In ‘Treasures of Heaven' at CMA, reliquaries made for bones of saints shed light on history of Europe, Christianity (video)
Europe's monuments and even its terrain were shaped by the medieval practice of investing the body parts of departed saints with the power to intercede for humans in heaven.
That's especially clear after a visit to see the reliquaries in "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe." It continues at the Cleveland Museum of Art until Jan. 17, giving Northeast Ohioans a destination for the upcoming holiday season along with insight into the development of both Christianity and Europe itself.
Imagine the pressure on a medieval artist charged with the task of making a beautiful, compelling container to hold a bit of hair, a tooth or a disintegrating piece of wood connected to a saint.
The reliquary's elaborate outward appearance was to remind worshippers of the extraordinary nature of what it contained.
Most of the 135 "Treasures" on display at the CMA exhibit are small, but their scope is vast — tracing 1,300 years of history from the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire to the Protestant Reformation.
In the Middle Ages and even into the present, the human remains of long-dead saints have been revered for their miraculous powers to heal and transform. The belief was that even in death these saints could intercede in heaven on behalf of those who prayed to them. In some cases entire churches were built around them, such as the Cathedral of Santiago de Compestala in Spain, where the remains of St. James are interred. In 2010 alone, more than 200,000 pilgrims trekked the Way of St. James across much of France and into northern Spain. (See related story.)
In other cases, the reliquaries were made to be portable so they could be taken out into the world. But throughout Europe, trails for pilgrimages have been carved in the earth by the footsteps of centuries of faithful.
The workmanship of the silver, gold and jewel-encrusted reliquaries on display at CMA is unmistakable, but in many cases their creators' names are nowhere to be found.
With just a few exceptions, neither are the body parts the reliquaries were built to hold. Continued...
Many of these reliquaries have never before been away from their churches, and, according to Griffith Mann, chief curator at the museum and co-curator for this exhibit, it was a huge challenge to get them here and put the exhibit together.
The forearm of St. George, for instance, remains safely stored in the treasury at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, where it will be reunited with its stunning silver reliquary after the exhibit leaves Cleveland for Baltimore and closes in London's British Museum in October.
Patron saint of England and a legendary dragon slayer, St. George was believed to have lived in the first century as part of the court of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. The date of the arm reliquary in the exhibit is not certain, but it is labeled as being "before 1204." Other alleged relics of St. George, with and without a dragon, also are showcased in the exhibit.
Many of the relics were brought home by the crusaders between the 11th and 13th centuries.
But under the hard light of science, it's pretty unlikely that a thousand-year-old body part carried across the continent actually was what it was reputed to be.
Those who know the dates of the Reformation — when Catholic practices were challenged and Protestant beliefs were still being defined — might relate to John Calvin's questioning words in his Treatise on Relics.
They're inscribed with those of many others high on the walls of the "Treasures" exhibit halls.
"How do we know that we are venerating the bone of a saint, and not the bone of some thief, or of an ass, or of a dog, or of a horse?" Calvin wrote in the 1500s.
But the authenticity of the relic matters little.
"The relics and reliquaries showcased here provide evidence of religious objects traveling across tremendous distances and people making pilgrimages across the Mediterranean to walk in the footsteps of important figures from sacred history," Mann said. Continued...
"The medieval devotion to relics gave birth to new forms of monumental architecture, supported extensive pilgrimage networks and prompted significant development in the visual arts."
Some of the items on display remind us that medieval people were in many ways much like we are.
Anyone who has brought seashells from Florida back to the frigid north probably can relate to the exhibit's "Box With Stones From the Holy Land," which was lent to the "Treasures" exhibit by the Vatican Museums. Dating from the sixth century, it's one of the oldest objects attesting to the practice of collecting souvenirs from pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The collection shows the special status accorded to sacred sites associated with events from Christ's life.
Objects also have been lent to "Treasures" by the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Look closely at the reliquaries and you'll see a tooth from St. John in one and a tooth from Mary Magdalene in another. In some cases, the reliquaries themselves give solid clues about the relics they were made to hold. Pieces of skull, for instance, were encased in a few of the heads on display, including a bust of a lovely golden-haired woman near the start of the exhibit. It's an unknown female saint, believed to be a companion of St. Ursula. Legend has it that Ursula and the 11,000 virgins who accompanied her to what was to be her wedding in Germany were beheaded in about 383 A.D.
Historical fact overlays legend with some of the items. Take, for instance, the ornate Roman sarcophagus that almost fills an entire wall in "Treasures" area in the museum's Kelvin and Eleanor Smith exhibit hall. It dates from the first century, a time when the Romans were abandoning cremation for the Christian rites of burial.
The 2005 words of Pope Benedict XVI reflect the current thinking of the Roman Catholic Church:
"In the end, these are indeed just human bones, but they are bones that belonged to individuals touched by the living power of God."
Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe Continued...
Cleveland Museum of Art through Jan. 17
Tickets: $12 adults; $10 for seniors and college students; $6 for children 3 to 17.
Several special programs take place at the museum in conjunction with this exhibit. See www.ClevelandArt.org for details.
Among them is Sacred Landmarks, a 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. event on Nov. 13 that begins with a gallery talk by curator Griffith Mann and is followed by a trolley tour of Cleveland's own sacred landmarks and their reliquaries, led by architectural expert Tim Barrett.
Not easy to obtain
Because it is considered a French national treasure the "Reliquary Bust of St. Baudime" needed government permission to come to Cleveland. It arrives Monday afternoon in the company of Alphonse Bellonte, mayor of the 750-person hamlet of St. Nectaire.
A 1462 inventory noted that it contained a vial of the saint's blood. According to legend St. Nectaire and St. Baudime were brothers sent from Rome by St. Peter to evangelize the Auvergne, an area of central France.
The sculpture, with its inlaid eyes and ears open to prayer, contributed to the revival of three dimensional sculpture.
It has never before left France.
Location, ST | website.com
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