BISHOPS GILT CRYSTAL RELIQUARY, TRUE CROSS RELIC, DOC! Start Price USD 3,980.00 Current Price USD 3,980.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Tuesday, August 19, 2008 End Time Friday, August 29, 2008 Location Roma See more about 'BISHOPS GILT CRYSTAL RELIQUARY, TRUE CROSS RELIC, DOC!' Description A spiritual treasure, worthy of the treasury of a Cathedral: BISHOP'S FIRE-GILT CRYSTAL RELIQUARY WITH A RELIC OF THE TRUE CROSS, Document Nice/France 1845 A wonderful piece from the private chapel of a French noble family, which once belonged to a Bishop who belonged to this family. According to the family tradition, it was a gift on occasion of his 50th anniversary of priesthood: A beautiful, filigree fire-gilt altar reliquary with many fine details, a masterpiece of the goldsmiths of the Cote d'Azur of the 19th century. The relic window is surrounded by 26 crystals in brillant cut. On top a cross of six brillant cut crystals. The sidewings of the reliquary are decorated by 21 green and red rhinestones, again in diamond-cut. Height: ca. 8 inches.  In its "window" section is a filigree Sterling silver theca with beautiful details. Inside, behind octagonally cut crystal glass, are large fragments of the most precious relic, the Wood of the True Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The theca is sealed with the red wax seal of Bishop Dominicus Galvano of Nice.  The reliquary comes with its original document, issued on October 10, 1845 describing the relic as "of the wood of the Most Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ", describing the "silver theca of oval shape" and allowing the public veneration of the precious relic. Please note that relics with still the original document are extremely rare. Although already the seal and unbroken threads guarantee the authenticity of a relic, the document is important in case you plan to donate or inherit your reliquary to your Parish Church once.  EX   LIG(no) SSME     CRUCIS The Wood of the Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to several Church historians of the 4th and 5th century, the True Cross was discovered in 325 AD when Emperor Constantine the Great ordered the removal of a pagan temple built by Hadrian over the site of the Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre. Beneath the structure, in an old cistern, three crosses, the title with the inscription "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", and three nails were found. In the presence of the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, the Cross of Christ was identified by the 'titulus' and the nail holes, and later confirmed by a miracle. It was laid upon a sick woman who was immediately miraculously cured. Helena divided the most precious wood into several parts, leaving a fragment in Jerusalem, sending a second to her son in Constantinople and taking a third to Rome. A part of it and half of the title with the inscription I NAZARINUS R... is still preserved and venerated in the Basilica di S. Croce, one of the seven main churches of the Eternal City. In 1998, a careful investigation was commissioned by the Holy See and seven Israeli experts on the dating of inscriptions (comparative palaeography) dated its letters into the 1st century, the time of Christ. This suddenly gave the 'legend of the Finding of the Cross' a lot of credibility. Already in 349 AD, St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, stated that the True Cross "has been distributed, fragment by fragment, from this spot (Jerusalem) and has already nearly filled the world", confirming the early practise of distributing tiny particles of the Most Holy Wood. When St. Paulinus of Nola sent one to a friend in ca. 401 AD, he wrote: "Receive a great gift in a little case and take this segment as an armament against the perils of the present and a pledge of everlasting safety". He stressed that "even the smallest particle bears in it the whole power of the Cross of Christ".  The claim of the "enlightened" sceptics, that all relics of the True Cross would be sufficient to build a ship, was proven wrong in 1870 by the French scholar Rohault de Fleury, who mathematically calculated the volume of all relics of the True Cross in all European Cathedrals and found them all together having the mass of only one third of a Roman cross!   As per Ebay's new rules, this item is allowed as it contains no human remains but objects of devotion; the relic is of wood. Please note that you bid on the precious antique reliquary, the relic is a gift to the High Bidder. Please contact me if you have any questions. If you are interested in reliquaries, you find more in my Ebay-Store - it´s just a mouseclick away! Bid with confidence, the authenticity is guaranteed. Good luck and God bless you!   Place a Bid!