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First off, I feel I must explain my title: this post is about saints’ relics, the first two pictures in the slide show in particular. All of the pictures are of various saints’ relics I’ve found in various places all over, but, as I’m sure you’ll agree, the first two are the most interesting. The gold chest is the bones of St. Leopold, founder of Stift Klosterneuburg, just to clarify cause that one is more difficult to understand. There were also a bunch more in Stift Klosterneuburg, but my pictures all came out blurry. The really large one (it has multiple pieces of bones) is from the Kapuzinergruft where the Habsburgs bodies (minus hearts and organs) are buried. The last two are from the Franzikanerkirche in Salzburg, which I found on my free weekend.
Anyway, back to dead guys and bling. So those two guys who are decked out from head to toe in fancy fabrics and jewels are saints’ relics in the Peterskirche in Vienna. According to the plaques next to them, the first guy is named Saint Benedict and the second is Saint Donatus. Both were found in the Catacombs in Rome and are Christian Martyrs, according to their plaques. This is where it gets interesting. Why would a martyr be buried in the Roman Catacombs in such a way that we would know his name? The answer is he wouldn’t be. Somebody found a skeleton in the catacombs in Rome and they made the “educated” guess that since a lot of Christians were martyred there, the skeleton must be of a martyr. So basically they took a dead guy, dressed him up nice, named him and called him a Christian martyred Saint.
I just think this is macabre. They have full skeletons of dead guys in their church all dressed in jewels and they don’t even really know who they really were. Not that I think we should forget about the Christians martyred in ancient Rome, but I think trying to go dig up their bones is a little over the top. I have to admit though, that as I was seeing all the bones, but particularly the full skeletons, I couldn’t help thinking what a field day a forensic anthropologist (yes, I’m a Bones fan) would have. I just picture her saying, “You are aware this was a women, right? And she was about 70 and died of old age.” 😉
German Word of the Day: die Korrectur. Correction. Ich muss eine kleine Korrektur machen.
German word of the Day: Die Freundin. Girlfriend. Er sagt, dass er ein Ring für seine Freundin gekauft hat. He said that he bought a ring for his girlfriend.