Piece of the Lord

Every time you go away you take a piece of me with you.
Paul Young

On Sunday we went to the Dali exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was awesome, by the way, and maybe I'll get together a blog post about it. But today's offering finds its genesis in European decorative arts, and in particular, and exhibit of reliquaries.

A reliquary is, as its name suggests, a container for a relic. In the Roman Catholic context, a relic is part of a saint. Our friend Marilyn explained that all Roman Catholic churches must have a relic. In fact, all altars need a relic, as explained in this encylopedia entry.

I started linking around the Wikipedia information on relics, and came across a doozy. No pun intended, I think this is the relic pièce de résistance:

Holy Prepuce (a.k.a. Holy Foreskin)

There is all manner of truly wonderful lore surrounding this relic. You need to read the entry for yourself. I will say that Saturn will never look quite the same to me.

Reference materials:

• Relic Wiki entry
• Reliquary Wiki entry
• The Holy Umbilical Cord
• And this charming Christmas story