medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Thanks, Christopher, for putting your finger on the most important
> aspect of this entire case.
>
> I was thinking the same thing in one of the articles I read about
> this most recent announcement, where it is stated that the heads of
> BOTH Peter and Paul are believed to be in St John Lateran, but nobody
> knows where. How on earth would such ultra-super-duper-first-class
> relics be lost? Or did someone wilfully cause this to happen?
One issue that affects the "forgetting" of relics -- and this was quite a common
phenomenon during the Middle Ages, as well -- is whether they are, with any
regularity, instrumental in producing miracles. Alas, "the age of miracles is past", so
they say, and if relics are not being resorted to by pilgrims or being actively used in
the liturgy, as some certainly are, then there are no real reasons to remember them,
beyond stock taking.
In this case, though, there is quite another issue involved, as well. I'm thinking of
the mid-20th-century excavations under St Peter's Basilica, when the archaeologists
in charge, despite the fact that they were Jesuit themselves, had their excavations
blatantly interferred with (by their Jesuit rather than their archaeological superiors),
when there were reports that the coffin of St Peter had been found. It appears that,
at that time, it was more important for the church to generate just the right orthodox
"spin" on what was found than to be "objective" in a strictly archaeological sense.
One might hope that the church had changed in the meantime, but I guess we will
see soon enough.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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