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 ...
Mom, those are not corpses. Those are skeletons. Lacking in anatomical knowledge as well?
Well that changes everything!
Well nobody can know everything, but we can certainly say that other churches haven't gotten caught red handed doing those things. Better?
Yehova’s Bible cannot be “canonized” by men.
The pillar of deceit claims to have canonized the Bible, but I shall go with Yehova’s Holy Spirit revealing his word to me, as the word so declares
Yes, 154 says all we need to know.
I’m confident that she’ll get her wish.
Well now that you mention it, the Roman Catholic faith seems to have an odd obsession with cadavers, skeletons, earthly remains...
You’re supposed to ping me. You remind me of Robert Mitchum in “Night of the Hunter.” Wikipedia is your friend - and it’s not a compliment.
I don’t know what this refers to since the link doesn’t work. (I’m not a fan of Dan Brown.) But one thing I know: when we are pushing up the daisies, the historians will be talking about our indecent love of abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, woman-hatred and war. But they will reflect that the Catholic Church stood firm against all of these horrors. And for that, I will remain a steadfast Catholic.
Sure, and Santa Muerte is a “death cult”... a blatantly pagan throwback. Are you really comfortable that your church’s practices are comparable to theirs?
All religions are throwbacks. Western Christianity has strong roots in the pagan art of Rome. The reason? It’s a way of drawing in converts. It’s a new religion but it also reminds people of “the old” religion. It’s why Catholics have always used black figures in art in trying to convert folks in Africa.
Grotesque and Demonic.
Necromancers and idolators have no claim on Yehova’s rest.
>> “But they will reflect that the Catholic Church stood firm against all of these horrors.” <<
.
Really?
Pedophile ‘priests’ against homosex?
Necromancers against necromancy?
LOL!
Queston: if you ruled the world, what would you do with the Sistine Chapel? Burn it or preserve it?
Those photos look fresh, were they taken in museums or catholic churches?
They still seem to be using the gold drenched skeletons for rituals.
How did you know that I represented the entire Catholic Church? You are so wise...
AKA Combining Paganism and Christianity. AKA Whoring around with other religions and gods.
Don’t forget the statistics of how Catholics voted, persistently liberal, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage, because, after all, the Dems are *for the poor* as you can see here.
They’re for everyone else paying for the poor.
They could be selling that jewelry and using it to buy food, provide medical care, build hospitals and schools.
Can you imagine far that money could go in the third world hell holes that predominantly Catholic countries tend to be?
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