medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John Dillon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Just so.
as i suspected.
>>quite a few such gifts of rings and jewels given to the reliquary housing
the_camisia_ of the Virgin in Chartres
> Examples exist in the treasuries of many pilgrimage sites. Here are a few
from Monte Sant'Angelo on the Gargano (note also the photograph of the young
woman):
> http://www.gargano.it/comunitamontana/guida/pellegrini2.htm
i know nothing at all about them, so i am free to speculate without being
hindered by actual fact.
it seems to me that these objects were/are of two types --related but rather
distinct.
there are the rings or gems or jewelry (or, perhaps, other articles, like
"clothing" or covers for the shrine, tomb, reliquary or image) which i see in
the entries in the Chartres necrology --they are gifts, surely made in
appreciation of wonders worked by the saint, but their value lies in the...,
well, the intrinsic value of the object itself.
otOh, there are these artifacts which may or may not be of any great value (in
gold or silver or pewter, depending, presumably, on the economic level of the
donor)
http://www.gargano.it/comunitamontana/guida/immagini/anatomici.jpg
but which are, as the title of the .jpg tells us, anatomically specific.
or, perhaps specific to some wonder worked, say, a cow whose milk began to
flow again, thanks to an intervention of the saint
http://www.gargano.it/comunitamontana/guida/immagini/animali.jpg
the Chartres examples, as best i can dimly recall them, are mostly rather
early --pre-13th c.-- but i don't think that date is really the operative
principle here.
the anatomically specific objects look for all the world very similar to the
pilgrims' artifacts which we call "badges" --they look like they were
purpose-made, in a (relatively) mass production operation.
hard not to see an evolution at work here; what could be more natural for a
lame pilgrim to Becket's tomb
http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/glass/thomasangel-s.jpg
than for him to leave his hand crutches as an offering, if the Saint's
intervention brought him some sort of relief (hard to imagine just what sort
of relief that might take, in this case, as the fellow probably has no legs
below the knees)?
i have seen --but cannot find on the web, just at present-- shrine "rooms"
which are full of what look to be "real" crutches, etc. (and there *seems* to
be hand crutches visible on the verso of that Chartres pilgrims' badge).
by the 12th c. the clergy at pilgrimage sites all over the West had already
caught on to the lucrative (and much more ancient) trade which could be had in
regulating the sale of pilgrim souvenirs ("badges") which were intended to be
taken home and used when necessary (bent and thrown into rivers, or, in the
case of the ampulae from Canterbury or Vendome, ripped open and drunk at a
critical moment);
and branching out into this ex voto production of replicas of body parts, etc.
(which, by their nature, could not be easily left at the shrine) would seem to
be a quite natural thing to do.
there, even the cheapest of them would be seen by other pilgrims as
testimonies to the power of the saint.
best from here,
christopher
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