(Jody Gray) while reading about people of the Middle Ages, I frequently ran across references to pilgrimages and the collection of “relics” (bones of deceased saints). I read about how parts of the body of a king were removed and buried separately from his body (heart, bowels). Not being raised Catholic, I was not familiar with these practices…
Relic [https://en.wikipedia.], in religion, usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of a saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangible memorial. A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.
In classical antiquity. In ancient Greece, a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying, the remains of a venerated hero as part of a hero cult (see, Greek hero cult).
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 them them; rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, as the tomb of Oedipus was said to protect Athens.
Tutelary deity [https://en.wikipedia.] a deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron or protector of a particular place, nation, lineage, etc.
Ancient Greece. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion: “You have often heard me speak of an oracle of sign which comes to me… This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.”
Ancient Rome. Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion… Each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection was considered particularly vital in time of war and siege… a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside the city, perhaps by the offer of superior cult at Rome… Each Roman home had a set of protective deities… The architecture of a granary featured niches for images of the tutelary deities (guardian spirit of the site)... During the Republic, the cult of local or neighborhood tutelaries sometimes became rallying points for political and social unrest.
(back to Relic) bones as relics of protection and healing… 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…
Buddhism. Relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated. After the Buddha’s death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas (hemispherical structure containing relics, used as a place of meditation) wherever Buddhism was spread. Some relics believed to be original remains of the body of the Buddha still survive, including the much-revered Sacred Relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka… Dudjom Rinpoche, after his death his physical body was moved a year later from France and placed in a stupa in one of his main monasteries near Boudhanath, Nepal in 1988. Pilgrims may view his body through a glass window in the stupa.
Christianity. One of the earliest sources that purports to show the efficacy of relics is found in 2 Kings 13:20-21: Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
Also cited is the veneration of Polycarp’s relics recorded in the Martyrdom of Polycarp (written 150-160 AD). With regard to relics that are objects, an often cited passage is Acts 19:11-12, which says that Paul’s handkerchiefs were imbued by God with healing power.
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. “The 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.” ...In an interview with Catholic News Service, Fr. Mario Conte… “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, let alone the division, of the remains of martyrs and other saints was not practiced. They were allowed to remain in their often unidentified resting places in cemeteries and the catacombs of Rome, always outside the walls of the city, but martyriums began to be built over the site of the burial, and it was considered beneficial for the soul to be buried close to the remains of saints, several large “funerary halls” being built over the sites of martyr’s graves, including Old Saint Peter’s Basilica… According to the Catholic Encyclopedia 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 gain favor with God.
The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 drew on the teaching of St. John Damascene that homage or respect is not really paid to an inanimate object, but to the holy person, and indeed the veneration of a holy person is itself honor paid to God. The Council decreed that every altar should contain a relic, making it clear that this was already the norm, as it remains to the present day in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The veneration of the relics of saints reflects a belief that the saints in heaven intercede for those on earth. A number of cures and miracles have been attributed to relics, not because of their own power, but because of the holiness of the saint they represent.
(photo, left) Relic from the shrine of Saint Boniface of Dokkum in the hermit-church of Warfhuizen: bone fragment in middle is from Saint Boniface; little folded papers on the left and right contain bone fragments of Saint Benedict of Nursia and Bernard of Clairvaux. [https://en.wikipedia.] Many tales of miracles and other marvels were attributed to relics beginning in the early centuries of the church. These became popular during the Middle Ages. These tales were collected in books of hagiography such as the Golden Legend or the works of Caesarius of Heisterbach. These miracle tales made relics much sought-after during the Middle Ages. By the late Middle Ages the collecting of, and dealing it, relics had reached enormous proportions, and had spread from the church to royalty, and they to the nobility and merchant classes.
The Council of Trent of 1563 enjoined bishops to instruct their flocks that “the holy bodies of holy martyrs… are to be venerated by the faithful, for through these [bodies] many benefits are bestowed by God on men”. The council further insisted that “in the invocation of saints, the veneration of relics and the sacred use of images, every superstition shall be removed and all filthy lucre abolished.” There are also many relics attributed to Jesus, perhaps most famously the Shroud of Turin, said to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.
