' onMouseout='HidePop("34981")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Kanishka">Kanishka
Kanishka was a king of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia, ruling an empire extending from Bactria to large parts of northern India in the 2nd century of the common era, and famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements...
in the second century A.D. In 1909, three pieces of bone (approx 1½ in. or 3.8 cm long) were found in a crystal reliquary in a bronze casket bearing an effigy of Kanishka and an inscription recording his gift. They were removed to
MandalayMandalay is the second largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of nearly 1 million, and is the capital of Mandalay Division....
, Burma by the Earl of Minto, Viceroy and Governor General of India, in 1910, for safekeeping. They were originally kept in a stupa in Mandalay but this has become dilapidated and is used for housing. The relics are meanwhile being kept safely in a nearby monastery until funds can be found to build a new stupa to house the relics next to Mandalay Hill. The crystal reliquary holding the bones is now enclosed in a gold and ruby casket provided by Burmese devotees. The miniature gold stupa in which they were transported to Mandalay may be seen in the photo to the right of the modern ruby and gold reliquary.
A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics. Many Buddhist temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based. Today, many stupas also hold the ashes or ringsel of prominent/respected Buddhists who were
crematedCremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic chemical compounds in the form of gases and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high temperatures and vaporization....
. In rare cases the whole body is conserved, for example in the case of
Dudjom RinpocheDudjom Rinpoche is the title of a prominent line of tulkus of the Nyingmapa order of Tibetan Buddhism. The most recent Dudjom Rinpoche was born in 1904 in Southern Tibet in a region called the "hidden land" of Pema Ko. He died on January 17, 1987 at his residence in Dordogne, France...
, 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.
The Buddha's relics are considered to show people that enlightenment is possible, to remind them that the Buddha was a real person, and to also promote good virtue.
Christian relics
History of Christian relics
One of the earliest sources that purports to show the efficacy of relics is found in :
20 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 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. (NIVThe New International Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible. Published by Zondervan, in the United States it became one of the most popular modern translations made in the twentieth century.-History:...
)
These verses are cited to claim that the Holy Spirit's indwelling also affects the physical body, that God can do miracles through the bodies of His servants, or both. Also cited is the veneration of Polycarp's relics recorded in the
Martyrdom of PolycarpThe Martyrdom of Polycarp is one of the works of the Apostolic Fathers, and as such is one of the very few genuine such writings from the actual age of the persecutions. The work details Polycarp's death at the age of 86 years old, at the hands of the Romans, in the second century AD...
(written 150–160 AD). With regard to relics that are objects, an often cited passage is
ActsThe Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament. It is commonly referred to as Acts and outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
19:11–12, which says that Paul's handkerchiefs were imbued by God with healing power.
Many tales of
miracleA miracle is a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can be attempted to be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different...
s and other marvels were attributed to relics beginning in the early centuries of the church; many of these became especially popular during the Middle Ages. These tales are collected in books of
hagiographyHagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from the Greek and , refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of ecclesiastical and secular leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though...
such as the
Golden LegendThe Golden Legend is a collection of fanciful hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that became a late medieval bestseller...
or the works of
Caesar of HeisterbachCaesar of Heisterbach, also known as Caesarius of Heisterbach ca. 1180 - ca. 1240, was the prior of the former Cistercian Heisterbach Abbey, in the Siebengebirge near the little town of Oberdollendorf, Germany....
. These miracle tales made relics much sought after during the Middle Ages.
There are also many
relics attributed to JesusThroughout the history of Christianity a number of relics attributed to Jesus have been claimed and displayed. While some people believe in the authenticity of some relics, others have cast doubt on them...
, perhaps most famously the
Shroud of TurinThe Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have been physically hurt in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy...
, which is the burial
shroudShroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shroud of Turin or Tachrichim that Jews are dressed in for burial...
of Jesus Christ. Pieces of the
True CrossThe True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the actual cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which,...
were one of the most highly sought after such relics; many churches claimed to possess a piece of it, so many that
John CalvinJohn Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
famously remarked that there were enough pieces of the True Cross to build a ship from, although a study in 1870 found that put together the claimed relics weighed less than 1.7 kg (0.04m³).
