Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity

Christian belief in the power of relics, the physical remains of a holy site or holy person, or objects with which they had contact, is as old as the faith itself and developed alongside it. Relics were more than mementos. The New Testament refers to the healing power of objects that were touched by Christ or his apostles. The body of the saint provided a spiritual link between life and death, between man and God: "Because of the grace remaining in the martyr, they were an inestimable treasure for the holy congregation of the faithful." Fueled by the Christian belief in the afterlife and resurrection, in the power of the soul, and in the role of saints as advocates for humankind in heaven, the veneration of relics in the Middle Ages came to rival the sacraments in the daily life of the medieval church.

The holiest of relics were those associated with Christ and his mother. Because of the belief in the resurrection of Christ and the bodily assumption of the Virgin into heaven, physical relics of Christ and the Virgin were—with a few rare exceptions, like the baby teeth of Jesus or the Virgin's milk—usually objects that they touched in their lifetime, such as the wood from the True Cross (Reliquary of the True Cross (Staurotheke), 17.190.715ab) or pieces of the Virgin's veil. The most common relics are associated with the apostles and those local saints who worked miracles across Europe. All relics bestowed honor and privileges upon the possessor, and monasteries and cathedrals sought to hold the most prestigious. Some relics were even stolen from one church, only to find a new home in another.

Reliquaries are the containers that store and display relics. Since the relics themselves were considered "more valuable than precious stones and more to be esteemed than gold," they were enshrined in vessels, or reliquaries, crafted of or covered by gold, silver, ivory, gems, and enamel. These precious objects were a major form of artistic production across Europe and Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages.

Reliquaries could take the form of caskets (chasses) (Chasse of Champagnat, 17.190.685) or even more complex containers in the form of parts of the body, usually mimicking the relic it enshrined (Reliquary Arm, 47.101.33). Reliquaries were often covered with narrative scenes from the life of the saint whose remains were held within (Reliquary Casket with Scenes from the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, 17.190.520; Plaque from a Reliquary of Saint Aemilian, 1987.89). Reliquaries were also fashioned into full-body statues. Set on an altar and carried in procession, these highly decorated works of art made an indelible impression on the faithful. The distinction between the meaning of an image such as the Reliquary Statue of Sainte-Foy at Conques and pagan idols was clearly articulated by Bernard of Angers in the eleventh century: "It is not an impure idol that receives the worship of an oracle or of sacrifice, it is a pious memorial, before which the faithful heart feels more easily and more strongly touched by solemnity, and implores more fervently the powerful intercession of the saint for its sins."