“And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.” Luke 2:21
Some people would be astounded to know how far back the tourism industry stretches. Some claim it stretches back to the 14th century in Europe, when a preponderance of holy relics appeared rather suddenly. The number and diversity were impressive: the Shroud of Turin, said to be Jesus Christ’s image on his burial shroud, which was unheard of until the relic trade began in the 1300s, the Sudarium of the Lord, a facecloth that is said to have captured Christ’s profile after he died on the cross, the Spear of Destiny, which a Roman centurion wielded as he stabbed Christ on the cross (four of these currently exist in Europe) and probably the least known, the Holy Prepuce, or Holy Foreskin.
As noted in Luke 2:21, Christ was a Jew, and as was the custom at the time, he was circumcised but the journey of the Holy Foreskin was only just beginning. Depicted in several paintings, such as Circumcision of Christ, painted on the Twelve Apostles altar by Friedrich Herlin in 1466, the foreskin was venerated by medieval Christians as an actual part of Christ’s body, possessed of miraculous powers.
A common myth alleges the foreskin was given by Charlemagne to Pope Leo III in 800 A.D. Not everyone was convinced the story held water, though, and the tale was not helped by the fact that in the following years up to 21 other Holy Foreskins were also announced in Europe in such disparate places as Charroux, Antwerp, Stoke-on-Trent and Langres.
The medieval relic trade was profitable. Pilgrims from across Christendom travelled what, at the time, were rather dangerous roads to visit cities such as Turin that held artifacts said to be associated with Christ, the saints or other holy figures and while they were on the road pilgrims spent a lot of shekels, much as modern tourists do today. However, the authenticity of many relics was almost immediately called into question, even by the church itself. For example, in a 1389 letter, Bishop Pierre D'Arcis denounced the Shroud of Turin as a fraud to Clement VII.
Getting back to the foreskin, again, even the church hesitated to authenticate it; in the 12th century, Pope Innocent III declined to authenticate the Holy Foreskin after a monastic order requested he do so. However, according to the Museum of Hoaxes, centuries later “Leo Allatius speculated in his essay De Praeputio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Diatriba that the holy foreskin had ascended into heaven at the same time as Jesus, and had become the rings of Saturn.” In 1900, the Catholic church made discussion of the Holy Foreskin forbidden territory on pain of excommunication.
Oops.
Stu Salkeld is the editor of the St. Albert Gazette and may purchase, for only $20.06, plus $8.86 shipping and handling, a candle that touched a piece of the True Cross in the Holy Land.
