the.com/reliquary
a fancy box built to make a bone feel like a miracle.
means a container, often ornate, made to hold and display a sacred relic such as a saint's bodily remains or personal effects.
from from latin reliquiae, meaning remains or things left behind; medieval christianity turned bone-keeping into an art form, encasing skulls and fingers in gold to give the faithful something to kneel before.
body partssome held entire skeletons, arranged as if praying
medieval economyrelics drove pilgrimage traffic like modern tourism
shape as clueoften shaped like the body part inside
black marketrelic theft was so common it had a name: furta sacra
for instance
sainte-chapelle — paris, built by louis ix just to house christ's crown of thorns
tooth of buddha relic — kandy, sri lanka, paraded yearly in the esala perahera festival
chalice of antioch — once claimed as the holy grail, now in the met, new york