"Virtus" and Daemons
In his introduction to
Gregory of ToursSaint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
, Ernest Brehaut analyzed the Romano-Christian concepts that gave relics such a powerful draw (see link). He distinguished Gregory's constant usage of
"sanctus" and
"virtus", the first with its familiar meaning of "sacred" or "holy", and the second
"… the mystic potency emanating from the person or thing that is sacred. These words have in themselves no ethical meaning and no humane implications whatever. They are the keywords of a religious technique and their content is wholly supernatural. In a practical way the second word [virtus] is the more important. It describes the uncanny, mysterious power emanating from the supernatural and affecting the natural. The manifestation of this power may be thought of as a contact between the natural and the supernatural in which the former, being an inferior reality, of course yielded. These points of contact and yielding are the miracles we continually hear of. The quality of sacredness and the mystic potency belong to spirits, in varying degrees to the faithful, and to inanimate objects. They are possessed by spirits, acquired by the faithful, and transmitted to objects."
Opposed to this holy "virtue" was also a "false" mystic potency that emanated from inhabiting
daemonsThe words daemon, dæmon, are Latinized spellings of the Greek δαίμων , used purposely today to distinguish the daemons of Ancient Greek religion, good or malevolent "supernatural beings between mortals and gods, such as inferior divinities and ghosts of dead heroes" , from the Judeo-Christian...
who were conceived of as alien and hostile. Truly holy
virtus would defeat it, but it could affect natural phenomena and effect its own kinds of miracles, deceitful and malignant ones. This "virtue" Gregory of Tours and other Christian writers associated with the devil, demons, soothsayers, magicians, pagans and pagan gods, and heretics. False
virtus inhabited images of the pagan gods, the "idols" of our museums and archaeology, and destroying it accounts for some of the righteous rage with which mobs of Christians toppled sculptures, and smashed classical bas-reliefs (particularly the faces), as our museums attest.
The transmissibility of this potency, this
virtus, is still reflected in the Roman Catholic classifications of relics in degrees, as mentioned above. By transmission, the "virtus" might be transmitted to the city. When St
MartinSaint Martin of Tours , was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela...
died, November 8,
397- Religion :* Council of Carthage: The biblical canon is definitely declared.* The Candida Casa is founded by Saint Ninian, marking the beginning of missionary work among the Picts....
, at a village halfway between Tours and Poitiers, the inhabitants of these cities were well ready to fight for his body, which the people of Tours managed to secure by stealth. The story of the purloining of St.
Nicholas of MyraSaint Nicholas is the common name for Nicholas of Myra, a saint and Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker...
is another example. The
Image of EdessaAccording to Christian legend, the Image of Edessa, , was a holy relic consisting of a square or rectangle of cloth upon which a miraculous image of the face of Jesus was imprinted — the first icon .According to the legend, King Abgar of Edessa wrote to...
was reputed to render that city impregnable.
Roman Catholic classification and prohibitions
Saint JeromeSaint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...
declared, "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are" (Ad Riparium, i, P.L., XXII, 907).
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, a limb, etc.). Traditionally, a martyr's relics are often more prized than the relics of other saints. Also, some saints' relics are known for their extraordinary incorruptibility (Human remains do not deteriorate as would normally be expected. For instance a 500 year old body that appears as though it is still in wake) and so would have high regard. Parts of the saint that were significant to that saint's life are more prized relics. For instance, King St. Stephen of Hungary's right forearm is especially important because of his status as a ruler. A famous theologian's head may be his most important relic. (The head of St. Thomas Aquinas was removed by the monks at the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova where he died). If a saint did a lot of travelling then the bones of his feet may be prized. Current Catholic teaching prohibits relics to be divided up into small, unrecognizable parts if they are to be used in liturgy (i.e, as in an altar; see the rubrics listed in Rite Of Dedication of a Church and an Altar).
Second-Class Relics : An item that the saint wore (a shirt, a glove, etc.) Also included is an item that the saint owned or frequently used, for example, a crucifix, book etc. Again, an item more important in the saint's life is thus a more important relic.
Third-Class Relics : Any object that is touched to a first- or second-class relic. Most third-class relics are small pieces of cloth.
The sale of relics is strictly forbidden by the Church. The
Code of
Canon LawCanon law is the body of laws and regulations made by or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
states:
§1190 §1 - "It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics."
§1190 §2 - "Relics of great significance and other relics honored with great reverence by the people cannot be alienated validly in any manner or transferred permanently without the permission of the Apostolic See."
Importance of Relics in Medieval Christianity
Since the beginning of
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
, individuals have seen relics as a way to come closer to the saints and thus form a closer bond with God. Since Christians during the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
often took
pilgrimageIn religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages...
s to
shrineA shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated...
s of
holy peopleSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
, relics became a large business. The pilgrims saw the purchasing of a relic as a means to bring the shrine back with him or her upon returning home in a small way, since during the Middle Ages the concept of physical proximity to the “holy” (tombs of saints or their personal objects) was considered extremely important. Instead of having to travel hundreds of miles to become near to a venerated
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
, one could venerate the relics of the saint within his or her own home.
