We're not sure who he gave it to, but by 1544 it was in the treasury of the Habsburg emperors in Vienna. And from there its secularisation begins - the gold, enamel and jewels become far more valuable and interesting than the humble thorn that they h...
To have a relic particularly connected with the Passion of Christ was the best thing you could have. But there were also relics of the saints, particularly the martyrs. I think they provoked a lot of envy, especially the French collections. The rival...
There's no way now of proving that this was a thorn that actually pierced the head of Christ, but we can say with confidence that it's a type of buckthorn that still grows around Jerusalem, and the first mention of the Crown of Thorns as a relic is i...
For medieval Christians, the only hope of escaping the torments of hell lay in the redeeming blood that Christ had shed. At the very centre of the Reliquary is Christ, showing us his wounds. And here, just below him, before your very eyes and only in...
This week's programmes are about how we talk to our god, or our gods. The objects are, if you like, just aids to conversation, but these conversations are about very big subjects indeed. They are about salvation, not only of individuals but of commun...
066:EPISODE 66 - Holy Thorn Reliquary 第六十六集:圣荆棘髑遗物箱 Holy Thorn Reliquary (made around 1370), from Paris I'm in Paris, and I'm in what was one of the greatest museums of medieval Europe. Although it doesn't look like a muse...
In the Caribbean today Taino identity is the subject of much public debate, but it's a contentious subject. In his book 'Taino Revival', the author Gabriel Haslip-Viera considers the claims of those who say they are of Taino descent: The Taino people...
And there is in fact gold on our duho as well. The wide, gaping mouth, and the straining, boggling eyes of the humanoid head at the front, are emphasised by being inlaid with gold discs, and they add enormously to the frightening power of the object....
The Taino world was run by chiefdoms - centres of power whose leaders fought, negotiated and allied among themselves. They generally lived in settlements of a few thousand people, in large circular houses, each accommodating perhaps a dozen families,...
And so the gaping, boggle-eyed figure at the front of our seat - humanoid but not human - is the link to the cemi, to the spirit or the ancestor. One of the chief's key roles was to access the domain of the sacred, the realm of the cemis. Seated on t...