Relics

What does one do on a sunny Saturday morning in Rome? Go to see some relics! Yesterday I went with a friend to tour the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which is (ostensibly) a lovely 17th-century church, but is actually a church established by St. Helena and paid for by her son, the emperor Constantine the Great. A lovely early medieval boudoir that was used by the dowager empress has been converted into a chapel at the back of the church. In fact, there is a whole rabbit warren of miraculous rooms in the back that house relics and where popes have had visions. One of the most amazing rooms is, of course, the place where this photograph was taken. In the glass case pictured here there is quite a sacred collection. On the top shelf to the right are two thorns from the crown of thorns, to the left of those are some fragments of the pillar to which Christ was tied and scourged, beside them is a piece of Doubting Thomas' finger. In pride of place on the second shelf are pieces of the actual cross within the golden cross. (There used to be a much larger bit of the cross--brought back from Jerusalem by St. Helena--at Santa Croce, but it has recently been removed to the Vatican.) Under that on the left is a nail, one of THE nails and beside that on the bottom right is the identifying inscription nailed over Christ's head on the cross.

A pretty amazing collection, I'd say.