Reliquary theca with relics of St. Fina (Serafina) of San Gimignano

Oval glass-fronted silvered brass pendant reliquary theca housing the first-class relics of Saint Fina.  The relics are affixed to a gilt paper starburst on the ground of silk, surrounded by silver wire ornamentation and identified in Latin on manuscript cedula label as Ex Vertib: et Ciner. S. Finae Virg. (of the backbone and blood of St. Fina, Virgin). On the back, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of Francesco Gaetano Incontri (†1781), the Archbishop of Florence (p. 1741-1781), Italy.

Saint Fina (Serafina) (†1253) was an Italian Christian girl venerated in the Tuscan town of San Gimignano. She developed a paralytic illness and spent the rest of her life on a bed made from a wooden pallet, where Saint Gregory the Great allegedly appeared to her to predict her death. Miraculous healings were later attributed to her intercession. St. Fina is celebrated in San Gimignano on both March 12, the anniversary of her death, and the first Sunday in August. Her relics are kept in a chapel in the Collegiata di San Gimignano.