Why was the Textile Fragment from the Reliquary of St. Librada made, and how was it used?
During the Middle Ages textiles were highly valued; they were meaningfully produced and used over the span of a lifetime. Silks were especially esteemed due to the innate value of the raw materials used and the advanced textile technology employed to weave them.
Silks had a multitude of purposes:
• Adorning living spaces, furnishings, tapestries
• Worn as garments by the elite: members of the imperial court, important religious members
• Gifted between diplomats to form alliance
• Used to transport relics, lining reliquaries
• Becoming a relic themselves
• Employed in religious ceremonies such as burials
It is unclear what the exact intentions for this medallion silk were when it was produced as its iconography fits into a variety of religious and secular contexts. For example, the presence of a heraldically posed eagle could have been received or interpreted as a symbol of power as well as a symbol of divinity.
While the motivation for production is uncertain, the textile fragment’s supposed history of being taken as war loot by Alfonso VII of Castile, a Christian king, when his armies invaded Almeria, Spain in 1147, and its discovery in the reliquary of St. Librada indicate that it was possibly used to store St. Librada’s relics or simply line St. Librada’s reliquary, and maybe even employed by Alfonso VII of Castile to transport relics.
The history of St. Librada is uncertain, primarily in regard to St. Wilgefortis, and whether these are two individual saints or simply two different names referring to the same person. Generally, however, the legend indicates that Librada’s father intended for her to marry a Sicilian king, and in resistance she took a vow of chastity and prayed to God for a physical alteration or deformity that would delay or cancel her marriage. Shortly after, Librada grew a beard and her father, in anger, subsequently had her crucified. Librada was never officially canonized in the Catholic Church, however, was a venerated Catholic figure.
Arguably, Librada's personal history is not as important as the fact that she was a revered Catholic woman who died a martyr. Saints were incredibly respected and admired as evidenced by the preservation of their physical remains. The combination of a Catholic saint’s relic and an intracity woven, eastern inspired luxurious silk created an undeniable synergy.