Dear John,
Pilgrims, particularly to the Holy Land, were regularly entrusted
with many rings to be taken for similar "sanctification" by contact
with relics and holy places. This is an extension of the principal
on which "contact relics" were created, i.e. objects, often pieces of
fabric, which had come in contact with a relic and thereby acquired
some of its thaumaturgical value.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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