Numen 57 (2010) 284–316 brill.nl/nu What Do Reliquaries Do for Relics? Cynthia Hahn Hunter College CUNY, Art Department, 695 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021, USA
[email protected] Abstract This article introduces prominent issues that surround the Christian use of reliquar- ies, first discussing examples from Trier made by the renowned Archbishop Egbert in the tenth century, then turning to early Christian texts to investigate the beginnings of relic practice and belief. Of special interest are the letters and poems of Paulinus of Nola, but also the commentaries of Augustine, Ambrose, Victricius of Rouen and others that flesh out an understanding of how reliquaries were essential to the project of creating an appropriate reverentia for relics (Peter Brown’s term). The materiality of reliquaries, their creation of social relations, particular issues of enclosure and beauty, and questions of potential visibility are given special consideration. Keywords Relic, reliquary, Paulinus of Nola, Egbert of Trier, vision, audience Relics and Reliquaries Dramatically lit and displayed like a precious gem in its glass vitrine in the cool, secure vault of the treasury of the Limburg-an-der-Lahn Cathedral, a curiously phallic-shaped, hyper-attenuated object cap- tures the viewer’s attention but at the same moment confounds it (fig. 1). For the modern viewer, the object allows little or no insight into either its meaning or its controversial and dramatic past. One’s first impression is of an entity, glittering, magnificent, static, and undeniably exotic. Over six feet long and covered with gold foil, what could be described as a floating spear, culminates at its apex in a small orb heavily ornamented with gems, pearls, enamels, filigree, and many, many inscriptions.