Round gilt metal reliquary theca housing precious and rare first-class de corpore (from the body) relics of Saint John of the Cross. The relic is identified in Latin on a typeset cedula label as S. Joannis a Cr. / Doct. (St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church). On the back, under a protective cap, the theca is secured with a perfectly-preserved seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of the Carmelite order. The relic is accompanied by an original matching authentics document issued and signed by Fre. John a Jesus Maria, Postulator General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites in 1953.
Saint John of the Cross, O.C.D. (†1591), was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic saint, a Carmelite friar, and a priest. He is and he is one of the thirty-six Doctors of the Church and venerated as a Patron of Contemplative life; contemplatives; mystical theology; mystics; and Spanish poets.