18th-century oval glass-fronted reliquary theca housing first-class ex ossibus (of the bone) relic of Saint Prosper of Reggio. The relic is affixed to a green silk background decorated with elaborate gold paperole and silver cord and identified on a manuscript cedula label as S. Prosperi / Epi. Regy (Saint Prosper, Bishop of Reggio). On the back, the theca is secured with the perfectly preserved seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a coat of arms of Fr. Giovanni Maria Castelvetri (†1785), Bishop of Reggio Emilia (1750-1785). It is accompanied by the original matching authentics document issued by Fr. Castelvetri in 1776.
Saint Prosper of Reggio (†c. 466) is an Italian saint who was a bishop of Reggio Emilia for twenty-two years. Remembered for his sense of charity, he is the patron saint of Reggio Emilia, although its cathedral is not dedicated to him. Instead, the church of San Prospero, which Prosper himself had built and dedicated to Saint Apollinaris, commemorates his episcopate.