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Vatican reliquary theca with relics of the True Cross, Christ's Life & Passion, the Virgin Mary & St. Joseph

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Vatican reliquary theca with relics of the True Cross, Christ's Life & Passion, the Virgin Mary & St. Joseph

A large oval glass-fronted brass pendant reliquary theca housing relics of the True Cross surrounded by 16 precious relics of Christ's Live and Passion and the Holy Family –  of the Holy Manger, Of the Holy Nativity Grotto, Of the Table of the Last Supper, of the Column of the Flagellation, of the Stone of Oblation, of the Stone of Circumcision, of the Purple Vestment, of the Sweat Cloth (Sudario), Of the Holy Whip of the Flagellation (Flagellum), of the Christ's Empty Tomb (Sepulcher), of the Site of the Last Supper, of the Christ's Sudarium, of the Veil of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of [the coat of] St. Joseph, and of the Holy House of the Virgin Mary in Loreto. The relics are affixed to a blue ground and identified in Latin on typeset cedulae labels.On the back, the theca is secured with a perfectly preserved seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of Fr. Giuseppe Maria Pietro Raffaele Castellani O.E.S.A. (†1854), Titular Bishop of Porphyreon (1839-1854), Papal Sacristan and Assistant to the Pontifical Throne of Pope Gregory XVI.

The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by the Church tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.  Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, traveled to the Holy Land in 326–28, where she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus and of two thieves, St. Dismas and Gestas, executed with him, and a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross. Fragments of the Cross were broken up, and the pieces were widely distributed; in 348, in one of his Catecheses, Cyril of Jerusalem remarked that the "whole earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ." Most of the very small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from Constantinople after the city was captured and sacked in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. They were carved up by the present bishops and divided with other very precious relics among the knights; who, after their return to the homeland, donated them to churches and monasteries.

Arma Christi ("weapons of Christ"), or the Instruments of the Passion, are the objects associated with the Passion of Jesus Christ, seen as the weapons Christ used to conquer Satan. Relics of the most important items had a long history, dating back to Empress Helena's discovery of the True Cross in the early 4th century. Relics of the Holy Lance, Holy Sponge, Holy Chalice, and nails from the cross were all venerated well before 1000 and were to proliferate in later centuries. There was a wave of newly acquired relics in the West during the Crusades and a further wave as the Instruments became featured more prominently in devotional literature and practices in the 14th century. Relics of the Passion were preserved by the Catholic Church and venerated by Christians of all denominations.

Additional Info

  • ID#: 68-RSSR-7
  • Size: 67 x 80 mm (3 x 2 1/2 inches)
  • Age: ca. mid 19th century
  • Origin: Vatican
  • Materials: brass, glass, silk, silver, paper, Spanish wax
  • Price: Price upon request
  • Orthodox Cross
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