1852 Vatican Documented Silver Reliquary with Relic of the True Cross of Christ
Ornate oval glass-fronted silver reliquary theca set within an elaborate openwork silver-filigree pendant frame and housing a particle from the Wood of the True Cross of Christ. The Holy relics are arranged in cruciform shape upon a white paper cross displayed against golden silk within radiating metallic ornament and identified in Latin on a manuscript cedula label as “S. Crucis D.” (Holy Cross of [Our] Lord [Jesus Christ]). On the back, the theca is secured with red silk cords and a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of the coat of arms of Bishop Fr. Giuseppe Maria Pietro Raffaele Castellani, O.E.S.A. (†1854), Titular Bishop of Porphyreon (1839–1854), Prefect of the Apostolic Sacristy, Domestic Prelate of His Holiness, and Assistant at the Papal Throne. The theca is accompanied by the matching authentics document issued in Rome on March 31, 1852, by Bishop Castellani. The document identifies the relic as a sacred relic ex Ligno Sanctissimae Crucis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (“from the Wood of the Most Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ”) and retains the bishop’s printed coat of arms and large impressed ecclesiastical seal.
The True Cross is the name given to physical remnants traditionally believed to derive from the cross upon which Christ was crucified. According to Church tradition, Empress Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, discovered the Cross during her pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 326–328. Relics of the sacred wood were subsequently divided and distributed throughout the Christian world. By the mid-fourth century, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem observed that pieces of the Cross had already spread across the world. Numerous fragments preserved in Western Europe were brought from Constantinople following its capture during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated on September 14.
