Round white-metal glass-fronted reliquary theca housing the first-class ex ossibus (of the bone) relic of the 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. Joannis a Cr. Doct. (Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church). On the back, under a protective cap, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (known as the Order of Discalced Carmelites). The relic is accompanied by the original matching authentics document issued and sealed in 1954 by the Postulator General of the 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. Patron of Contemplative life; contemplatives; mystical theology; mystics; and Spanish poets.