The cult of Martin of Tours was very popular in Merovingian Gaul… Tours became the chief point of Christian pilgrimage in Gaul, a place of resort for the healing of the sick… Ernest Brehaut analyzed the Romano-Christian concepts that gave relics such a powerful draw… describes the uncanny, mysterious power emanating from the supernatural and affecting the natural… These points of contact and yielding are the miracles we continually hear of.
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 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 11th and 12th 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 ca. 830, are housed.
By venerating relics through visitation, gifts, and providing services, medieval Christians believed that they would acquire the protection and intercession of the sanctified dead… Instead of having to be near to a venerated saint, relics of the saint could be venerated locally. Relics are often kept on a circular decorated theca, made of gold, silver, or other metal. 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.
Economic effect. 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 the site of pilgrimage were an important source of revenue for the community who received them on behalf of the saint… “competition to acquire relics and to promote the local saint’s virtues over those of neighboring communities was keen”... 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.
Relics were used to cure the sick, to seek intercession for relief from famine or plague, to take solemn oaths, and to pressure warring factions to make peace in the presence of the sacred. Courts held relics since Merovingian times. St. Angilbert acquired for Charlemagne one of the most impressive collections in Christendom. An active market developed. Relics entered into commerce along the same trade routes followed by other portable commodities.
Canterbury was a popular destination for English pilgrims, who traveled to witness the miracle-working relics of Thomas Becket, the sainted archbishop of Canterbury who was assassinated by knights of King Henry II in 1170. After Becket’s death his successor and the Canterbury chapter quickly used his relics to promote the cult of the as-yet-uncanonized martyr. The motivations included the assertion of the Church’s independence against rulers, a desire to have an English (indeed Norman English) saint of European reputation, and the desire to promote Canterbury as a destination for pilgrimage. In the first years after Becket’s death, donations at the shrine accounted for 28% of the cathedral’s total revenues.
In art. Many churches were built along pilgrimage routes. A number in Europe were either founded or rebuilt specifically to enshrine relics, 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…
Reliquaries. were 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.
Counterfeits. Pieces of the True Cross were one of the most highly sought after 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…
Due to the existence of some 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…
Roman Catholic classification and prohibitions… First-Class Relics: items directly associated with the events of Christ’s life (manger, cross, etc.) or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, skull, a limb, etc.). Traditionally, a martyr’s relics are often more prized than the relics of other saints… (The head of St. Thomas Aquinas was removed by the monks at the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova where he died.) ...Catholic teaching prohibits relics to be divided up into small, unrecognizable parts if they are to used in liturgy (i.e., as in an altar).
Second-Class Relics: items that the saint owned or frequently used, for example, a crucifix, rosary, book, etc…
Third-Class Relics: any object that is touched to 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....
The sale or disposal by other means of relics without permission of the Apostolic See is strictly forbidden by canon 1190 of the Code of Canon Law. Relics may not be placed upon the altar for public veneration, as that is reserved for the display of the Blessed Sacrament.
(Eastern Orthodoxy)
The examination of the relics is an important step in the glorification (canonization) of new saints. Sometimes, one of the signs of sanctification is the condition of the relics of the saint. Some saints will be incorrupt, meaning that their remains do not decay under conditions when they normally would (natural mummification is not the same as incorruption). Sometimes even when the flesh does decay the bones themselves will manifest signs of sanctity. They may be honey colored or give off a sweet aroma. Some relics will exude myrrh. The absence of such manifestations is not necessarily a sign that the person is not a Saint.
Relics play a major role in the consecration of a church. The consecrating bishop will place the relics on a diskos in the church near the church that is to be consecrated, they will then be taken in a cross procession to the new church, carried three times around the new structure and then placed in the Holy Table (altar) as part of the consecration service.
The relics of saints (traditionally, always those of a martyr) are also sewn into the antimension which is given to a priest by his bishop as a means of bestowing faculties upon him (i.e., granting him permission to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries). The antimens is kept on the High Place of the Holy Table (altar), and it is forbidden to celebrate the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist) without it.
The necessity of provide relics for antimensions in new churches often necessitates continuous division of relics…
...Places can also be considered holy. When one makes a pilgrimage to a shrine he may bring back something from the place, such as soil from the Holy Land or from the grave of a saint.
