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When monks went undercover to steal relics

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  1. Atvelonis
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    This is a very interesting article, thank you for sharing it. I'm intrigued by this line: The article mentions that there was a historical genre of furta sacra devoted to tales about "holy theft,"...

    This is a very interesting article, thank you for sharing it. I'm intrigued by this line:

    But the most important explanation is a theological one. Because relics were infused with the living presence of a saint, capable of working miracles, they were perfectly able to stop a thief. Any relic that didn’t wish to be moved could simply become too heavy to lift, or cause all the doors of the church to spontaneously lock. By this logic, if a relic was stolen, it wanted to be.

    The article mentions that there was a historical genre of furta sacra devoted to tales about "holy theft," but are people still writing such stories? I bet you could come up with something really interesting by working in this relic-personification framework. I'm also amused by this quote describing a particularly miraculous relic:

    [W]hen evening was approaching and they were thoroughly exhausted by the day’s service, they approached the tables… But, behold! Suddenly, before anyone could lay a finger on the first dish placed before them, a miracle was done. They had to get up and sing praises, lest in the absence of the usual formal celebration, the power that had been manifested should pass by unregarded. Again, when they were hurrying back to their abandoned meal, the arrival on the scene of a subsequent miracle constrained them to turn away from the returning path. Thus a third and a fourth time a miracle cut short the possibility of eating, so that they passed the day unfed, all the way til nightfall.

    "Another miracle? We just sang praise to God three times!"

    2 votes