Featured Gallileo's Finger !

From the always fascinating Atlas Obscura-
PS-I have a tiny cased Saint's Relic somewhere round here,will post when found.It's from St. John Bosco ! (we may be related if you go back far enough).

https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/...QuWWmoYTUruOurQ1kB9A3ABm6DCCq2pW7THGnOhlVM0Zq

 

Good story, but the link requires me to sign up for Yahoo.

Different link:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/galileos-middle-finger

 

Only a short while back the Vatican donated a fragment , or two, supposedly from the 'True Cross', to the church in England, to help celebrate the accession of H.M.King Charles III.

And some odd religious relics..........

http://eskify.com/10-mysterious-real-holy-relics/

 

The Atlas is a good wake-up.The NYT Crossword just pis*#* me off-jigsaw puzzles though are a good AM brain tonic,hand,eye,etc.
Religious relics are top tier in my 'Oddity Oscars' imaginary shelf.

 

I bought this interesting brass box thinking it was no more than that:


But when I opened it, it was a traveler's reliquary:


Each of those little banners has the name of a Saint, and under each banner is a tiny pouch holding a bone fragment. I listed it on eBay and it sold (for not much). I asked the buyer if he knew anything about it. He thought early 19th C, and possibly Swiss.

A couple of the pouches had been torn and the fragment missing. I wonder if some owner had consumed the relics like pills.

 

There is a supposed fragment of the Holy Cross near me, in a hamlet called Nederwetten.
There used to be a priory there in the Middle Ages, which had a fragment of the cross. The nuns were exiled during the Protestant Reformation, and the building and the fragment were sold. The fragment was sent from one church to another during the 80-years war. Half the fragment was returned to the parish church of Hooidonk/Nederwetten in 1952, the other is in another Dutch church.
So there is a fragment of that same giant cross about 20k from where I live, and I've seen it.

I have also seen countless body part relics of saints and sinners, including fingers. Not unusual in Roman Catholic regions.

 

It is lovely. I think it could have been made in Schwäbisch Gmünd, in southern Germany. So not that far from Switzerland.
From ca 1750-1850 they specialised in filigree for reliquaries and other religious items.
I have two antique filigree rosaries from Schwäbisch Gmünd.

 

Lovely piece MOS.When we were in Bruges i think they had a crystal vial of Christ's blood in one of the churches.We passed on it and went to see Michelangelo's 'Madonna of Bruges'-small and sublime.
If all these holy relics are authentic the ancient saints must have been 5 or 10 stories tall.For a bone relic fragment to be scientifically dated to first century Judea is extremely rare-most date to the Crusades.Here is one-
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org...n-the-baptist-dated-to-the-first-century-c-e/

 

I forget now where I read the story, but it relates that a skeptic was viewing the skull of a saint. When he commented that it was actually the skull of a child, the monk replied "You are right, sir. This is the skull of St. (whoeveritwas) when he was only a boy."

 

Great quip-can't remember where it came from either.I think a lot of the perfectly preserved bodies of saints were generously dunked in wax-given a primitive Lenin treatment.

 

When I was in ireland, I heard a variation on this joke, about a rich American tourist who bought the skull of Brian Boru (ancient king of Ireland), and the following year in the same shop was going to purchase the skull of Brian Boru again, but informing the seller that he had bought the skull only the year before. 'Ah, bat dat was da skol of Brion Boru, when 'e was a choild'! exclaimed the seller.
There are I believe several places that claim to have Jesus' foreskin in their possesion. And there is a quite interesting program on Discovery Channel where three or four churches and shrines have what they claim is the Holy Grail, theirs is the real Grail, all others are fakes!

As we all know, buy the item, not the story!

 

Your master... can join us in our quest for the Holy Grail.
Taunting French Guard Well I’ll ask him, but I don’t think he’ll be very keen. Ah, he’s already got one, you see!
King Arthur What?
Sir Gallahad He says they’ve already got one!
King Arthur Are you sure he’s got one?
Taunting French Guard Oh yes. It’s very nice!