Holy Relics

Podcast Transcript

Some of the most venerated objects in many different religions are holy relics.

Relics offer a tangible connection to significant figures in various religious traditions, and they are often highly prized and sought after.

In the Middle Ages, relics became a significant business, and possessing the right relics could substantially boost a local economy. It became such a big business that many people began to question their authenticity.

Learn more about relics, their authenticity, and the historical business surrounding them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

When most people think of religious relics, they probably first think of Christian relics and, more specifically, relics from the Middle Ages.

While I’ll get to use of relics from that period, I should start by noting that relics are hardly a Christian phenomenon, and have been used throughout history by most religions to one degree or another.

In ancient Greece, the veneration of objects and remains was a widespread and culturally significant practice deeply connected to religion, mythology, and civic identity.

The bones of Orestes were said to be crucial for Sparta’s victory in the Peloponnesian War. According to Herodotus, they were exhumed and transferred to Sparta after the oracle of Delphi revealed their significance.

The remains of Theseus, the legendary Athenian hero, were recovered and ceremoniously reinterred in Athens by Cimon in the 5th century BC, affirming Theseus as a unifying national figure.

These tombs often became shrines, and cults formed around them. The tomb could be seen as a power center, and people might seek blessings or protection from the hero interred there.

Buddhism also has several important relics.

According to tradition, after the Buddha’s cremation in 483 BC, his disciple Khema removed his left canine from the funeral pyre.

The tooth was eventually taken to Kalinga in present-day eastern India, where rulers worshiped it as a symbol of divine legitimacy. In the 4th century, the tooth was smuggled to Sri Lanka. It was gifted to the king of Anuradhapura, and from then on, possession of the tooth relic became intertwined with the right to rule in Sri Lanka.

Over centuries, the tooth relic moved with the shifting capitals of the island, surviving invasions, wars, and colonial threats. Today, it is housed in the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy.

From April 18 to April 27, 2025, the tooth was put on public display, where an estimated one million people saw it.

However, the Buddha’s tooth is just one example, as we’ll see, of the problem of provenance of relics. Provenance is a term often used in the art world, referring to the ability to verify the origins and chain of ownership of an object.

The temple in Sri Lanka is not the only one that claims to have a tooth from the Buddha. In fact, a paper published in 2023 found that 32 temples in the world claim to have at least one tooth, which is more teeth than is possible.

The veneration of relics gained prominence in early Christianity, particularly during the Roman persecutions. Christians began to honor the tombs of martyrs as sacred sites.

Very early Christians in Rome would often gather in catacombs, near the remains of early martyrs.

The bodies of martyrs were believed to carry spiritual power due to their sacrifice and proximity to God. Stories of miracles at the tombs of martyrs reinforced this belief, and by the 4th century, the formal veneration of saints had developed.

One of the earliest documented examples is the Martyrdom of Polycarp who was burned at the stake in 155. Christians collected the ashes and bones of Polycarp as they were “more precious than gold.”

By the time of Constantine the Great in the early 4th century, the veneration of relics became mainstream.

It was during the reign of Constantine that one of the greatest relics in the history of Chrisendom appeared: The True Cross.

According to tradition, his mother, Saint Helena, a devout Christian, is said to have traveled to the Holy Land around 326 to locate holy sites associated with the life and death of Jesus.

In Jerusalem, Helena allegedly discovered three crosses during an excavation near what was believed to be Golgotha. According to legend, a dying woman, or, in other versions, a dead man, was miraculously healed when touching one of the three crosses, confirming it as the True Cross.

The site later became the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, consecrated in 335.

A large portion of the cross was said to have remained in Jerusalem, while Helena sent other pieces to Constantinople and Rome.

Over the following centuries, fragments of the cross were divided and sent to churches, monasteries, and even monarchs throughout Europe and the Byzantine Empire.

By the time of the Crusades, particularly after the First Crusade in 1099, possession of a fragment of the True Cross was a mark of prestige and divine favor.

The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem housed what it claimed to be the main relic of the cross. It was even carried into battle, famously during the disastrous Battle of Hattin, where it was captured by Saladin’s forces and disappeared from history.

Between the 9th and 16th centuries, the number of relics claiming to be part of the True Cross increased significantly. Major cathedrals across Europe, including Notre-Dame de Paris, Santa Croce in Rome, Cologne Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey, are claimed to house pieces.

The possession of such relics boosted a church’s status and made it a pilgrimage destination.

This proliferation led to skepticism even in the Middle Ages. The 16th-century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam famously joked that there were “so many pieces of the True Cross” that they could fill a ship.

Later, Protestant reformer John Calvin mocked the relic industry, stating that if all the fragments of the True Cross were gathered together, they would form a whole forest.

Scholars and Catholic officials have acknowledged the problem of excess relics, especially since authentication methods in antiquity were based on tradition rather than forensic science.

In the 19th century, French archaeologist Charles Rohault de Fleury tried to estimate the total volume of all known claimed fragments of the True Cross definitively. He concluded that even including hundreds of pieces, the total volume would still be less than a single cross of the type used by the Romans.

He estimated a full-sized cross would have required about 0.12 cubic meters of wood. His findings suggested that, although the number of fragments was high, the total mass did not necessarily exceed that of a realistic cross.

