View of the choir of the Sainte-Chapelle, built in Paris to house the relics collected by Saint Louis in the 13th century • ISTOCK Relics are the "remains" (from the Latin reliqua ) bodies of Christ or saints. This is not only their remains, but also everything they owned or objects they came into contact with during their lifetime or after their death. A distinction is made between corporeal relics properly speaking (a part of the saint's body) real non-corporeal relics (an object which the saint used in daily life or an instrument of his penance or of his torture) and representative relics (objects placed in contact with the bones of the saint or with his sepulchre, such as vines). Thus, at the end of the XII th century, "the water of Saint Thomas" (the English archbishop Thomas Becket, assassinated in 1170), also called "Canterbury water", was obtained by diluting drops of the saint's blood in water and preciously preserved in vials; it was used to cause miracles by application to a diseased part of the body or by absorption. Spiritual protection From the beginning of Christianity, Western Christians have venerated relics or images of the Virgin, of Christ or of a saint, sometimes a simple water-based painting on a small wooden panel that one has at home, traces of divinity, a material aid to faith and a reassuring object. The bishop of the High Middle Ages, defender of his city (defensor civitatis ), must ensure the protection of its inhabitants by ensuring the good condition of the urban enclosure, but also by multiplying the sanctuaries containing the relics of the saints, which form around the city a crown and a spiritual rampart often perceived as more effective. than the wall itself. At the end of the IX e century, Bernward, bishop of Hildesheim, succeeded in repelling the Vikings by encircling his city with walls equipped with watchtowers and erecting a chapel intended to house a relic of the Holy Cross, offered by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Germanic, Otto III. When danger threatens or when one seeks to attract divine graces to favor harvests, urban or rural communities have recourse to relics. Relics have multiple social functions. In the Middle Ages, all those who take an oath do so on the Bible or on relics. When danger threatens (plague, drought, flood, famine, war, etc.) or when one seeks to attract divine graces to promote harvests, urban or rural communities have recourse to relics. Throughout the West, during the main liturgical feasts, the relics are taken out of the various churches of the city in shrines (or reliquaries) to be carried in procession according to an official and very ritualized itinerary, and to be displayed in front of Cathedral. The faithful can go back and forth under the reliquary while praying and invoking the saint or, through an oculus pierced in the reliquary, see and sometimes touch the relics. The price of prestige The possession of relics therefore represents an immense source of prestige and, as it drains the generosity of believers, it also makes it possible to enrich oneself financially. It is understandable that churches, monasteries and monarchs had an interest in possessing prestigious ones. Around 926, Henry I st , King of Germania, receives from Rodolphe II, King of Upper Burgundy, the Holy Lance containing one of the nails of the Passion, a relic which will become one of the insignia of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1239, the King of France Louis IX (Saint Louis) acquired the Holy Crown of Thorns that Jesus wore during his Passion, two pieces of the True Cross, the blood of Christ, a stone from the Holy Sepulchre, iron of the spear which pierced the side of Jesus, the sponge which was presented to him during his agony, a fragment of the Holy Shroud and the head of Saint John the Baptist. It was to protect and venerate all these Christian relics that the King of France had the Sainte-Chapelle built in the heart of Paris, completed in 1248. Also read:The Sainte-Chapelle:and there was light... The relics also mark the routes of pilgrimage. Pilgrims who take the road to Santiago de Compostela go there to see, touch and smell the relics of the apostle. But, along the way, they can also make a stopover or make small detours, in Oviedo for example, to meditate on a Holy Nail of the Cross, a fragment of the Holy Shroud or one of the six wine amphoras remaining from the wedding at Cana. The cult of relics peaked in the 10th th -XI e century. Then, gradually, the Church became concerned about the trafficking and theft of relics, and about their possession by private persons. For many theologians, relics are indeed sacred res ("sacred things") and therefore cannot belong to an individual or a lay person. The cult of relics is also threatened by "heretics", such as the Cathars, who question anything that smacks of a materialization of the sacred. In 1215, the Council of the Lateran IV decided that the prior agreement of the pope was necessary to venerate new relics and prohibited their display outside their reliquary, no doubt to prevent this leaving the shrine from being an opportunity to make fake. In 1317, Pope John XXII requested that all shrines be placed in sacred places. Finally, with the appearance of the Reformation in the 16 th century, the cult of relics was severely condemned and mocked by Protestants, as Calvin testifies in his Traité des relics , written in 1543. Find out more • The Policy of the Relics of Constantine in Saint Louis, E. Bozóky, Beauchesne, 2007.• The Relics of Saints. Customary formation of a law, N. Herrmann-Mascard, Klincksieck, 2000.• The Theft of Relics in the Middle Ages. Furta sacra, P.J. Geary, Aubier, 1993. Timeline 335 Consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher over the presumed burial of Christ.829 Alfonso II builds a church where, according to tradition, the Apostle James is buried.1354 First mention of the Holy Shroud (the shroud of Christ), preserved in Turin since 1578.1550-1598 Philip II brings together a collection of more than 7,000 relics for his new Escorial Palace.
