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 ...
Not much of a good soldier, trisham, but I love and like my religion. As you know, it is the religion of Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Giotto, Raphael, Titian, Georgione, etc.
Beats dogs playing poker against a black velvet background any day.
My comment was not referring to the practice of venerating relics.
So, if you act like a liberal, what does that make you?
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Perhaps the most, and at the very least amongst the very most, extraordinarily talented geniuses of all time.
Sorry, I got cross-conversationed.
I'll just leave it there.
A Catholic who recognizes people who hate a western religion more than a religion that is setting out to destroy my culture. I hope I never run into you people again.
Bless you, Trish. I could have used more help on this thread but you were enough for the evening!
Thank goodness King James wrote it down at Pentecost.
If you do run into one of us again, we’ll be the ones NOT getting giddy over the skeleton art. We’ll be the ones standing with our Bibles, pointing out, ONCE AGAIN, God’s Word for you. WE’re the ones you laugh at. We have no arts and crafts religion. We are the ones that give to you 2 Cor. 5:14-21 continually. We are the ones that pray you in Christ’s stead to be reconciled to God by the FINISHED work of Christ.
They have new relics to venerate and pray to.
But will you stand up to the Muslim hordes who will be descending upon us within the next 50 years? Or will you be so twisted up with hate toward Papists, that you will not see the new Holocaust coming?
You are no different that any other false religion, miss marmelstein. You are dead in your sins. Just like Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, etc. You depend on your own works of righteousness and your Church to get you over the finish line. Your religion is just as much a part of the reason a Holocaust is coming than any other “religious” group. Which is why we stand day after day, begging you in Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God by the FINISHED WORK of Christ on your behalf.
I’ll say it again: you people are sick, sick, sick. And I’m heart sickened that Free Republic allows you people to flourish like green bay or locust trees. Please God, have mercy on the soul of America for its many sins and it’s many internal enemies.
“A Catholic who recognizes people who hate a western religion more than a religion that is setting out to destroy my culture.”
None of us, that I can see, have said we hate the Catholic church, so you seem to be ascribing that to us. Isn’t there something in the Bible about not judging what is in others’ hearts?
“I hope I never run into you people again.”
If we all believe in Christ, we are all going to the same place, so that might be difficult for you. Unless, of course, you plan on going somewhere else.
You are about the 10th person to consign me to one of Dante’s infernos. Look to your own soul, Boogieman.
THen it’s a shame you don’t know GOd’s Word. Because it will truly set you free. Study the Scriptures. Be a Berean, and search the Scriptures to see if these things are so. And to see if they differ from the teachings of your church. Your argument is with God. It’s His plan for mankind. If your spiritual eyes were opened you would understand.
“But will you stand up to the Muslim hordes who will be descending upon us within the next 50 years?”
Will you? We’re not the ones whose religious leaders like to hold hands with Imams and kiss copies of the Koran.
Saint Bony
Patron Saint of Bones everywhere
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