Muslim relics
- Main article: Sacred Relics
While various relics are preserved by different Muslim communities, the most important are those known as
The Sacred TrustsThe Sacred Relics consist of Islamic religious pieces sent to the Ottoman Sultans at various times dating from the 16th century to the late 19th century....
, more than 600 pieces treasured in the
Privy ChamberThe Privy Chamber is part of the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, where the Sultans have used as office and also kept the Sacred Trusts....
of the Topkapi Palace Museum in
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
.
Muslims believe that these treasures include the sword and standard of Muhammad, a hair from his beard, and the staff of
MosesMoses was, according to biblical texts, a religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew Moses was, according to biblical texts, a...
. Most of the trusts can be seen in the museum, but the most important of them can only be seen during the month of
RamadanRamadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset...
. The Quran has been recited next to these relics uninterruptedly since they were brought to the Topkapi Palace.
Under the shimmering turquoise dome that dominates the sand-blown city [of
KandaharKandahār, also spelled Qandahār, Pashtoکندهار or قندهار is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of 324,800 . It is the capital of Kandahar province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
] lies the body of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the young Kandahari warrior who in 1747 became Afghanistan's first king. The mausoleum is covered in deep blue and white tiles behind a small grove of trees, one of which is said to cure toothache, and is a place of pilgrimage. In front of it is a small mosque with a marble vault containing one of the holiest relics in the Islamic World, a
kherqa, the Sacred Cloak of Prophet Mohammed that was given to Ahmad Shah by Mured Beg, the Emir of Bokhara. The Sacred Cloak is kept locked away, taken out only at times of great crisis
1 but the mausoleum is open and there is a constant line of men leaving their sandals at the door and shuffling through to marvel at the surprisingly long marble tomb and touch the glass case containing Ahmad Shah's brass helmet. Before leaving they bend to kiss a length of pink velvet said to be from his robe. It bears the unmistakable scent of jasmine.
-
- 1 Until Mullah Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban of Afghanistan and was Afghanistan's de facto head of state, and was recognized by three states, from 1996 to 2001, under the official title of Head of the Supreme Council...
took it out in November 1996 and displayed it to a crowd of ulema of religious scholars to have himself declared Amir-ud Momineen, Prince of all Islam, the last time had been when the city was struck by a cholera epidemic in the 1930s."
Cultural relics
Relic is also the term for something that has survived the passage of time, especially an object or custom whose original culture has disappeared, but also an object cherished for historical or memorial value (such as a keepsake or heirloom).
Relics in fiction
- The Relic by Eca De Queiros, Dedalus Ltd, UK 1994. ISBN 0-94662-694-4
- The Translation of Father Torturo by Brendan Connell, Prime Books, 2005. ISBN 0-80950-043-4
See also
- Amulet
An amulet , a close cousin of the talisman consists of any object...
- Hazratbal Shrine
The Hazratbal Shrine , is a Muslim shrine in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India. It contains a relic believed by many Muslims of kashmir to be a hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad...
- Pilgrim
A pilgrim is one who undertakes a pilgrimage, literally 'far afield'. This is traditionally a visit to a place of some religious or historic significance; often a considerable distance is traveled...
- Pilgrimage
In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages...
- Relics attributed to Jesus
Throughout the history of Christianity a number of relics attributed to Jesus have been claimed and displayed. While some people believe in the authenticity of some relics, others have cast doubt on them...
- Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral
The Shrine of the Three Kings is a reliquary said to contain the bones of the Biblical Magi, also known as the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men. The shrine is a large gilded and decorated triple sarcophagus placed above and behind the high altar of Cologne Cathedral...
- Translation (relics)
In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another...
- Veneration of the dead
Veneration of the dead is a practice based on the belief that the deceased, often family members, have a continued existence, and/or possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living...
- Contagion heuristic
The contagion heuristic is a psychological heuristic leading people to avoid contact with people or objects viewed as "contaminated" by previous contact with someone or something viewed as bad—or, less often, to seek contact with objects that have been in contact with people or things considered good...
External links
- Relics article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and it was completed in April 1914...
- Holy Relics
- Relics
- Franciscan Relics- National Shrine of St Francis of Assisi
http://www.thereseoflisieux.org/pilgrim-saint-thereserelicsont/World tour of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux