Saint Peter’s Basilica is stunning in its size and grandeur. The cross placed atop Michelangelo’s dome is as high as the great Pyramids, which in his time were the tallest structures in the world. The bronze canopy beneath the dome, itself 66 feet high, is dwarfed by the vast space it occupies. Beneath the canopy is the high altar, where only the Pope celebrates mass. Beneath the altar are the Vatican grottos, where Popes lie inside their marble tombs. Beneath the grottos is a wall of brick covered in two-thousand-year-old red plaster. Long ago, someone scribed crude letters in the plaster which say Petros Eni. “Peter is within.”
Judas Thomas would not believe until he could place his hand in the wound in Jesus’ side. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe,” Jesus said afterward. The foundation of the Christian church is belief. Nonetheless, a scattering of tangible evidence doesn’t hurt. The Catholic and Orthodox churches, in particular, are fond of sacred relics which have been displayed to pilgrims over the centuries. You must believe! (But check this out.)
The tomb of Saint Peter is the holiest of relics in a building that is filled with relics, some much more prominently displayed. Four great sculptures reside between the colossal piers supporting Saint Peter’s dome. Each is associated with relics carefully stored in loggias above their heads. Saint Andrew and his very own skull. Saint Veronica and the cloth she used to wipe Jesus’ face on the way to Calvary. Constantine’s mother, Saint Helena, and the pieces of the cross she brought back to Rome. And, finally, Saint Longinus and bits of his lance, the very lance he used to make the hole into which Thomas later stuck his hand.
The history of Saint Longinus, is, like this blog, what we might call enhanced. The gospel of John simply mentions a Roman soldier stabbing Jesus on the cross to make sure he died before sundown. The other gospels mention a Centurion saying “surely this was the Son of God.” Tradition has melded them into the same person and added an entire history. In some tellings, Longinus was blind, and the blood from the wound dripped into his eyes and restored his sight.
And now we come to it. Another, much less well-known tradition, says that the blood itself, after curing Longinus’ sight, fell to the ground in great drops and crystallized into rubies. Of all the relics associated with Christianity, these may have been the most precious, as they carried within them the healing power of his body. Alas, all have been lost to history. All, I believe, but one. The Christus Sanguinum.
And so, our search begins.
LHOSAWORLD 