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1743 Documented reliquary with relics of the True Cross of Jesus Christ

Oval silvered brass glass-fronted reliquary theca housing precious relics from the Wood of the True Cross of Jesus Christ. Substantial relics are affixed in a cruciform shape to a gilt paper starburst on a red silk background decorated with silver wire ornamentation. The relics are identified on a fancy manuscript paper cedula label as Ex Lingo SS. Crucis D.N.I.C. (from the Wood of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ). On the back, the theca is secured with a mostly preserved seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of Francesco Gaetano Incontri (†1781), the Archbishop of Florence (p. 1741-1781). The relic is accompanied by an original matching authentics document issued and signed by Father Incontri in 1743.

The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by the Church tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, traveled to the Holy Land in 326–28, where she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus and of two thieves, St. Dismas and Gestas, executed with him, and a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross. Fragments of the Cross were broken up, and the pieces were widely distributed; in 348, in one of his Catecheses, Cyril of Jerusalem remarked that the "whole earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ." Most of the very small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from Constantinople after the city was captured and sacked in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. They were carved up by the present bishops and divided with other very precious relics.

Additional Info

  • ID#: 46-RSMB-1
  • Size: 42 x 34 mm
  • Age: ca. 1743 dated
  • Origin: Florence, Italy
  • Materials: silvered brass, glass
  • Price: SOLD!
  • Orthodox Cross
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