Christianity often manifests in popular culture through celebrations like Christmas and Easter, or icons like lambs and fish. Less often do you see it associated with vials of blood and disembodied heads. Yet as the new Hochelaga video above reveals, the most famed Christian artifacts do tend toward the gruesome. Take one particularly renowned example, the Shroud of Turin: hear the name, and you imagine a cloth bearing the image of Jesus Christ. But think about it a moment, and you remember that it’s the bloodstained wrapping of a crucified body — that is, if the tales told about it are true in the first place.
As with any religious relics, you have to decide for yourself what to believe about all of these. If you pay a visit to the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, you’ll see on display the preserved jaw of that holy figure — which does, at least, look like a real human jaw. In southeastern France, at the basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, you’ll find a skull purported to be that of Mary Magdalene.
And we certainly can’t rule out that it really is, speculative though the evidence may be. The situation grows somewhat more complicated with the head of John the Baptist — or rather, the heads of John the Baptist, four of which have been claimed in different places so far.
“During the Middle Ages, relics were in high demand, and there were always people willing to supply them,” explains Hochelaga creator Tommie Trelawny. “It’s often joked that, if you gathered all the alleged fragments of the true cross, you’d have enough wood to build a small forest.” Even the Shroud of Turin has come under unforgiving scrutiny. Radiocarbon dating has placed it in the mid-fourteenth century, implying a forgery, but more recent X‑ray tests suggest that its linen was made in the first century, between the years 55 and 74: close enough to what we understand as the time of Jesus’ burial. Debates over the authenticity of all these artifacts will continue for centuries — and quite possibly millennia — to come, but their powerful embodiment of both “the deeply disturbing and the hauntingly beautiful” won’t fade away any time soon.
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Europe’s Oldest Intact Book Was Preserved and Found in the Coffin of a Saint
Did Psychedelic Mushrooms Appear in Medieval Christian Art?: A Video Essay
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
All these so-called relics are complete and total propaganda for a church losing it’s firm grip and control on the population that they helped to keep poor, desperate and uneducated. Trying to prove that their insane lies are true is just to keep everyone in line.
Examples: 1. The Rapture — wow.
2. The Catholic Church doctrine states that it was “scientific” fact that the more a woman was educated, the smaller her womb became. More wow.
And the aforementioned poor, desperate and uneducated people believed these things.
Make this stop. It’s not real. Children get cancer amd die every day. So then it’s one of 2 things: their God is a real sick bastard OR there simply is no God at all. You decide.
Thank you for your attempt to engage with the premises regarding relics, religious belief, and the perceived failings of the Catholic Church, but we must employ a more rigorous and scholarly framework centered on the nature of truth, even if it’s about the role of faith and the understanding of human suffering.
Your comment dismisses the significance of relics, claiming they are mere propaganda. However, if you think about the way you might value an heirloom or maybe even a childhood memory, this might be more informative of their true nature. For a devotee, relics hold profound theological and spiritual value. Augustine emphasizes the importance of the tangible in connecting believers through material objects, serving as conduits to the super sensual, “the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal” (City of God, 4.29). Relics, being material representations of the holy lives of saints, invite the faithful to remember and imitate these exemplars of virtue and grace.
Thomas Aquinas further elucidates this notion in Summa Theologica, where he asserts that the veneration of saints and their relics fosters charity and inspires believers towards holiness (set apart from the quotidian and mundane) in II-II, Q.82, Art. 3. To reduce relics to mere propaganda dismisses their ability to serve as reminders of the faith and as sources of grace through which believers can deepen their relationship with God. Indeed, the presence of a relic can create an atmosphere of theological reflection and renewal, serving to strengthen the communal faith rather than simply reinforce control, which I don’t know if you looked around lately, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of power and control coming from the church today.
Your comment questions the doctrines of the Church by relying on outlandish examples. Citing the belief in the Rapture or the assertion that women’s education affects fertility, implies that such doctrines stem from a universal ignorance that was and is never questioned within the faith. If you ever consider the little you actually know about science and existence, even the agnostic Socrates must confess a dialogical relationship of faith and reason.
In the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas, faith is understood to complement reason, not oppose it. While some interpretations of doctrine may appear spurious, it is essential to scrutinize the original theological intentions and understandings. For instance, the Church’s teachings on education and family life are not mere attempts to subjugate women but can be viewed as calls to recognize the dignity of life and the sacredness of marriage. Any misinterpretation or corrupted understanding of these teachings may stem from contemporary societal contexts rather than the core message itself.
Augustine reflects on the nature of belief in Confessions, stating that “faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe” (9.10). The dynamism of faith does not negate the complexities of human experience but rather invites believers to seek understanding and meaning, even in troubling times.
Your comment’s assertion that the existence of suffering invalidates belief in a just and good God touches upon a longstanding philosophical and theological dilemma: the problem of evil. A Thomistic response would emphasize the distinction between existence and essence and how the presence of evil can result from the misuse of free will, a central tenet of Christian anthropology.
Aquinas argues that suffering and evil are not inherently contradictory to God’s goodness; instead, they can bring about greater goods and deeper realizations of grace (ST, I, Q.2, Art.3). It is essential to recognize that suffering does not negate God’s presence or benevolence but can serve as a vehicle for moral and spiritual growth—an opportunity for greater reliance and compassion for others. The ability to find meaning amidst suffering is a cornerstone of the Christian faith, one that transcends mere propaganda and engages with the more profound realities of human existence. What great person can you think of who has not suffered greatly?
Augustine famously believed that true happiness lies not in the absence of suffering but in the presence of a higher perception of reality. He asserts that “God does not permit evil to exist in His creation unless He is able to bring forth a greater good” (1.9). This perspective reframes the experience of suffering from a purely nihilistic view into one that acknowledges the possibility of redemptive purpose and transformation.
The premises of your comment are fundamentally weakened when subjected to the rigorous philosophical and theological perspectives provided by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas,humans who lived hundreds of years ago, and led happier and more fulfilled lives than any technological advances of today, could ever hope to achieve for you.
Faith: The belief in something without evidence.
A virtue highly prized by the Church, for obvious reasons.
Clint, I can’t help laughing at the contrast of your comment with the ignorant ravings of the sad and furious man you were responding to. Thank you for bringing elegance and light to this Comments section.
At an academic level, I am unqualified to take issue with your assertions. I’m Protestant, and while I wouldn’t endorse Catholic views of these matters, I recognize their intellectual and theological validity. Severe health “problems” since I was seven kept me from acquiring the college education I wish I had. I can, however, offer experiential support of what you wrote. My near lifelong illness has drawn me only closer to The Lord Jesus Christ.
If you haven’t read “The Habit of Being,” the collection of Flannery O’Connor letters, I think you’d find them interesting.