Reliquary theca with relics of Blessed Stephen Bellesini

Round silver glass-fronted reliquary theca dating to 1920's housing first class ex ossibus (from the bone) relics of Blessed Stephen Bellesini. The relics are affixed to a red silk background and identified on a typographic cedula as B. Stephani Bellesini (Blessed Stephen Bellesini). On the back, under a protective cap, the theca is protected by a seal of red wax with a hardly visible imprint of a coat of arms of a Roman Catholic Church bishop.

Blessed Stephen Bellesini (†1840) was an Italian friar in the Order of the Hermits of St Augustine (OSA). He was a great champion of the education of youth and was beatified by Pope St Pius X, on December 27, 1904, and his Feast Day is February 3. There is the Blessed Stephen Bellesini OSA Academy, in collaboration with Merrimack College in Massachusetts, USA.