Round gilt metal reliquary theca housing the first-class-class ex pulvere corporis (small particles from the body) relics of Saint John of the Cross. The relic is affixed to a red silk ground and identified in Latin on a typeset cedula label as S. Ioannis de Cruce. / Eccl. Doctoris (Saint John of the Cross, Ecclesiastic Doctor of the Church). On the back, under a protective cap, the theca is secured with a partial seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of the Discalced Carmelites order. The relic is accompanied by an original matching authentics document issued in 2001 and signed by Fr. Ildefonso Moriones, the Postulator General of the Carmelite Order.
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.