In THE
AUSTRALIAN ATHEIST - NUMBER 5, I dealt with miracles. Because these
allegedly divine manifestations are often associated with religious
artefacts I believe it would be appropriate therefore to mention some
of them.
The belief
in the efficacy of certain religious relics was born of another belief—that
the emissaries of Satan who possessed the bodies of the afflicted produced
diseases and that God’s will was considered manifest through miracles
and saints. God’s intermediaries were the apostles, prophets and martyrs.
Any earthly remains of their person or objects with which they came
into contact became sacred, and were thought to be endowed with supernatural
powers. It was believed that in some mysterious way the virtue in a
holy hair, a piece of wood, or the bone of a saint would drive out the
demon and effect a cure.
In the
early part of the second millennium and up to the middle ages humans
lived in perpetual fear of natural phenomena which were put down to
the intervention of God. In a spiritual age when ignorance was the handmaiden
of faith, belief in miracles prospered and for political reasons the
Church fathers decided that they were necessary to propagate the faith.
Although
relics were sought after and venerated in Roman times, by the eleventh
century they were commonplace. The list is both long and macabresplinters
from the true cross, Christ’s blood, seventeen foreskins (all allegedly
his), the crown of thorns, baby teeth, hair clippings, the bones of
Mary Magdalene, a phial of Mary’s milk, her scarf, St Peter’s tooth,
the head(s) of John the Baptist, a finger from the hand of the apostle
Thomas and countless bones allegedly belonging to a large number of
assorted religious luminaries. The relics, originally intended as an
aid to devotion, soon became objects of worship in their own right,
as did the ornate caskets that contained them. Shrines were built to
house the caskets and became Meccas to which the faithful beat a pilgrims’
path.
From the
very beginning the Church realised the value and power of relics and
commercialism took over, swelling the coffers of many an abbey, church
and monastery.
The bones
of martyrs and other holy persons were so treasured that a traffic in
bogus relics was created.
Notwithstanding
that most relics were spurious, they were well sought after even to
the extent of murder and theft. The bones of St Foy at Agan, France,
for example, were stolen by Armisdus, a monk from Congues, who spent
ten years planning the caper, and when the crusaders plundered Jerusalem
in 1099 to recover the Holy Sepulchre, a horrible massacre of Muslims
and Jews ensued. In 1204 Constantinople too was submitted to a merciless
pillage resulting in the dispersal of the spoils.
The above
represents but the tip of the iceberg but, while a comprehensive list
is beyond the scope of this article, some of the more bizarre and revered
encountered during my travels are worth a mention.
St Francis
Xavier was canonized in 1622, and what’s left of his mortal remains
rests in a silver casket in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa, India.
I use the word remains in the literal sense as the poor fellow’s body
has been dismembered unmercifully by both lay and ecclesiastical relic
seekers since he was laid to rest in 1552. A Portuguese lady who wanted
a relic of the saint bit off one of his toes, and in 1615 part of his
right hand was cut off and sent to the Church of Gesu in Rome. In 1619
the remaining part of the hand was removed and sent to the Jesuits in
Japan. From time to time parts of the intestines have also been removed
and distributed to various places around the world. Ironically, the
remains of St Francis are now the subject of a court case. A local family
is claiming that the body is not that of the saint at all, but one of
their former ancestors.
Heads
seem to enjoy a certain status among believers. The reliquaries for
the heads of Saint Praxedes and Saint Sebastian, together with the relics
of Saint Stephen, are still cherished and represent some of the most
valuable artefacts in the Vatican’s collection.
St Catherine,
born on 25 March 1347, was the twenty-third child of a religious fanatic
Jacomo Benincasa. Her convictions drove her to change the pattern of
European history. She lived in a period when religion and politics were
inextricably entangled and when the tide of rising nationalism had yet
to break the unity of Christendom. Under these circumstances a religious
fanatic was able to exert considerable influence on events. At the age
of five she was extremely devout and had a vision of Christ enthroned
above St Doimnic’s Church in Siena. By the age of twelve she had considered
and rejected marriage and pledged herself to perpetual virginity. However,
because she had for a short time been tempted to try and win a husband
she became riddled with guilt. Accusing herself of vanity she freouently
flagellated until the blood ran. At sixteen, following another vision,
she became a tertiary among the Daughters of Penance of St Dominic’s
Order of Preachers. As the demands made of her were not enough she shut
herself up in her father’s house for three years accusing herself
of entertaining the foulest temptations. Another vision at the age of
nineteen, in which she saw herself betrothed to Christ himself, rewarded
her pains and vigils.
Driven
by inner prompting, visions and voices, she became well known in Siena
for the trances into which she frequently fell. At such times she was
totally insensitive and her limbs became stiff and cold. She explained
that because she was so full of Christ her senses stopped working. Her
catatonic fits reached a peak in 1370, when she lay as though dead for
four hours, then wept for two days explaining that she had seen the
hidden things of God and was now forced back into the prison of her
body.
During
an outbreak of plague in the summer of 1374, Catherine nursed the sick
and comforted the dying, and enthusiastically called for a crusade against
the Mohammedans to free the Holy Places in Jerusalem. Another mystical
experience occurred on 1 April 1375, when Catherine received the stigmata.
No one ever saw the five wounds until after she died and their invisibility
was explained by saying that she had especially reouested it. Her part
in trying to convince Pope Gregory XI and other rulers in Europe of
the need for war resulted in an agony of confusion of her part in it.