List of relics. The Sandals of Jesus Christ [https://en.wikipedia.] were among the most important relics of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. They were donated to the Abbey of Prum by Pope Zachary (741-752) and Pope Stephen II (752-757). ...they are mentioned by King Pepin (the short) in the deed of 762… he is said to have received them from Rome as a gift of Pope Zachary and Pope Stephen II. Pope Zacharias had recognized Pepin’s election as king and Pope Stephen II completed the gift in 754 -the relic was the physical embodiment of the Frankish king’s legitimation by the church.
Competition. The possession of important relics was a means of sustaining church influence and status… In the 12th Century the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier became increasingly powerful and obtained a robe thought to belong to Jesus. Called the Seamless robe of Jesus [https://en.wikipedia.], it was seen as more significant than the sandals. (The robe) said to have been worn by Jesus during or shortly before his crucifixion. Competing traditions claim that the robe has been preserved to the present day. One tradition places it in Argenteuil, and several traditions claim that it is now in various Eastern Orthodox churches.
Bible passage. According to the Gospel of John, the soldiers who crucified Jesus did not divide his tunic after crucifying him… “Now the coat was without seam, woven whole from the top down (they did not tear it but cast lots for it)... According to legend, Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, discovered the seamless robe in the Holy Land in the year 327 or 328 along with several other relics, including the True Cross (see). According to different versions of the story, she either bequeathed it or sent it to the city of Trier… The history of the Trier robe is certain only from the 12th century. On 5/1/1196, Archbishop Johann I of Trier consecrated an altar in which the seamless robe was contained. It is no longer possible to determine the exact historical path the robe took to arrive there, so that many hold it to be a medieval forgery. Sections of taffeta and silk have been added to the robe, and it was dipped in a rubber solution in the 19th century in an attempt to preserve it. The few remaining original sections are not suitable for carbon dating…
The relic is normally kept folded in a reliquary and cannot be directly viewed by the faithful… According to the Argenteuil tradition, the Empress Irene made a gift of the seamless robe to Charlemagne in abou the year 800. Charlemagne gave it to his daughter Theocrate, abbess of Argenteuil, where it was preserved in the church of the Benedictines. In 1793, the parish priest, fearing that the robe would be desecrated in the French Revolution, cut the robe into pieces and hid them in separate places. Only four of the pieces remain. They were moved to the present church of Argenteuil in 1895. The earliest document referring to the robe at Argenteuil dates from 1156, written by Archbishop Hugh of Rouen. He described it, however, as the garment of the child Jesus. A long-running dispute claims that the Argenteuil cloth is actually not the seamless robe worn by Jesus during the crucifixion, but the garments woven for him by the Virgin Mary and worn his entire life. Advocates of the theory that the Argenteuil cloth is the seamless robe claim that the Trier robe is actually Jesus’s mantle (cape-like cloak). (Jody Gray) continues, Eastern traditions… (See, also, German Catholics, an 1844 display of the robe led to their secession)...
Sandals of Jesus Christ [https://en.wikipedia.] See also: Holy Chalice; Holy Grail; Holyrood (cross); Holy Sponge; Nail (relic); Shroud of Turin; Titulus Crucis; Tree of Jesse; True Cross.
True Cross [https://en.wikipedia.] is the name for physical remnants which, by a Catholic Church tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. According to post-Nicene historians such as Socrates Scholasticus, the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, travelled to the Holy Land in 326-28, founding churches and establishing relief agencies for the poor. (Historians) claimed that she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus and the two thieves… a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross.
Many churches possess fragmentary remains that are by tradition alleged to be those of the True Cross. Their authenticity is not accepted universally by those of the Christian faith and the accuracy of the reports surrounding the discovery of the True Cross is questioned by some Christians. The acceptance and belief of that part of the tradition that pertains to the early Christian Church is generally restricted to the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox churches and the Church of the East. The medieval legends that developed concerning its provenance differ between Catholic and Orthodox tradition. These churches honor Helena as a saint, as does also the Anglican Communion.
Provenance of the True Cross. The Golden Legend, 1260 AD, contains several versions of the origin of the True Cross… Voragine writes that the True Cross came from three trees which grew from three seeds from the “Tree of Mercy” which Seth (third son of Adam and Eve) collected and planted in the mouth of Adam’s corpse… the True Cross came from a tree that grew from part of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil… that Seth planted on Adam’s grave where it “endured there unto the time of Solomon”.
