Reliquary
During the Medieval period life was governed by the Church and Bible. Everything you did during your earthly life would impact your soul after death and decide if you went to heaven or hell and how long you would spend in purgatory. A part of this highly religious life was the idea of pilgrimage, a journey to a holy place or shrine to ask for the Saints help or as a form of penance for sins. Undertaking a pilgrimage could help your soul in the afterlife. When visiting these holy places, relics and reliquaries could be purchased as proof that you had completed the pilgrimage and it was believed that relics were still connected to the Saint and had supernatural powers. Relics usually came in the form of a piece of the Saint, such as a body part, or something that the Saint had touched. Many were kept in reliquaries, a container for the relics, often decorated with scenes from the life of the saint in question.
One such reliquary is recorded on the PAS database (ESS-2C4836). This gold reliquary is in the form of a lozenge shaped pendant with a removable back panel. The front and back panels are engraved with biblical images. One of the side panels is engraved with a foliate design, with the other three depicting the names most commonly given to the three wise men in the nativity: Gaspar, Melcior, Baltasar (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar). The three wise men are mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew where he calls them ‘Magi’ and states that they bought with them the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This has given rise to the idea that there were only three Magi, one for each gift, although the total number is never mentioned. It is thought that the three gifts have symbolic meanings, although never mentioned in the Bible. Gold is seen as a symbol of Christ’s divinity, frankincense is burnt in worship and therefore indicative of Christ’s willingness to become a sacrifice and myrrh was used in embalming and foretells the suffering he would go through as a man.
The reliquary is currently on display in room 2 at the British Museum.
