medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John Dillon wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> It's a bit hard to figure what it is to which you're saying "Au contraire": Zachary's bringing to Rome a relic _believed_ be to of G. or the existence now in San Giorgio al Velabro of a _purported_ relic of G.'s cranium (emphases mine). Neither of these is contradicted or disproved in any way by the existence of some other cranial relic also believed to be G.'s. Clearly there can be multiple purported heads of a single individual, each with its own _ousia_, just as there have been several objects believed to be the Holy Lance. It not as though anyone is being asked to believe that these are all manifestations of one physical reality. Put another way, polycephalism in martyrs is a phenomenon of a rather different order from polydactylism in cats.
>
Zachary lied?
> Setton's entertaining article, of which the search for the relic at Murano was but a small part, was his Presidential Address at the Mediaeval Academy of America's annual meeting in 1972. It's in _Speculum_ 48 (1973), 1-12 (in JSTOR, for those with access to JSTOR). The title is: "Saint George's Head".
>
In Istanbul I saw hairs from the beard of the Prophet Mohammed. When I
read in Clavijo that in the early 1400s he saw in Constantinople a vial
with hairs from the beard of Jesus, I began to wonder if labels in that
city have become confused.
But I don't see the fun in relics if you don't believe in them. I myself
have seen three heads of John the B, and two right arms. As one
guardian of such treasures told my Jesuit advisor, "That was his head
when he was a child."
DW
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