After many centuries, the tree was cut down and the wood used to build a bridge over which the Queen of Sheba passed, on her journey to meet King Solomon. So struck was she by the portent contained in the timber of the bridge that she fell on her knees and revered it. On her visit to Solomon, she told him that a piece of wood from the bridge would bring about the replacement of God’s Covenant with the Jewish people, by a new order. Solomon, fearing the eventual destruction of his people, had the timber buried. But after fourteen generations, the wood taken from the bridge was fashioned into the Cross used to crucify Jesus. Voragine then goes on to describe its finding by Helena…
Finding the True Cross. According to the Roman Catholic Marian Missal: St. Helen, the first Christian Empress, went to Jerusalem to try to find the True Cross. She found it 9/14/320. In the 8th century, the feast of the Finding was transferred to May 3rd, and on Sept. 14th was celebrated the “Exaltation of the Cross,” the commemoration of a victory over the Persians by Heraclius, as a result of which the relic was returned to Jerusalem.
(Jody Gray) other traditions for the Finding of the True Cross (especially, Ecclesiastical Histories)... Scholarly opinion. Historians consider these versions to be apocryphal (doubtful authenticity, fictitious) in varying degrees. It is certain, however, that the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher was completed by 335 and that alleged relics of the Cross were being venerated there by the 340s, as they are mentioned in the Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem -the “whole earth is full of relics of the Cross of Christ” *
Greek hero cult [https://en.wikipedia.] hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, “hero” refers to a man who was fighting on either side during the Trojan War. By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a dead man, venerated and propitiated at his tomb or at a designated shrine, because his fame during life or unusual manner of death gave him power to support and protect the living. A hero was more than human but less than a god, and various kinds of supernatural figures came to be assimilated to the class of heroes.
Nature of hero cult. Greek hero-cults were distinct from the clan-based ancestor worship from which they developed, in that as the city evolved, they became a civic rather than familiar affair, and in many cases none of the worshipers traced their descent back to the hero any longer; no shrine to a hero can be traced unbroken from Mycenaean times. Whereas the ancestor was purely local, the hero might be tended in more than one locality… the earliest written reference to hero-cult is attributed to Dracon, the Athenian lawgiver of the late 7th century BC, who prescribed that gods and local heroes should both be honored according to ancestral custom… The written sources emphasize the importance of heroes’ tombs and the sanctuary, where chthonic rites (offering sacrifices to deity) appeased their spirits and induced them to continue to favor the people who looked to them as founders, of whom founding myths (established the special relationship between a deity and local people, who traced their origins from a hero and authenticated their ancestral rights through the founding myth -often embody a justification for the ancient overturning of an older, archaic order, reformulating a historical event anchored in the social or natural world to valorize current community practices, creating symbolic narratives of “collective importance”. In the Greek view, the mythic past had deep roots in historic times, its legends treated as facts, its heroic protagonists seen as links between the “age of origins” and the moral, everyday world that succeeded it… not only to foundations or charter myths and genealogical trees [thus supporting family or territorial claims] but also to personal moral choices) of a ritual were related.
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Relics of Saints
(painting, left) Saint Sebastian interceding for the Plague Stricken, Josse Lieferinxe, 1497-1499, The Walters Art Museum. Saint Sebastian [https://en.wikipedia.] died c. 288 AD, was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians… commonly depicted in art and literature tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows. Despite this being the most common artistic depiction, he was, according to legend, rescued and healed by Irene of Rome. Shortly afterwards he went to Diocletian to warn him about his sins, and as a result was clubbed to death, his body thrown into the common sewer. A pious lady, called Lucina, admonished by the martyr in a vision, privately removed the body, and buried it in the catacombs at the entrance of the cemetery of Calixtus, where now stands the Basilica of St. Sebastian.
Sebastian was said to be a defense against the plague. The Golden Legend transmits the episode of a great plague that afflicted the Lombards in the time of King Gumburt, which was stopped by the erection of an altar in honor of Sebastian in the Church of Saint Peter in the Province of Pavia.
