As monks, thieves and even emperors and kings, not to mention ordinary medieval people, they acquired, traded, stole, distributed, gnawed, replaced, took away holy relics and relics.
In the VIII century, a new very profitable business arose in the world - the sale of relics. The fact is that in 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Council, also known as the Second Nicene Council, forbade the construction of churches without relics. In the morning of power - in the evening of the church. Building a church is not only a godly business, but also more profitable, and the more famous the relics, the more pilgrims from all over Europe will visit the church. The relics were such a valuable commodity that people simply went crazy when the opportunity arose to acquire a piece of a dried calf (or even the whole calf) of a saint. Allegedly, in 1000 in Italy, the inhabitants of one town wanted to kill the monk Romuald, who had earned a reputation as a saint during his lifetime, in order to build a new church on his relics. It is not known why the insidious plan to transform a living person into relics did not come true, perhaps they decided to wait,when Romuald's earthly glory grows louder.
Thomas Aquinas died in the Italian monastery of Fossanova. The monks of this monastery decapitated the corpse of the famous theologian, butchered it and boiled it, thus obtaining high-quality relics that can be sold in pieces, leaving the best part for themselves.
And the French king Charles VI once at a feast arranged the distribution of the relics of his canonized ancestor Louis IX. He gave one rib to his uncles to the dukes, and ordered several cardinals to split one leg. Karl, by the way, had the nickname Mad. For more than thirty years he suffered from fits of insanity. It seemed to him that he was made of glass and was about to break, then he refused to wash and change the clothes, then he did not recognize his wife and fought with the servants.
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Elizabeth of Hungary, a princess who became a nurse for the sick poor, was revered as a saint during her lifetime, it was believed that she was able to cure deadly diseases and work miracles. Elizabeth changed the palace to a hospital for the poor after her husband's death. This change of scenery was not easy for the princess. They say, to overcome disgust, she kissed lepers. When the ex-princess was not caring for the sick, she asked for alms.
An insane number of people came to Elizabeth's funeral, the pilgrims stormed. The lucky ones who managed to approach the coffin tore into pieces the boards that covered the face of the deceased, cut off their nails, hair, earlobes and even Elizabeth's nipples as a keepsake. Elizabeth of Hungary was canonized three years later.
In honor of Elizabeth, a temple was built, where pilgrims came in large numbers, wishing to bow to the holy princess and be healed. Elizabeth's descendant Philip I the Magnanimous, in order to get rid of the pilgrims, ordered the relics to be removed from the temple, divided into parts and buried in different places. Philip's servants, of course, disobeyed and hid the relics.
Pilgrims who came to venerate the relics were often a serious problem. In the cities, there were annual processions with relics and other sacred relics stored in the local church. The procession passed very merrily, the people drank, lewd, cursed, and all this was in close proximity to the bodies of the saints. The people believed that since you are carrying shrines, then everything is forgiven you on this day. Local saints and the city administration did not like such a sharp decline in morality, but they kept their mouths shut, since the pilgrims brought a lot of money to the city treasury. Just think once a year, they will be scared, but everyone who is expecting a miracle will definitely donate to the church, so that the miracle will certainly happen, stay at a local tavern, pay for the night and food. There is nothing better for medieval tourism than holy relics.
It was not enough to get the relics of the saint; it was also necessary to keep them. The relics of some of the most popular saints were guarded around the clock, they could easily have been stolen. Thieves of church relics have always had enough work. Some abbot or local nobleman wanted the head of John the Baptist, as a thief is already ready to bring it to him on a plate with a blue border for a modest payment compared to the market value of this relic. The most famous thief of relics in the 9th century was Deacon Deusdon. He quickly figured out how to make money in the emerging market, and put together an organized criminal group to steal sacred relics. Soon, the tomb robbers and relics thieves threw up like mushrooms after the rain. Like the children of Lieutenant Schmidt, they divided all of Europe into parts, Deusdon, as the most respected thief, got the most tasty morsel. They saythat Deusdon and members of his gang were never caught by the hand, and among their customers were not only monks and rich people, but also the French king Louis I.
The real peak of the power business in Europe came in the 13th century, when, as a result of the fourth crusade, the crusaders sacked Constantinople. The relics and relics pocketed by the knights in Constantinople for a long time walked across Europe, and often each of their parts of the saint's body existed in dozens or even hundreds of copies. In Europe in the Middle Ages there was a popular tale based on real events about a relic merchant, which Boccaccio recorded in the Decameron. One rascal Chipolla walked the cities with a chest of angelic feathers, which, of course, were not angelic, but once belonged to exotic parrots. Since ordinary people in Europe have never seen parrots, the feathers always sold out with a bang. In one city, they decided to conduct a trader and replaced the feathers in the casket with coals. But Cipolla was not taken aback, he told the peasants,that these are the very coals on which the pagans roasted Saint Lawrence (Lawrence was imprisoned in a cage and roasted on coals). Cipolla did not have a single coal left, they sold everything.
A story with an insanity-like veneration of a national saint took place in Moscow in 1861. The holy fool Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha, who is also a "Moscow prophet", allegedly healed and predicted, but in fact insulted and trolled the petitioners who came to him. The richest people in the capital considered it an honor to hear the insult and be spat upon by Koreysha.
Noble ladies came to wash the dead body of the holy fool, and then they used the water that washed the corpse of the old man as medicine. Half of Moscow came to say goodbye to the holy fool. They say that all the flowers that covered the coffin were dismantled in a moment, and when the flowers ran out, they began to tear the fabric covering the body, and, finally, they began to tear off and gnaw off pieces from the coffin. Who could, snatched a hair or a marigold of Koreishi.
Ivan Koreysha was not canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Greeks made good money on the Russian market for relics in the 16th-17th centuries. They were selling the tenth leg or thirtieth rib of another saint, telling Russian buyers that by doing so they were saving the shrines from desecration at home. From the surviving documents it is known that the hand of the saint under Alexei Mikhailovich could be bought for 70 rubles, a particle of the relics of St. Peter - for 35 rubles, about the same cost a particle of the Cross of Christ. The Greeks were paid mainly in furs. For comparison, a ruble in the 17th century could buy a small flock of sheep or a hundred chickens.
Greek patriarchs signed certificates of authenticity for any fake while Moscow paid for the relics.
In 1655, Aleksey Mikhailovich asked the Athonite monks to bring the head of John Chrysostom and Constantine's Cross to Russia on tour. The tsar paid 2,000 rubles for the shrines and left a receipt for the Greeks with the obligation to return the relics after some time. After 10 years, the cross and the head were still in Russia. The Greeks came to the king and asked to return the shrines to the Athos monastery. For 1000 rubles, the head of the delegation suddenly forgot what he had come for, and his assistant, outraged by this injustice, was sent to the Solovetsky Monastery to exchange experience.
In 1693, 17 years after the death of the king, the Greeks again recalled the relics. The Greeks were told that there was no receipt, they paid for the shrines - there was a case, but no one promised to return. But in order not to spoil relations with Greece, Russia pledged to pay the monastery that gave the head, every four years, 500 rubles. In 1753, the payments were completed when the Greeks, having lost all hope of returning the relics, announced that the head stored in Russia was not real. That is, it is real, but does not belong to John Chrysostom, but to Andrew of Caesarea. So it is still unclear where John, and where Andrew. And at the Athos monastery Vatopedi they say that they have Chrysostom, in the Russian Orthodox Church they swear that Chrysostom is in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and on Athos Andrei of Caesarea. But here, as it happens in religion, it remains to take their word for it.
Author: Mikhail Mosyagin
