Splinter Of The True Liberty Reliquary

Concerning Reliquaries

The (supposed) remains of saints were highly prized in the early and medieval Christian Church.  It was often believed they possessed special spiritual powers.  Such relics – which could be mere bone fragments or the vestiges of objects associated with a saint – were enshrined in bejeweled cases, or “reliquaries.”

The veneration of sacred relics continues into our own era; when Notre Dame Paris was burning, the priests were especially concerned about the rescue of its relics, which include the Crown of Thorns.

Among the more famous – and popular – relics were Splinters of the True Cross, now scattered across all of Christendom.