Treasurers of Heaven

  Treasures of Heaven
                                                                       

            

                 TREASURES of HEAVEN
                in MEDIEVAL EUROPE
               Saints, Relics and Devotion      
 
   We spent most of the afternoon at this very
   large and very interesting current exhibition
   at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  We
   appreciated joining a tour guide providing
   excellent descriptions of the many reliquary
   pieces for containing religious relics.





   Many of these reliquaries are now in current large art museums.
   Others are from churches.  They are on loan for this exhibition
   organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Walters Art
   Museum, and the British Museum.  Great craftsmanship created
   these in Medieval Europe to show the relics for religious purposes.
   Many of them are artistic as well as craft objects.  Some are quite
   large pieces and others tiny jewelry.

  Some continue to contain the original relics, often body parts
  from Saints, martyrs and other religious persons from early times.
  Other related objects are also considered to be relics.
  Some very notable examples in the show are these:

  -  A large and beautiful reliquary contains a tooth from
     Mary Magdalene.

  -  Another large reliquary contains a tooth from
     Saint John the Baptist.
  -  A rather small stone coffin shaped reliquary with a cover
     is said to contain relics, likely body parts. There are small
     holes in the top and one end.  Water or oils were poured
     in though the holes, and after passing over the relics 

     came out of a small outlet hole in the front.  The water or
     oil was collected in small stone flasks, several of these
     flasks are in the show.  These very given to visitors to a
     church or location and transported to their homes for use
     in religious ceremonies.

   Our guide explained that such reliquaries might be taken to
   a location and shown there. Perhaps at a cemetery containing
   a Saint or other person. A larger shrine structure might be
   built later. Eventually a very large church or cathedral might

   be on top of it all.  Such is the case with Saint Peters basilica
   in Rome.