> In the Sainte-Chapelle de Paris's Treasure were kept the "drap d'Enfance du
> Christ" (Childhood Sheet?). Does anyone knows a little about that thing, if
> there was many relics of the famous sheet?
>
> Thank you.
> Claire Labrecque
Dear Claire,
Some of the most detailed descriptions of the Sainte-Chapelle relics
have been analysed and published by Karen Gould, "The
Sequences De Sanctis Reliquiis as Sainte-Chapelle Inventories,"
Mediaeval Studies, vol. 43 (1981), 315-41. All of the various
descriptions seem to indicate that the Sainte-Chapelle relic of
Christ's swaddling clothes was complete:
- Gerard of Saint-Quentin-en-l'Isle (after 1241): "Vestimenta
infancie ipsius"
- Baldwin II (June 1247): "Pannos infantiae salvatoris. quibus fuit
in cunabulis involutus"
- Bari Sequencer, De sanctis reliquiis (c.1250-60): "pannus"
- Inventory L (March 1534): "Les drapeaux d'enfanse de nostre
sauveur, esquels il fut envelope en son jeune aage."
- Inventory M (1534-73): "Les drapeaux d'enfanse"
- Inventory R (August 1740): "Les drappeaux d'enfance de Notre
Seigneur Jesus Christ"
- Inventory CC (March 1791): "Des drapeaux de son enfance"
Of course, although the Gospels don't mention it, His Mother may have
changed Him occasionally (this broaches a question which was, I
believe, debated in the Middle Ages!). If the history of the Crown
of Thorns is indicative of the care of these relics, it is not out
of the question that the French kings may have snipped bits of the
swaddling clothes off now and then to give away, and it is certainly
possible that there were competing claims. I do hope this helps.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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