1929 Documented facsimile relic of the Holy Nail of Jesus Christ from the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem in Rome
A facsimile third-class touch relic of the Holy Nail of Jesus Christ, certified by a paper seal bearing an imprint of the Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome.
The relic is accompanied by the original matching authentics document stating the following:
We do and testify to all who will inspect these present letters, that this iron nail, tied with a red silk ribbon secured with our small seal, was placed next to the sacred Nail which is preserved among us Cistercians in the inner chapel of the sacred relics of the Basilica of the Holy Cross In Jerusalem, and which is one of those with which Our Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to the Cross; and that the same was so skillfully crafted that it appears very similar. In the faith we have sealed these present letters with our seal. This document is issued in Rome in our Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem on July 10, 1929.
The reliquary is suitable for private and public veneration.
Relics that are claimed to be the Holy Nails with which Jesus was crucified are objects of veneration among some Christians, particularly Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox. In Christian symbolism and art they figure among the Arma Christi or Instruments of the Passion, the objects associated with the Passion of Jesus. Socrates of Constantinople, The fifth-century Byzantine Church historian, wrote in his Ecclesiastical History, which was finished shortly after 439, that after Constantine was proclaimed Caesar and then Emperor, he ordered that all honor be paid to his mother Helena, to make up for the neglect paid her by her former husband, Constantius Chlorus. After her conversion to Christianity, Constantine sent her on a quest to find the cross and nails used to crucify Jesus. A Jew called Judas (in later retellings further called Judas Cyriacus) led her to the place where they were buried. Several miracles were claimed to prove the authenticity of these holy items, and Helena returned with a piece of the Cross and the Nails.
The Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem (Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme) is a Roman Catholic basilica and titular church in Rome, Italy that is considered one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. According to Christian tradition, the basilica was consecrated circa 325 to house the relics of the Passion of Jesus Christ brought to Rome from the Holy Land by Empress Helena, mother of Roman Emperor Constantine I. Several famous relics are housed in the Cappella delle Reliquie of the Basilica, including a significant part of the Titulus Crucis; two Holy Thorns of the Crown of Thorns; a fragment (the spike) of the Holy Nail; the index finger of St. Thomas; and three relics from the Wood of the True Cross.