On 30
January 1380 she suffered a stroke, her “demons” blaming her for
the part she had played in causing a split in the Church. She was struck
by paralysis and died on 29 April 1380.
Buried
in the Minerva Church at Rome, her head was removed and carried to Siena
where it may still be seen, perhaps one of the most repulsive, although
one of the most venerated of all Christian relics.
In hindsight,
Catherine can be seen as a remarkable example of religious ecstasy,
which can now be explained in terms of the morbid psychology of hysteria.
Given
that at Holy Communion participants eat and drink the “flesh and blood”
of Christ, it is only natural that blood is as high on the list of venerated
relics as decapitated heads.
For example,
in Naples since 1389 every few
months a sealed phial of the solid blood of St Januarius, when handled
by priests, turns to liquid before the faithful who venerate it. Up
until 1992, this “miracle” has remained unexplained. Reporting their
discovery in Nature, scientists explored the tendency of certain
gels to turn to liouid when stirred or vibrated and to return to the
solid form when allowed to stand. This is know as thixotropy, and it
appears to be what occurs in the holy blood relic of the mediaeval saint.
Investigating the claim, Dr. Luigi Garlaschelli and his colleagues at
the University of Pavia, Italy, have come up with a scientific explanation
for the mystery of the clotted blood. To reproduce the effect, Garlaschelli’s
team mixed calcium carbonate (or chalk) into a solution of water of
hydrated iron chloride and used dialysis to transfer the chemical products
across a membrane into distilled water. In mediaeval times, parchment
or animal gut would have worked equally as well. By adding a pinch of
common salt, a dark brownish ‘sol’ was formed which set into a solid
gel. Gently shaken this gel turned into liquid. Then when left to stand,
the liquid solidified. The researchers concluded: “The chemical nature
of the Naples relic can be established only by opening the phial, but
a complete analysis is forbidden by the Catholic Church. Our replication
of the phenomenon seems to render this sacrifice unnecessary.”
Another
phial of “holy” blood can be seen in the cathedral at Bruges, Belgium.
The caption in four languages explains:
The relic
of the holy blood is found behind the tabernacle of this altar. According
to tradition, Derick of Alsace, Count of Flanders (1120 -1168), founder
of this chapel of St. Basil and the Holy Blood brought the relic to
Bruges. The rock crystal phial, which contains the coagulated blood,
is preserved in a glass cylinder adorned with golden crowns, and this
has remained intact since its arrival in Bruges as testified by historical
data from as far back as 1250.
The city
of Bruges is intimately connected with the precious relic that is in
its safekeeping. Without interruption during the centuries, this treasure
has been venerated, and through it, the person of our Lord. That is
why people come here, not just to see the relic, but also to pray.
There
is no mention of from where or from whom the blood originated or why
Derick of Alsace thought it was worth bottling.
Last and
not least is possibly the most famous of all relics, the Shroud of Turin.
Alleged to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, it was first drawn to
public attention in 1898 at Lirey, in France, by the widow of a Knight,
Jeanne de Vergey. It was photographed for the first time and the negatives
revealed in much greater detail and form the faint original impression
of a figure on it. In the 1970s, a group of scientists investigated
the cloth and although some were convinced of its authenticity, others
questioned the “blood stains” which were found to contain hematite
and vermilion, substances used by mediaeval artists as a red pigment.
In 1989, carbon dating methods put the probable date of the shroud at
between 1260 and 1390, settling the question of whether or not it was
a forgery once and for all. Despite this, it still continues to attract
the faithful as a holy relic.
The idolatry,
veneration and dependence on holy relics demonstrates a failure to understand
the natural laws of nature and attests to the ignorance and superstitious
nature of people- unfortunately still prevalent in many societies
today. While religious artefacts were used mainly to ward off the evil
effects of malignant forces and to manifest miracles, others were held
to bring good luck. They take many forms: rings, necklaces and bracelets
in a variety of materials ranging from gold and precious stones to humble
plastic beads. Others are carved replicas of animals, insects and birds
in wood, stone and ivory. I recall as a child I carried a rabbit’s
foot for good luck and my mother’s purse was never without her lucky
miniature brass leprechaun.
While
charm and “good luck” bracelets in Western society are still popular,
they tend to be decorative rather than to have mystical properties or
a protective function. In less advanced societies however, faith in
amulets and artefacts persist.
Curious
to know just what some people would buy if they thought it would bring
them good luck, I wrote the following letter to a local newspaper. It
was published in the Manly Daily
on 8 August 1994:
I have
a pet chook that answers to its name, cheeps like a canary and sits
on my shoulder like a parrot.
Inevitably
while observing the world from its perch, it leaves a calling card on
my shoulder which, when according to a meticulously kept record and
collation with subsequent events, has proved to be a precursor of good
luck.
Over the
past few weeks I have won lotto, received a large order for my recently
published book and money long owed to me has been returned.
My son
on whose shoulder the chook also perches has had similar luck.
Believing
this extraordinary run of luck is more than coincidence, I had the chook’s
feathers read by a palmist and an astrologer check its horoscope. A
‘past lives’ reader then advised that the chook was a reincarnated
philanthropist.
Convinced
that I should spread the good luck around I have decided to sell the
chooks calling cards.
Anyone
interested in purchasing my lucky chicken poo at $10 per 5 gm should
send me a money order together with a SAE as soon as possible. I don’t
know how long this will last and constipation could ruin everything.
Believe
it or not - within days I received two orders! |