Vatican reliquary theca with relic of St. Francis of Paola, founder of the Order of Minims

Oval glass-fronted silvered brass pendant reliquary theca housing first-class Ex Ossibus (of a bone) relic of Saint Francis of Paola. A relic is affixed to a red silk ground, surrounded by silver wire ornamentation, and identified in Latin on a typeset cedula label as S. Franc. de Pa. (Saint Francis of Paola). On the back, the theca is secured with a perfectly preserved seal of red Spanish wax bearing a faint imprint of a coat of arms of Fr. Giuseppe Bartolomeo Menocchio, O.E.S.A. (†1823), Titular Bishop of Porphyreon (1800–1823) and Sacristan of His Holiness Pius VII.

Saint Francis of Paola, O.M. (Francesco di Paola)(†1507) was an Italian mendicant friar and the founder of the Roman Catholic Order of Minims. The two major movements in this order were humility and non-violence. The word "Minim" refers to living as the smallest or least, or embracing humility, simplicity, and plainness. The call to non-violence and absence of cruelty was expressed through veganism and not doing harm to any creature. He is a patron saint of vegetarians, boatmen, mariners, and naval officers.