THE DISCOVERY OF ST. STEPHEN’S RELICS (A.D. 415).
Though Stephen was the first martyr, nobody knew for near four hundred years where his body was buried, except that it was at Caphargamala or borough of Gamaliel, twenty miles from Jerusalem. Lucian, the priest of that place, in 415 was one night asleep or half awake, when suddenly a comely old man, of venerable garb and long white beard, with a golden wand, entered the baptistery and told Lucian to go to Jerusalem and ask Bishop John to come and open the tomb where lay Stephen, who was stoned by the Jews, and whose body was exposed to wild beasts; but they would not touch it. Whereupon the body was taken away by Gamaliel and buried in a particular spot near the body of Nicodemus. Lucian asked who this venerable messenger was, and the answer was, “I am Gamaliel, who instructed Paul.” The vision appeared several times to Lucian, as well as others, giving further particulars. The search was afterwards made, and three coffins found, one of which was Stephen’s, at the opening of which the earth shook and an agreeable odour issued. Many miracles were wrought by these relics, and they were carried amid singing of psalms and hymns to the church of Sion at Jerusalem. Portions of the relics were carried to Spain by Orosius, and there caused many sudden conversions. Some also were given to St. Austin for his church of Hippo. In 444 the Empress Eudocia built a stately church about a furlong from Jerusalem, where Stephen’s relics were translated, the site being supposed to be that where he was stoned to death.
THE RELICS OF ST. DUNSTAN AT GLASTONBURY (A.D. 1184).
As Dunstan, who died 988, was a most domineering and imperious monk in his day, and stood up for his order, his bones were sacred. When Glastonbury Abbey, after a great fire in 1184, was rebuilt, there was a great stirring up of relics which were placed in shrines. Amongst others the St. Dunstan relics gave rise to a quarrel between the monks of Glastonbury and those of Canterbury, which lasted some four centuries. There was an old monk at Glastonbury, named John Canan, who was believed to be the sole depositary of the secret of Dunstan’s burying-place, and a boy named John Waterleighe was employed to get at the secret. The old monk, in circuitous phrase, told the boy at last that the place was near the door where the holy water was sprinkled, and this was divulged, and the other monks lifted a stone and found a wooden chest plated with iron. The prior and all the convent assembled to see it opened, and they found some of the bones of Dunstan and a ring, in one half of which was a picture curiously worked. There was a crown and the word sanctus under it, so that they all were confident these were the right relics. The relics were accordingly solemnly placed in a shrine covered with gold and silver. When the monks of Canterbury heard of this they were profoundly agitated, for they drew pilgrims chiefly under the belief that their own abbey had the better part of the saint. The rival monks wrote furious letters against each other; and intrigues continued at Canterbury with varying success till the time of the Reformation.
JOHN HUSS ON RELICS (A.D. 1401).
John Huss, born 1369, became a stirring preacher, and was appointed in 1401 to officiate at the chapel of Bethlehem, where poor people chiefly attended. The archbishop of that time was anxious to check some of the current superstitions, and used Huss as a means to that end. One matter caused great wonder. A knight had destroyed a church some years before, but left a stone altar standing. In one of the cavities were found three wafers coloured red, as if with blood. Though such a colour is naturally produced in bread and similar substances long exposed to moisture, there being a fungus gradually formed, which under the microscope is easily seen, but to the naked eye having a close resemblance to blood, the ignorant multitude at once accepted this as a miracle, symbolical of the blood of Christ; and extraordinary excitement grew up, and pilgrimages were made from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia, in order to view it. The monks and clergy encouraged the wonder. The archbishop, shocked by such a scandal, appointed a committee of three, one of whom was Huss, to examine and report. Huss drew up a report reflecting on this and many similar relics as entire delusions, and hinting that they were put forward merely by greedy ecclesiastics for base purposes. He reviewed the history of these impostures, and also exposed another fraud, about a silver hand hung up by a citizen of Prague in a church, and which was long believed to be in testimony of a lame hand of the donor being miraculously cured, though there had been really no cure, as hundreds could attest.
POWER OF THE CRUCIFIX DURING THE PLAGUE (A.D. 1649).
The extent to which images and their makers have produced effects on excitable crowds was shown during the plague of Malaga in 1649. A certain statue of Christ at the column carved for the cathedral by Giuseppe Micael, an Italian, performed prodigies of healing, and bade fair to rival that holy crucifix sculptured at Jerusalem by Nicodemus, and possessed by the Capuchins of Burgos, which sweated on Fridays and wrought miracles all the week. While the pestilence was yet raging, the sculptor stood one evening musing near the door of the sanctuary where his work was enshrined, but with so sorrowful a countenance that a friend, hailing him from afar, according to the usages of plague-stricken society, inquired the cause of his sadness. “Think you,” said the artist, “that I have anything more to look for on earth after seeing and hearing the prodigies and marvels of this sovereign image which my unworthy hands have made? It is an old tradition among the masters of our craft that he shall soon die to whom it is given to make a miraculous image.” And Giuseppe erred not in his presentiment; his chisel’s task was done. Within eight days the dead-cart carried him to the gorged cemetery of Malaga. His fame was long preserved by his statue, which obtained the name of the “Lord of Health.”
THE POPE PURCHASES THE HEAD OF ST. ANDREW (A.D. 1461).