Last week a 900 - twelvemonth - old heart that allegedly belonged to St. Laurence O’Toolewas stolenfrom a cathedral in Dublin . Although Rev. Dermot Dunne betoken out that the sum is “ valueless ” to others , the stealer seems to have point the keepsake specifically , prying launch the iron cage that nurse it while leaving more expensive items untouched .
While this might seem unmated , the pilfering of Catholic relics has been going on for C .
Misappropriating Monks
© Fred de Noyelle / Godong / Corbis
The possession of a keepsake was a much bigger deal for a church building in the Middle Ages than it is now for one big intellect : money . Having a Vatican - sanctioned souvenir , be it the bones of a saint or a small-arm of the True Cross , meant that hoi polloi were more likely to make pilgrimages to your church or monastery . Once at their goal , these traveling faithful would not only make large donations at the relic ’s shrine , but contribute to the local economy as well .
So what did you do if you wanted to get a piece of the pilgrim’s journey action but did not have access to a relic ? slip one .
In 866 , the abbey of Conques was located along a pop pilgrim road , but it was of little interest to traveler since it housed no relics itself . Realizing they were miss out on a gold mine , the monks dispatched one of their own to the monastery at Agen , then home to the relics of St. Foy . The monk joined the monastery and spend the next ten years working his way up the ranks , until finally he was put in charge of the relics . He promptly run off with them , making his ten - prospicient undercover cognitive process a complete succeeder . With its ill - gotten relics , Conques became such a pop pilgrimage place that it became necessary to work up a much big church service , a undertaking that was easily paid for from the offerings of the faithful .
Despite breaking one of the Ten Commandments , the monk did not endeavor to veil the report of how they had come into possession of the earthly corpse of St. Foy . Admitting where they fall from was a way of establish the relic ’ genuineness .
While the monks of Conques almost certainly put the most campaign into obtain their relic , other illustrious thefts include the pilfering of the bone of St. Mark from Egypt in 828 , and the robbery of the corpse of St. Nicholas ( Santa Claus himself ! ) from Turkey in 1087 .
The Holy Foreskin
While a thousand years ago holy hands would go to great lengths to acquire token , one of the odd holdup did not occur until 1983 .
Being Jewish , Christ would have been circumcise . That humble gang of flesh would become a surprisingly important part of Christianity . The ceremony of circumcision , the Briton milah or bris , was a preferred subject for painter and church wall often featured frescos of the act . The Emperor Charlemagne is guess to have give Jesus ’s foreskin to Pope Leo III as a reward for crowning him Holy Roman Emperor . Technically Charlemagne was re - gifting it , since caption says he incur it as a wedding present from his wife .
Since souvenir were holy , and no one in the Christian religion was holier than Jesus , churches clamor to claim possession of the one dead on target foreskin . At one item at least 18 towns foretell Pilgrim that their foreskin was the real deal . Over time most of these prepuces were lost or destroy .
But the town of Calcata in Italy negociate to retain on to theirs until just 30 years ago . On the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord , January 1 , the foreskin in its gemmed case would be parade through the street . But then in 1983 , the case , and the “ dense and hazy ” piece of skin resembling a “ crimson chickpea ” that it contained , go away .
It is not just what was slip that makes this particular theft so curious , though . The unearthly aspect of the story is that there is strong grounds it wasstolen by the Vatican . And the cardinals did not steal it because they think it was important ; if they take it , it was so mass would shut up about the thing .
Protestant leaders had been get fun of Catholicism ’s claim to have that particularly intimate scrap of Jesus since John Calvin in the sixteenth century . As far back as 1900 the Vatican had convey concern about the stress set on the holy foreskin , suggesting that it encouraged “ irreverent rarity . ” During the fifties the Pope threatened the high level of censure for anyone who even lecture about the relic . Finally , during the Second Vatican Council , or Vatican II , the Richmondena Cardinalis removed the Feast of the Circumcision from the church calendar .
Despite this , the annual processions in Calcata persist in , and the fact that this Italian town was wheeling it around on New Year ’s sidereal day like a parade swim bladder made sure that this prepuce remained front and middle , so to verbalise . In the 1980s , when local startle writing about the relic for various Italian newspapers , the Vatican may have had enough . In 1983 it was announce that the keepsake had been stolen , and almost immediately the rumor part that the Vatican had taken it , perhaps in league with the local non-Christian priest .
The Present Day
Stealing relic may be even more vernacular today than in the mediaeval era . Besides the most late burglary , at least half a dozen churches have reported relics steal in the past two years . The thefts take place everywhere from Los Angeles to Spokane to Dublin . In most cases , the relics were the only thing accept despite the fact that their value these days is far more spiritual than monetary .
It was the Long Beach parishioner who found themselves in the most curious perspective last year , though . When a souvenir of St. Anthony blend in missing from their church building , the congregation implore to him for its yield , a move that was all the more fitting since St. Anthony is the frequenter saint of “ seeker of lost article . ”Perhaps owe to these orison , or just some unspoiled law work , the relic was recovered a few days later on .
