Reliquary

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about containers for relics. For the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child novel, see Reliquary (novel).
Reliquary Shrine, French, c. 1325–50, The Cloisters, New York
Inside the shrine of St. Boniface of Dokkum in the hermit-church of Warfhuizen in the Netherlands. The little folded paper on the left contains a bone fragment of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the folded paper on the right a piece of the habit of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The large bone in the middle (about 5 cm in length) is the actual relic of St. Boniface.

A reliquary (also referred to as a shrine, by the French term châsse, and historically also a type of phylactery[1]) is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a fereter, and a chapel in which it is housed a feretory or feretery.[2]

Relics may be the purported or actual physical remains of saints
, and may comprise bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or with other religious figures. The authenticity of any given relic is often a matter of debate; for that reason, some churches require documentation of a relic's provenance.

Relics have long been important to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, and to followers of many other religions.[3][4][5] These cultures often display reliquaries in shrines, churches, or temples to which the faithful make pilgrimages to gain blessings.

The term is sometimes used loosely for containers for the body parts of non-religious figures; in particular, the

kings of France
often specified that their hearts and sometimes other organs be buried in a different location from their main burial.

In Christianity

Reliquary Cross, French, c. 1180
Domnach Airgid, Irish, 8th–9th century, added to 14th century, 15th century, and after

The use of reliquaries became an important part of

Anglican Churches. Reliquaries provide a means of protecting and displaying relics. While frequently taking the form of caskets,[6] they range in size from simple pendants or rings to very elaborate ossuaries
.

The relics were enshrined in containers crafted of or covered with gold, silver, gems, and enamel.[6] Ivory was widely used in the Middle Ages for reliquaries; its pure white color is an indication of the holy status of its contents.[7] These objects constituted a major form of artistic production across Europe and Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages.

Many were designed with portability in mind, often being exhibited in public or carried in

Second Council of Nicea
).

Sixteenth-century reformers such as

Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian countries. Post-Reformation reliquaries have tended to take the form of glass-sided caskets to display relics such as the bodies of saints.[citation needed
]

Forms

Franco-Flemish Gothic philatory for a finger bone, late 15th century, Walters Art Museum

The earliest reliquaries were essentially boxes, either simply box-shaped or based on an architectural design, taking the form of a model of a church with a pitched roof. These latter are known by the French term

champlevé enamel. Limoges
was the largest production centre; NB the English usage differs from that of the French châsse, which denotes large size rather than shape.

Relics of the True Cross became very popular from the 9th century onward and were housed in magnificent gold and silver cross-shaped reliquaries decorated with enamels and precious stones. From about the end of the 10th century, reliquaries in the shape of the relics they housed also became popular; hence, for instance, the skull of Pope Alexander I was housed in a head-shaped reliquary. Similarly, the bones of saints were often housed in reliquaries that recalled the shape of the original body part, such as an arm or a foot.

Many

Eastern Orthodox reliquaries housing tiny pieces of relics have circular or cylindrical slots in which small disks of wax-mastic are placed, in which the actual relic is embedded.[8]

A philatory is a transparent reliquary designed to contain and exhibit the

effigies
and relics of a saint.

During the later Middle Ages, the monstrance form, primarily used for consecrated hosts, was sometimes used for reliquaries. These housed the relic in a rock crystal, or glass capsule mounted on a column above a base, enabling the relic to be displayed to the faithful. Reliquaries in the form of large pieces of metalwork jewellery also appeared around this time, housing tiny relics such as pieces of the Holy Thorn, notably the Holy Thorn Reliquary now in the British Museum.

St. Taurin
The Arm reliquary of Margaret of Castell
Head reliquary
Icon
of St. Guriy of Kazan, with a relic embedded in it (19th century).

In Buddhism

Buddhist reliquary in Kanishka Stupa
Buddhist reliquary, Song dynasty

In Buddhism,

tō
.

Two famous very early excavated reliquaries are the 1st-century

Sariputta and Moggallana
are also highly revered.

In Buddhism, relics are known as cetiya; one of the most significant is the relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka. In Japan, Buddhist relics are known as shari (舎利, śarīra), and are often stored in a shariden (舎利殿, relic hall, reliquary). (See also: Japanese Buddhist architecture)

See also

References

  1. OCLC 8182124165
    .
  2. ^ "feretery". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ "Two Gandhāran Reliquaries". K. Walton Dobbins. East and West, 18 (1968), pp. 151–162.
  4. ^ The Stūpa and Vihāra of Kanishka I. K. Walton Dobbins. (1971). The Asiatic Society of Bengal Monograph Series, Vol. XVIII. Calcutta.
  5. ^ "Is the Kaniṣka Reliquary a work from Mathurā?" Mirella Levi d’Ancona. Art Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Dec. 1949), pp. 321–323.
  6. ^ a b Boehm, Barbara Drake. "Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,(October 2001)
  7. ^ Speakman, Naomi C., "Treasures of Heaven", The British Museum, London, 2011
  8. ^ Tomov, Nikola; Dzhangozov, Januarius (Yanko). "Wax Embedding as a Method for Preservation of Body Relics Used by the Orthodox Church" (PDF). Acta Morphologica et Anthropologica. 25 (1–2): 122–125.

Further reading

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reliquary&oldid=1197830270"