How much is that bone fragment in the window?

Baltimore's Walters Art Museum is currently running an exhibit titled "Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe." The Walters' online catalogue for the exhibit includes a number of shrines and reliquaries.

Jesuit author James Martin tells USA Today he understands such things could have limited appeal, but that as a category, relics still maintain relevance as windows into the profound - even if the window's facing an unorthodox scene, or is pointed more toward pop culture.

"Relics remind us that saints are real people — not mythological figures, but real flesh-and-blood human beings," Martin said.

The Walters museum provides a book where visitors can write their reflections on the exhibit. Thoughts range from reverent to wacky. "Google is my relic," wrote one visitor.

"Relics still freak most people out," Martin said, "but if you check on eBay" — where sellers proffer Michael Jackson's shirt and locks of Elvis Presley's hair — "the idea of wanting to connect physically with someone you admire is not so strange."

Posted by Torey Lightcap on March 6, 2011 12:25 PM | |
Comments (4)

Sort of like the news that the Pope can no longer be an organ donor - lest his innards become relics if he becomes a "saint'

Posted by Ann Fontaine [TypeKey Profile Page] | March 6, 2011 6:21 PM

In Confirmation Class today, we were reminded of the quip that the extant number of fragments of the true cross are sufficient to rebuild the ark.

Posted by Lelanda Lee [TypeKey Profile Page] | March 7, 2011 2:40 AM

@Ann

It's kind of an amusing idea. Say you die and are an organ donor. Then, you're declared a saint. If your organ is still part of a living individual, then they are instantly a walking and living reliquary! If they're dead, then would an "extraction" of the holy relic from the dead individual be appropriate, or would it have been "unholified" (my new word) by residence in a non-saintly corpus? If the recipient is really notoriously "evil," then does the resurrected donated part devolve to the donor on the last day, or does it remain with the recipient to go off to hell? Hah!

Posted by Jeffrey L. Shy, M.D. [TypeKey Profile Page] | March 7, 2011 5:37 PM

The Walters has had some great public talks in conjunction with this exhibit. The Director of he museum, Gary Vikan, has a longtime interest in pilgrimage and religious art. Last week he had a dialogue with Lee Sandstead about Lee's pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela -- and also to Graceland. Watch for Gary's book on Elvis (pilgrimage, relics, the whole nine yards), due out in a year or so!

Posted by Jean Lall [TypeKey Profile Page] | March 7, 2011 9:37 PM

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