1801 Vatican Documented Theca with Relics of the True Cross, the Tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary & St. Francis of Assisi, Founder of the Franciscans
Oval glass-fronted silver reliquary theca housing three sacred relics: a particle from the Wood of the True Cross of Christ, a pebble from the tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a first-class ex cineribus (“from the bodily ashes”) relic of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Holy relics are displayed against deep-purple silk beneath a white cross and radiating metallic ornament, identified in Latin on manuscript cedulae labels as “D.N.J.C.,” “V.M. Sepul.,” and “S. Francisci Assis.” (Our Lord Jesus Christ // From the Tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary // Saint Francis of Assisi). On the back, under the protective cap, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of the coat of arms of Bishop Fr. Giuseppe Bartolomeo Menocchio, O.E.S.A. (†1823), Titular Bishop of Porphyreon (1800–1823) and Sacristan of His Holiness Pius VII. The theca is accompanied by the matching authentics document issued in Rome on August 11, 1801, by Bishop Menocchio. The document bears a later ecclesiastical inspection and public-veneration endorsement dated July 17, 1824.
Oval glass-fronted silver reliquary theca housing three sacred relics: a particle from the Wood of the True Cross of Christ, a pebble from the tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a first-class ex cineribus (“from the bodily ashes”) relic of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Holy relics are displayed against deep-purple silk beneath a white cross and radiating metallic ornament, identified in Latin on manuscript cedulae labels as “D.N.J.C.,” “B.V.M. Sepul.,” and “S. Francisci Assis.” (Our Lord Jesus Christ // From the Tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary // Saint Francis of Assisi). On the back, under the protective cap, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of the coat of arms of Bishop Fr. Giuseppe Bartolomeo Menocchio, O.E.S.A. (†1823), Titular Bishop of Porphyreon (1800–1823) and Sacristan of His Holiness Pius VII. The theca is accompanied by the matching authentics document issued in Rome on August 11, 1801, by Bishop Menocchio. The document bears a later ecclesiastical inspection and public-veneration endorsement dated July 17, 1824.
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.
The Sepulcher of the Blessed Virgin Mary is now housed inside the Church of the Sepulcher of Saint Mary at the foot of Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem. The stone bench on which the Virgin's body was laid out, now encased in glass. The Armenian Patriarchate Armenian Apostolic Church of Jerusalem and Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem are in joint possession of the shrine.
Saint Francis of Assisi (†1226) was an Italian friar, preacher, and founder of the Order of Friars Minor. Renouncing wealth, he embraced evangelical poverty, preached peace and penance, and inspired the wider Franciscan family. In 1224, he received the stigmata at La Verna. Pope Gregory IX canonized him in 1228. Honored as the patron of animals and ecology, his feast day is October 4.
