PAPAL GIFT RELIQUARY, TRUE CROSS RELIC (02/26/2011)

Home > Worthopedia – Price Guide > Fraternal, Political, Organizations >

PAPAL GIFT RELIQUARY, TRUE CROSS RELIC

Terms and Conditions for using our site

PAPAL GIFT RELIQUARY, TRUE CROSS RELIC

Sold For:

or Sign In to see what it's worth.

Sold Date: 02/26/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Fraternal, Political, Organizations

From the Private Collection of a Roman Monsignore:

FILIGREE GILT

GILT PAPAL GIFT RELIQUARY

OF HIS HOLINESS, POPE PIUS VI (1775-99),

WITH A RELIC OF THE TRUE CROSS

Rome, ca. 1780

From the private collection of a Roman Monsignore who passed down in September 2008: A beautiful fire-gilt filigree Papal gift reliquary, ca. 10 inches in height, a masterpiece of the Roman silversmiths of the Late Baroque, decorated with seven rock crystals, 24 emerald green and 16 ruby-red rhinestones - a wonderful piece in perfect condition, obviosously a Papal gift to a high-ranking dignitary by one of the greatest and most tragic Popes of the Church History,

Pope Pius VI (1775-1799)

Given name Giovanni Angelo Braschi, he was born at Cesena, on the 27th of December 1717. is earlier acts gave fair promise of liberal rule and reform in the defective administration of the papal states.

Besides facing dissatisfaction with this temporizing policy, Pius met with practical protests tending to the limitation of papal authority.

At the outbreak of the French Revolution Pius was compelled to see the old Gallican Church suppressed, the pontifical and ecclesiastical possessions in France confiscated and an effigy of himself burnt by the populace at the Palais Royal. In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Italy, defeated the papal troops and occupied Ancona and Loreto. Pius sued for peace, which was granted at Tolentino on the 19th of February 1797; but on the 28th of December of that year, General Berthier marched to Rome, entered it unopposed on the 13th of February 1798, and, proclaiming a republic, demanded of the pope the renunciation of his temporal authority. Upon his refusal Pius VI was taken prisoner, and on the 20th of February was escorted from the Vatican to Siena, and thence to the Certosa near Florence. The French declaration of war against Tuscany led to his removal by way of Parma, Piacenza, Turin and Grenoble to the citadel of Valence, where he died six weeks later, on the 29th of August 1799.

The name of Pius VI is associated with many attempts to revive the splendor of Pope Leo X in the promotion of art and public works - the words "Munificentia Pii VI. P. M." graven in all parts of the city. He is best remembered in connection with the establishment of the museum of the Vatican, begun at his suggestion by his predecessor.

The silver theca inside the filigree reliquary is sealed with the red wax seal of Pope Pius VI himself which is evidence that it is indeed a Papal gift, since only relics given out by the Pope himself bore his seal - all others were sealed by Papal assistants or vicars, the Papal sacristan or a local bishop.

Inside, placed on red silk, is the original relic, two splinters of the True Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, surrounded by filigree silver spiral decoration

The True Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ

According to several Church historians of the 4th and 5th century, the True Cross was discovered in 325 AD when Emperor Constantine the Great ordered the removal of a pagan temple built by Hadrian over the site of the Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre. Beneath the structure, in an old cistern, three crosses, the title with the inscription "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", and three nails were found. In the presence of the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, the Cross of Christ was identified by the 'titulus' and the nail holes, and later confirmed by a miracle. It was laid upon a sick woman who was immediately miraculously cured.

Helena divided the most precious wood into several parts, leaving a fragment in Jerusalem, sending a second to her son in Constantinople and taking a third to Rome. A part of it and half of the title with the inscription I NAZARINUS R... is still preserved and venerated in the Basilica di S. Croce , one of the seven main churches of the Eternal City. In 1998, a careful investigation was commissioned by the Holy See and seven Israeli experts on the d...