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Priest Holding a Reliquary (MET 47.101.49)

39447
By Brooke Hendershott '23


This small statue of a priest holds a glass tube containing a very important religious relic: a sliver of the arm bone of St. Macarius of Egypt. It was made in northern France, seemingly to hold the relic brought back by a crusader and rapped in precious fabric. The fact that a statue was made for just a sliver of a saint's bone shows the importance of relics to Crusaders throughout the Christian world and how this manifested on their journeys. It also shows French Gothic metalworking techniques in action and their contrast to other metal works in this exhibition.

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  1. Metal Brooke Hendershott
  2. Explore Objects in the Exhibition Brooke Hendershott
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Contents of this path:

  1. What is this?
  2. When was it made?
  3. Why was this made and how was it used?
  4. How was this made?
  5. Who made this?
  6. Where was this produced?
  7. Where did this go?
  8. What does this tell us about the Crusades?
  9. Sources and Further Reading

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