Relics and Reliquaries: Divine Contributions

Tourists visiting Jerusalem today are offered a range of sacred souvenirs apparently gathered from various sites with biblical significance. For the most part they are simple objects such as water from the river Jordan, oil from the Garden of Gethsemane, soil from Calvary or rocks from the site of the Holy Sepulchre. Their significance for the collector, of course, lies in their association with Christ’s life and teachings. It relies also on the understanding that the environment occupied by Christ retains his lasting imprint in a very physical way. The impulse to acquire something from a sacred landscape is neither new nor peculiar to Christianity. Nor is it entirely restricted to religious feeling. From a secular perspective the desire to own an object that was previously in the possession of a famous personality or to visit a place once occupied by them is comparable. The price achieved by the desk of Charles Dickens, recently auctioned at Christie’s for £433,250, reflects not the value of the piece but the conviction that its very fabric is imbued with the character of the celebrated writer. Each of us in the course of our lives is likely in some way to invest spiritual or sentimental worth in past people, places, objects or events.