers to pieces of clothing that were touched to the body or tombs of the apostles. It is a term that is used only for such; it is not a synonym for a third-class relic.

Evangelical-Lutheranism

After the Reformation, all of the dioceses in the Nordic-Baltic region became inherited by the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches. Among the Evangelical-Lutheran churches that house relics, the relics are viewed as not having any power in and of themselves, but as a legacy of the saints that are honored in the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches (cf. Calendar of saints (Lutheran)). In the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Sweden, the Feast Day of Saint Erik is celebrated on May 18. The liturgy at Uppsala Cathedral concludes with the congregation moving into the side chapel to venerate his relics.

The high church Evangelical-Lutheran Societas Sanctae Birgittae celebrates the Feast Day of Saint Bridget of Sweden on July 23. The relics of Saint Bridget at Vadstena Abbey are venerated by Evangelical-Lutherans belonging to the Church of Sweden, along with Roman Catholics.

Eastern Orthodoxy

The importance of relics in the Byzantine world can be seen from the veneration given to the pieces of the True Cross. Many great works of Byzantine enamel are staurothekes, or relics containing fragments of the True Cross. Other significant relics included the girdle worn by the Virgin, and pieces of the body or clothing of saints. Such relics (called contact relics, or secondary relics) were, however, scarce and did not provide most believers with ready access to proximity to the holy. The growth in the production and popularity of reproducible contact relics in the fifth and sixth centuries testifies to the need felt for more widespread access to the divine.

These contact relics usually involved the placing of readily available objects, such as pieces of cloth, clay tablets, or water then bottled for believers, in contact with a relic. Alternatively, such objects could be dipped into water which had been in contact with the relic (such as the bone of a saint). These relics, a firmly embedded part of veneration by this period, increased the availability of access to the divine but were not infinitely reproducible (an original relic was required), and still usually required believers to undertake pilgrimage or have contact with somebody who had.

The earliest recorded removal, or translation of saintly remains was that of Saint Babylas at Antioch in 354, but, partly perhaps because Constantinople lacked the many saintly graves of Rome, they soon became common in the Eastern Empire, though still prohibited in the West. The Eastern capital was therefore able to acquire the remains of Saints Timothy, Andrew and Luke, and the division of bodies also began, the 5th century theologian Theodoretus declaring that "Grace remains entire with every part." In the West, a decree of Theodosius only allowed the moving of a whole sarcophagus with its contents, but the upheavals of the barbarian invasions relaxed the rules, as remains needed to be relocated to safer places.

The veneration of relics continues to be of importance in the Eastern Orthodox Church. As a natural outgrowth of the concept in Orthodox theology of theosis, the physical bodies of the saints are considered to be transformed by divine grace—indeed, all Orthodox Christians are considered to be sanctified by living the mystical life of the Church, and especially by receiving the Sacred Mysteries (Sacraments). In the Orthodox service books, the remains of the departed faithful are referred to as "relics", and are treated with honour and respect. For this reason, the bodies of Orthodox Christians are traditionally not embalmed.

In art

Many churches were built along pilgrimage routes. A number in Europe were either founded or rebuilt specifically to enshrine relics, (such as San Marco in Venice) and to welcome and awe the large crowds of pilgrims who came to seek their help. Romanesque buildings developed passageways behind the altar to allow for the creation of several smaller chapels designed to house relics. From the exterior, this collection of small rooms is seen as a cluster of delicate, curved roofs at one end of the church, a distinctive feature of many Romanesque churches. Gothic churches featured lofty, recessed porches which provided space for statuary and the display of relics.

Historian and philosopher of art Hans Belting observed that in medieval painting, images explained the relic and served as a testament to its authenticity. In Likeness and Presence, Belting argued that the cult of relics helped to stimulate the rise of painting in medieval Europe.

Reliquaries are containers used to protect and display relics. While frequently taking the form of caskets, they have many other forms, including simulations of the relic encased within (e.g., a gilded depiction of an arm for a relic consisting of arm bones). Since the relics themselves were considered valuable, they were enshrined in containers crafted of or covered with gold, silver, gems, and enamel.

Ivory was widely used in the Middle Ages for reliquaries, its pure white color an indication of the holy status of its contents. These objects constituted a major form of artistic production across Europe and Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages.

List of claimed relics

Relics of the True Cross of Jesus are claimed by many churches around the world. The same applies to Holy Nails, Holy Sponges, Holy Lances, Holy Thorns and other Instruments of the Passion. Famous examples are the Holy Nail in the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Monza Cathedral, the Holy Lance that was part of the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, and the Holy Thorn Reliquary in the British Museum in London.

