Posted on 09/06/2013 7:15:37 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
A relic hunter dubbed 'Indiana Bones' has lifted the lid on a macabre collection of 400-year-old jewel-encrusted skeletons unearthed in churches across Europe.
Art historian Paul Koudounaris hunted down and photographed dozens of gruesome skeletons in some of the world's most secretive religious establishments.
Incredibly, some of the skeletons, said to be the remains of early Christian martyrs, were even found hidden away in lock-ups and containers.
They are now the subject of a new book, which sheds light on the forgotten ornamented relics for the first time.
Thousands of skeletons were dug up from Roman catacombs in the 16th century and installed in towns around Germany, Austria and Switzerland on the orders of the Vatican.
They were sent to Catholic churches and religious houses to replace the relics destroyed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s.
Mistaken for the remains of early Christian martyrs, the morbid relics, known as the Catacomb Saints, became shrines reminding of the spiritual treasures of the afterlife.
They were also symbols of the Catholic Church's newly found strength in previously Protestant areas.
Each one was painstakingly decorated in thousands of pounds worth of gold, silver and gems by devoted followers before being displayed in church niches.
Some took up to five years to decorate.
They were renamed as saints, although none of them qualified for the title under the strict rules of the Catholic church which require saints to have been canonised.
But by the 19th century they had become morbid reminders of an embarrassing past and many were stripped of their honours and discarded.
Mr Koudounaris' new book, Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs, is the first time the skeletons have appeared in print.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
—— You might want to read the article and see what the subject is. -——
I did.
So it’s wrong for Christians to honor long-dead saints, by burying them with jewelry, but OK for a husband to honor his wife by burying her with her jewelry collection? Pass me the smelling salts. I’m getting the vapors.
Anyway, it’s benificent of you to permit the latter, at least.
I don't find that hard to believe.
>> “Great art from the Catholics - as usual.” <<
.
Great testimony for Satan, as usual.
Lol, because naming your colonial settlement after your King, or naming an airport after JFK, is just like the subject of this thread.
Hah!
>> “Who says you can’t take it with you?” <<
.
Yehova.
Oh, please. I’ve been damned to hell at least 3 times on this thread alone for daring to question holy-rollers silly fear of Catholic rituals.
If you consider a “Whited Sepulcre” to be a church.
Perfect symbol for any faith that puts more show on outward ritual and appearance than on the “weightier matters”.
Christi’s words about whitewashed tombs comes to mind...
Amazing. Read the article and also reevaluate what relevance it would have if it turned out that some grocer buried his wife with her jewelry to what we discovered from this article.
Try to read the article and see what the subject is.
Why does that justify your nastiness and attacks against me?
.
Led to believe that by the headquarters of the Roman Catholic church the people accepting, and keeping, the mountains of gold and jewels.
Well, I can certainly see what wonderful things your church has done for you. Cracking open my Bible in a minute but first I want to sing a song popular in my "whited sepulchre" in the seventies:
"We are one in the Spirit. We are one in the Lord and we pray that our unity may one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love..."
My nastiness is not meant to be personal. It’s just general nastiness at Catholic bashers on this thread. Apologies!
Your reaction is exactly like mine, this can't be true, and it had to be created to put the Vatican and the Catholic church in the worst possible light.
This story is disgusting.
Acts 7:49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Acts 7:50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
Acts 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Acts 17:25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
Editor, I love you! I was waiting for the Sistine Chapel haters to come out of their bat nests!
Fake relics of fake saints by a church that calls itself the *one true church*....
right......
“Great art from the Catholics”?!?!?!
Only a Catholic could see something like that as *great*.
That skeleton looks hideous if not downright demonic.
If Catholics consider that great, then y’all can keep your twisted belief system.
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