SILVER RELIQUARY,TRUE CROSS,CROWN OF THORNS RELICS,DOC!

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SILVER RELIQUARY,TRUE CROSS,CROWN OF THORNS RELICS,DOC!

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Sold Date: 03/18/2008
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Fraternal, Political, Organizations

A spiritual treasure, worthy of the treasury of a Cathedral !

STERLING SILVER MONSTRANCE RELIQUARY

WITH RELICS OF

THE TRUE CROSS

AND THE CROWN OF THORNS,

OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

A wonderful spiritual treasure and one of the most precious pieces I ever offered on Ebay: A large, heavy, pure (and partially gold-plated) sterling silver (with hallmarks!) Monstrance reliquary with many fine details: filigree decoratuon around the foot, clouds surrounding the relic section, gold-plated sunrays and a golden circle around the center. At the foot is the engraved name: GIACOMO DEL BALZO - DAMIANO, referring to the Bishop and member of a well-known noble family, the del Bolzos of Damiano, who was the original owner of this monstrance reliquary. A masterpiece of the Italian silversmiths of the 19th century, 17 inches in height and rather heavy, massive silver, ca. 1830.

Half a century later, this precious Monstrance reliquary was inherited to a relative of the del Balzo family (his mother was a de Balzo) who was a Monsignore at the Vatican and became a Bishop. In his function in the Secretary of State of the Holy See, he was in close contact with the Archbishop of Paris, and received this rare and precious reliquary with the relics of the Passion of Our Lord as a gift from him. Since it fit perfectly, he enclosed it in his Monstrance Reliquary and (fortunately) carefully kept the document.

The gilt brass reliquary theca from Paris is 60 mm or 2 1/2 inches wide and sealed with the red wax seals of His Eminence, Cardinal Franciscus-Maria-Benjamin Richard, Archbishop of Paris (1889-1908), with the threads intact.

It comes with the original document signed by the Cardinal on June 1st, 1901, certifying that the relics were taken "from authentic locations" and are "particles of the wood of the Most Holy True Cross and the Most Holy Crown of Thorns of Our Lord Jesus Christ".

Please note that relics with still the original document are extremely rare. The document allows the public veneration of the relics, which is important in case you want to donate your reliquary to your Parish Church one day. This is only the 4th Crown of Thorns relic with an original document I saw in my last eight years on Ebay, denonstrating how rare this most precious relic, which came in contact with the blood and sweat of Our Lord, really is.

Both relics are of unquestionable authenticity, since their way is extremely well documented - from Jerusalem to Constantinople to Paris - when in 1237 King St. Louis IX ("Saint Louis") bought the Crown of Thorns and the large relic of the True Cross of the Byzantine Emperors (in their possession since Constantine the Great, whose mother Helena found it in 325 AD) from the bancrupt Emperor. When they arrived in Paris, he built the beautiful Sainte Chapelle to house them. After the French Revolution, which they fortunately survived, they became part of the treasury of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris w they are exposed for public veneration each year on Good Friday!

SS. Crucis

OF THE MOST HOLY 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. Already in 349 AD, St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, stated tha...