The Seamless robe of Jesus is kept in a purpose-built chapel in Trier Cathedral.

The Sandals of Jesus Christ were donated to Prüm Abbey, Germany, by popes Zachary and Stephen II in the 8th century.

The Marienschrein in Aachen Cathedral contains four important relics: the nappy and loin cloth of Jesus, the dress of Mary and the decapitation cloth of John the Baptist. The Karlsschrein in the same church contains the remains of Charlemagne, who was locally venerated as a saint.

The Girdle of Mary is kept in the Basilica of Our Lady in Maastricht, Netherlands.

The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral contains the remnants of the biblical Magi.

St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican contains Saint Peter's relics.

St Paul's relics are allegedly contained in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Wall, in Rome.

St James' relics are reputedly held at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

St Luke the Evangelist's body is held at the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua, Italy; his head, in the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague; and a rib, at his tomb in Thebes, Greece.

Feast days

In the Extraordinary Form of the Catholic Church, the Feast of the Holy Relics is celebrated on 5 November, within the Octave of All Saints Day. In the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Second Sunday of Great Lent is the Sunday of the Holy Relics and Saint Gregory Palamas.

Hinduism

In Hinduism, relics are less common than in other religions since the physical remains of most saints are cremated. The veneration of corporal relics may have originated with the śramaṇa movement or the appearance of Buddhism, and burial practices became more common after the Muslim invasions. One prominent example is the preserved body of Swami Ramanuja in a separate shrine inside Srirangam Temple. Another one is the worship of the triad of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra at the Jagannath Temple, Puri, Odisha, India.

Islam

The veneration of the relics of saints became an incredibly important part of devotional piety in both Sunni and Shia Islam throughout the classical and medieval periods, with "the ubiquity of relics and ritual practices associated with them" becoming a mainstay of "the devotional life of the Muslims ... [all over the world but particularly in] the Near East and North Africa." With the latter-day influence of the reformist movements of Salafism and Wahhabism, there is, according to some scholars, an erroneous perception which persists both among some modern Muslims and Western observers opining that "the Islamic experience['s relationship with relic-veneration] is marginal, because of the perceived absence of relics

in Islam." It is, however, evident that "the historical reality of relics in Islam" was very different, and that the classical Islamic thinkers posed various reasons for why the veneration of the relics of prophets and saints was permissible.

Relics of the prophets

While various relics are preserved by different Muslim communities, the most important are those known as The Sacred Trusts, more than 600 pieces treasured in the Privy Chamber of the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul.

Muslims believe that these treasures include:

Hair from Prophet Muhammad's beard and footprint

Sword of Ali

Sword of David

Turban of Joseph

Staff of Moses

Pot of Abraham

Forearm and hand of Yahya (John the Baptist)

Most of the trusts can be seen in the museum, but the most important of them can only be seen during the month of Ramadan. The Qur'an has been recited next to these relics uninterruptedly since they were brought to the Topkapı Palace, but Muslims do not worship these relics.

A cloak (kherqa) believed to have belonged to the prophet Mohammed is kept in the central mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. According to local history, it was given to Ahmad Shah by Mured Beg, the Emir of Bokhara. The Sacred Cloak is kept locked away, taken out only at times of great crisis. In 1996 Mullah Omar, leader of the Afghan Taliban, took it out, displayed it to a crowd of ulema (religious scholars) and was declared Amir-ul Momineen ("Commander of the Faithful"). Prior to this, the last time it had been removed had been when the city was struck by a cholera epidemic in the 1930s.

Cultural relics

Relic is also the term for something that has survived the passage of time, especially an object or custom whose original culture has disappeared, but also an object cherished for historical or memorial value (such as a keepsake or heirloom).

"Cultural relic" is a common translation for wenwu (文物), a common Chinese word that usually means "antique" but can be extended to anything, including object and monument, that is of historical and cultural value. However, this has some issues since the term wenwu has little resemblance to the English usage of "relic". In most cases, "artifact", "archaeological site", "monument", or just plain "archaeology" would be a better translation.

In fiction

The Relic by Eça de Queiroz, Dedalus Ltd, UK 1994. ISBN 0-946626-94-4

The Translation of Father Torturo by Brendan Connell, Prime Books, 2005. ISBN 0-8095-0043-4