The largest section of the True Cross which is claimed today is located at the Orthodox monastic community at Mount Athos, Greece.

Pieces of the True Cross were not the only items that Helena supposedly found. She supposedly found the Holy Nails that were used to crucify Jesus.

In the case of the Holy Nails, there is most definitely a problem. There are no fewer than thirty Holy Nails that have been claimed. At most, there could only have been four.

These aren’t the only relics that claim a direct association with Jesus. The Crown of Thorns is claimed to be located in Paris, and the Holy Lance is said to be kept in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace.

Perhaps the most famous is the Shroud of Turin, which will be the subject of its own episode.

I should note that all relics are not the same. There are, in fact, different categories of relics.

First-class relics are the physical remains of saints such as bones, blood, and hair.

Second-class relics are items the saint personally used, such as clothing or books.

Third-class relics are objects that touched a first- or second-class relic.

Items like the True Cross are second-class relics.

There has only been one alleged first-class relic of Jesus: The Foreskin of Jesus.

It is based on the belief that Jesus, being Jewish, was circumcised according to the Law of Moses on the eighth day after his birth.

Since Catholic theology holds that Jesus ascended bodily into heaven, some theologians in the Middle Ages speculated that the foreskin was the only remaining physical part of Christ left on Earth and therefore could be a uniquely sacred relic.

Sure enough, after what began as a theoretical theological discussion, alleged foreskins started appearing in Europe. Places that claimed to have it included Charroux Abbey in France, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, as well as Antwerp, Bruges, and Hildesheim in the Holy Roman Empire.

The last known and most famous relic of the Holy Foreskin was kept in the town of Calcata, Italy, north of Rome. According to tradition, it was brought there in the 16th century and held in a reliquary in the local church.

For centuries, it was paraded through the town during annual festivities on January 1st, drawing pilgrims and curiosity seekers. However, in the 1980s, the relic mysteriously disappeared. It was reportedly stolen under unclear circumstances.

If you are interested in the subject, my friend and travel writer David Farley has written a book on the topic titled An Irreverent Curiosity.

Most relics in churches and cathedrals are first-class relics. Some of them, such as the bones of St. James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, or the body of Saint Mark in Venice, have dubious provenance.

During the Middle Ages, relics were a big business. Some merchants specialized in selling relics, most of which were often fakes. However, at the time, there was no way to verify anything, and most churches that purchased relics had little incentive to verify anything.

Having popular relics meant more pilgrims and visitors to their church, which meant more money.

However, most relics have a very secure provenance because they are the remains of saints who are not ancient and not that famous. They are often associated with a saint who was buried in the place where their remains are interred.

While Christian relics are the most common, they are not the only religion that has them.

Relics do not have as great an importance in Islam, but they do exist.

In particular, the greatest collection of Islamic relics is held at the Topkap? Palace in Istanbul.

The Topkap? Palace was the home to the rulers of the Ottoman Empire, who controlled the holy cities of Islam for centuries.

The palace features a collection of over 600 items related to the Prophet Muhammad, early Caliphs, and Old Testament figures.

The collection includes the Holy Mantle, which is a cloak believed to have been worn by the Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet’s Beard, which is a collection of individual hairs believed to have been collected from Muhammad’s beard, the Prophet’s Sword and Bow, a stone with an impression believed to be Muhammad’s footprint, and one of several diplomatic letters Muhammad is said to have written in his own hand.

I’ll close by noting that relics haven’t gone away and have taken a more secular, modern form.

We often use the phrase celebrity worship. It isn’t meant to be taken literally, but part of that celebrity worship involves relics. Today, they are called collectibles.

Just as pieces of cloth from the clothing of saints were revered, today game-worn uniforms, or even pieces of a uniform, can go for thousands, and in some cases millions, at auction.

Autographs are a type of second-class relic, something that a famous person created and touched with their own hand.

There are even cases of first-class relics from modern celebrities. In 2005, Neil Armstrong’s barber was caught selling clippings from his hair for $3,000.

Relics, whether holy or not, are a physical link to someone that people respect, worship, or venerate.

Relics, in one form or another, have been around for thousands of years. Whether it is in the form of pieces of cloth, bone chips, locks of hair, or game-worn jerseys, they will likely be around for thousands more.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

I want to give a big thanks to everyone who came out for the show’s 5th Anniversary Celebration this weekend.

I was amazed and honored that so many people came from so far away. In addition to people from Wisconsin, there were people from Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois, as well as some who flew in from New Jersey and even California.

Several completionist club members were in attendance, along with at least one double platinum member.

The good folks at McFleshman’s Brewing Company made some specialty 5th anniversary hot sauce, and of course, were serving up their award-winning beer.

I want to thank Patricia Wood-Wynn from the Tourist Office of Spain, who came up from Chicago. As long-term listeners know, the Tourist Office of Spain was the first-ever and is the longest-running sponsor of the show.

Special thanks to Alex Landa, the owner of Landa’s Popcorn Factory in Macinaw City, Michigan, who drove down with multiple boxes of his famous caramel corn, with custom Everything Everywhere 5th Anniversary packaging.

If you’re interested in trying some of his caramel corn out for yourself, you can purchase his many different flavors at caramelcorn.com.

I may organize additional meetups in other cities in the future. When plans are more firm, I’ll let you know.

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