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 ...
"That's about all he does."
Just when you think you’ve heard it all from Catholics, they come along and LAUD this kind of perversion.
Yehova is the chief hater of the sistine chapel.
I’m confused that anyone would doubt this story. One trip to an Italian church (or even Little Italy in NYC) would show this is Catholic ritual. It’s darkly medieval and probably comes out of the days of the Black Death when a huge proportion of the population was wiped out. Death was sort of a living thing to medieval people.
It reminds me of 19th Century photos I’ve seen in a New Orleans museum of children’s corpses after a typhoid epidemic. The children were too young to have been photographed prior to death, so their parents set up cameras to film the little dead bodies. Sad yet very human.
Uh oh. First they came at me with lower caps. Now they’re after me with red type!
Putting ostentatious gold and jewels on the bodies of dead people and displaying those skeletons *decorated* with almost unimaginable wealth *art* is not more art than putting a crucifix in a jar of urine.
And as far as caring for the poor, Jesus said ....
Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying, Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
What an unconscionable waste of time and resources that God has blessed us with for the purpose of helping one another.
Catholics love to use that straw man: “I guess you’re so holy and pure in your church.”
No one is. What puts the Roman Catholic Church into a category all their own is how they handled the sinners once the travesty was discovered.
Other churches didn’t relocate their bishops and cardinals (or the equivalent) out of the reach of US law enforcement, as the RCC did. Other churches haven’t given fat pay-off checks to get child molesters to just leave their churches and sweep the issue under the rug.
And, to put not too fine a point on it, other churches don’t encourage widespread flouting of our immigration laws as the RCC does, a policy which brings in even more rapists and murderers into our midst.
I was reading through and was stunned at the comments from Catholics. The only thought that came to mind was cultish paganism blatantly paraded for all to see.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
I absolutely agree with you.
What's "it?"
Try to read the article and see what the subject is.
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Um, never heard of the red letter version of the Bible, where the words of Jesus are in red?
It wouldn’t surprise me that a Catholic never heard of that. They have to read Bibles in the first place.
I have not seen ONE Catholic say ANYTHING even remotely critical or in opposition to this.
They all seem to think this is just fine.
That picture of that skeleton is the stuff nightmares are made of and they consider it *art* and criticize anyone who doesn’t agree as *not knowing what art is8?
Just when you think you’ve heard it all from Catholics........
Uh, yeah. And your point is...?
I’ve read the Catholic bible. No red type. Your posts to me are hurting my eyes so please stop.
How do you know? Are you omniscient? How can anyone know? Seriesly.
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice did a study of child abuse, and found that the child abuse rate of priests to be about 1-2%, ministers 2-3%, and public school teachers about 15%
Do I need to post the "Oh Noes!" guys again?
I wouldn’t expect a Catholic to get it.......
Odd how Catholics criticize non-Catholics for following men and then turn around and rave about how they follow the example of their *saints*.
The concept of following Jesus seems to have escaped them.
Doing themselves what they condemn in others is called “hypocrisy”.
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