Location of remains. Remains reputed to be those of Sebastian are housed in Rome in the Basilica Apostolorum, built by Pope Damasus I in 367 on the site of the provisional tomb of Saints Peter and Paul… St. Ado, Eginard, Sigebert, and other contemporary authors relate that, in the reign of Louis Debonair, Pope Eugenius II gave the body of St. Sebastian to Hilduin, Abbot of St. Denys, who brought it into France, and it was deposited at Saint Medard Abbey, at Soissons, on 12/8/826. His cranium was brought to the town of Ebersberg (Germany) in 934. A Benedictine abbey was founded there and became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in southern Germany. It is said the silver-encased cranium was used as a cup in which to present wine to the faithful during the feast of Saint Sebastian.
The connection of the martyr shot with arrows with the plague is not an intuitive one, however. In Greco-Roman myth, Apollo, the archer god, is the deliverer from pestilence; the figure of Sebastian Christianizes this folkloric association. In Catholicism, Sebastian is the patron saint of archers, athletes, and of a holy death.
He is venerated in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. He was a popular male saint, especially among athletes.
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Marcellinus and Peter [https://en.wikipedia.] aka Peter the Exorcist; were two 4th century Christian martyrs in the city of Rome. Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist, died in the year 304, during the Diocletianic Persecution. Pope Damasus I claimed that he heard the story of these two martyrs from their executioner who became a Christian after their deaths. (he) states that they were killed at an out-of-the-way spot, so that other Christians would not have a chance to bury and venerate their bodies. They were beheaded and buried. Two women, Lucilla and Firmina, assisted by divine revelation, found the bodies and had them properly buried; near the body of St. Tiburtius on the Via Labicana in what became known as the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter.
Pope Damasus, who opened their catacombs, also remarks that he wrote a Latin epitaph with the details of their death with which he adorned their tomb. The martyrs were venerated by the early Christian Church. In the Martyrologium, their feast day is given as June 2 and their sepulcher is described as being located “at the two laurel trees” at the third mile of the Via Labicana. From the 7th century onwards, their sepulcher became a site of pilgrimage, and their feast day is recorded in local liturgies and hagiographies. Their names are mentioned in the Roman Canon. In 1253 Pope Alexander IV translated their relics to an ancient church near the present-day Via Merulana that was named after them: Santi Marcellino e Pietro. Relics associated with Marcellinus and Peter were translated to Seligenstadt in Germany in the 9th century. They were sent by Pope Gregory IV to Einhard, secretary to Charlemagne. He translated the relics to Strasburg, and then to Michlenstad; and afterwards to Malinheim or Mulinheim. In 829, Einhard built a church in honor of Marcellinus and Peter, and became its first abbot. A slightly different account states that Einhard had built a basilica at Michelstadt in 827 and then sent a servant, Ratleic, to Rome with an end to find relics for the new building. Once in Rome, Ratleic, with the help of a Roman deacon with a reputation as a relics-swindler and thief named Deusdona, robbed a catacomb of the bones of Marcellinus and Peter and had them translated to Michelstadt. Once there, the relics made it known they were unhappy with their new tomb and thus had to be moved again to Mulinheim. Once established there, they proved to be miracle workers… The cathedral of Cremona also claims their relics; there is a sarcophagus in its transept said to contain the relics of Marcellinus and Peter.
Iconography. They are generally represented as men in middle age, with tonsures and palms of martyrdom; sometimes they hold a crown each. In the catacombs named after them, a fresco dating from the 4th to 5th centuries, represents them without aureolae, with short beards, next to the Lamb of Christ. In another fresco from the 5th or 6th centuries, in the catacombs of Pontian, they are beardless and depicted alongside Saint Pollio.
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Mercia had a long tradition of venerating royal saints and this was enthusiastically supported by Æthelred and Æthelflaed. Saintly relics were believed to give supernatural legitimacy to rulers' authority...
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Legacy: Athelstan, King of the Anglo-Saxons, was one of the most pious West Saxon kings, known for collecting relics and founding churches.
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*BP: Catholicism, Practices and Terminology. http://historicalandmisc.*
*BP: Bible references, people. http://indextoblogposts.* Polycarp
*BP: Sacred Places, Pilgrimage, Relics and Visions. http://historicalandmisc.*
*BP: Religion, Cross Reference. http://indextoblogposts.*
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