Treasures of Heaven

Yesterday I went with a party from the Oxford Oratory to visit the exhibition Treasures of Heaven at the British Museum. The exhibition looks at relics, reliquaries and pilgrimage from the end of the Western Empire until the reformation and beyond. In addition to the Museum's own holdings there are items from the Vatican collections, from elsewhere in Britain, together with France, Germany and Belgium, as well as museum collections in the USA.

The exhibition is housed in the former Reading Room of the Museum, and is a wondrous display of treasures and a record of devotion. Here are reviews from the Guardian (by Eamonn Duffy) and the Daily Telegraph ( complete with predictable mad anti-Papal rant in the appended comments). Both reviews have illustrations of some of the items on display, so do follow the links.

It is an exhibition to take one's time over, and the objcts repay careful study. Accompanying the exhibition is handsome catalogue, available at a special price of a third off to visitors, and a fine array of souvenirs and related books.

Reliquary of St Baudime
Mid-twelfth century

Image: British Museum exhibition website

The relics and relquaries on show are but a fraction of what still survives on the continent, and infinitely less than once existed. In that sense one might be depressed at the greed and stupidity which destroyed so much that was expressive of faith, love and beauty, but one marvels all the more at the skill of medieval craftsmen - just how did they manage to see to produce such miniscule and exquisite detail? - and the joyful vitality of the pieces they created - there are two absolutely delightful figures of a pair of saintly Belgian bishops peering up from the base of their reliquary chasse, rather as if responding to a polite request to put in an appearance or perform some act of intercession.

Reliquary thought to be of one of the companions of St Ursula.
Netherlandish 1520-30

Image: British Museum exhibition website

As always it is invidious to pick out individual objects, but in addition to the episcipal figures I mentioned above, I was particularly interested to see St Cuthbert's portable altar - a sliver of wood used by the great monk-Bishop of Lindisfarne who died in 687 - as well as a fine late medieval Irish bell reliquary, relics of the Crown of Thorns distributed by St Louis, including the reliquary for one thorn made for the Duke of Berry in the late fourteenth century, other exquisite reliquaries of a a few years earlier associated with the court at Prague of the Emperor Charles IV (well it was the feast of St Wenceslaus), and relics and jewellery associated with Mary Queen of Scots and her grandson King Charles I.

In addition to the fine weather the day was all the more pleasant for being a visit with friends, and I appreciated the fact that I was able to spend much of my time with Dr Robert Beddard, formerly my college advisor at Oriel, and with whom I could swap historical observations on the objects we were looking at.

If you have not already been to the exhibition do try to find the time before it closes on October 9th.

St Stephen of Hungary

Today is the feast of St Stephen of Hungary - except in Hungary itself where it is celebrated on August 20th, which is said to be the day of the translation of his remains to Buda. For a variety of reasons I have always found the history of the Apostolic Kingdom of interest, and so I thought I would share some details about St Stephen in life, in death and in tradition. I have based this post, with some additions and editing, on John Dillon's Medieval Religion discussion group post from last year. St Stephen (d. 1038). Vaik was the son of the first Christian ruler of Hungary, grand prince Géza, with whom he was baptized at perhaps the age of ten. At his baptism he received the Christian name by which he is known (in Hungarian, István). Géza, who was an innovator in several important respects, saw to it that Stephen married into the ruling family of Bavaria; he also substituted male primogeniture for the seniorate as a principle of succession, thus making Stephen his heir apparent. After Géza's death in 997 Stephen won a succession struggle and proceeded to consolidate his rule over the Magyar clans, taking the title of king in about the year 1001. Traditionally it has been held that in 1000 he received his crown from Pope Sylvester II Stephen also consolidated Christianity in Hungary, ordering the building of churches across the kingdom and the collection of tithes to support their priests, establishing a diocesan structure under an archbishop, and forbidding intermarriage between Christians and others. He was canonized in 1083. What is said to be St Stephen's right hand is preserved as a relic (the "Holy Right") in a chapel in his mostly nineteenth-century basilica in Budapest. There is a detailed article about the relic and about the Hungarian regalia, which has been associated with St Stephen in national perception for centuries, here. There is a photograph of the reliquary here, and this is the "Holy Right": There is another photograph of the hand here. St Stephen. (at right, together with his queen, Bl. Gisela of Hungary) as depicted in fresco in the thirteenth-century Gisela chapel (Gizellakapolna) at Veszprém here (the image is expandable) and here. Here is St Stephen as depicted in a miniature in the Hungarian Képes Krónika (Chronicon Pictum: before 1360): I think that is a particularly appealing example of fourteenth century manuscript art, and in its use of the arms of the Kingdom. St Stephen. as depicted by by János Rozsnyai in the Crucifixion (1445) on the north wall of the sanctuary of the cathedral of Nagyszeben, can be seen here: To this I would add this picture: Procession of the relics of St Stephen to the Parliament building in August 2000. I will, hopefully, post more about the Holy Crown of St Stephen on August 20th.