Skeleton Watch: Sumptuous Saints

Veneration of the holy dead is a practice that is as old as life itself. For Catholics, the tangible bodies of their ancestors in faith serve as constant reminders of their own mortality and as a bridge to the supernatural. Churches composed of bones, the bodies of incorruptible saints displayed beneath the high altar, and the host of relics from any number of saintly figures throughout Christian history all serve this higher purpose- to humble and to inspire.

The time-honored tradition of collecting relics was borne anew on May 31, 1578 when local vineyard workers found a crevice full of skeletal remains near Rome. The remains were presumed to date back to the first three centuries following Christ. Thousands of the remains were relocated to the catacombs in Rome, but hundreds were set aside to be sent throughout Europe as morale boosters.

In the wake of the Protestant Reformation, certain areas of Europe suffered from severe anti-Catholic sentiment, especially in Northern Europe. In these areas, Catholic churches had been plundered over decades of spiritual warfare. These newly found remains of the holy faithful could restore the morale of the decimated areas and literally restock the shelves of the churches that had been ransacked.

Head of St. Deodatus (Roggenburg, Germany)

The bodies became highly sought-after within months of their discovery. Practically every Catholic church on the continent wanted one. Southern German Catholics were especially desirous of the bones, seeing the corpses as new weapons in the spiritual battle against the Protestants. The rich wanted the bodies for their own private chapels, and fraternities and guilds pooled their resources to purchase one to act as their patron. Bribes and personal connections were certainly abused to get as many bones as possible. Once purchased, the bones were sealed and transported by specialists, usually monks. The vast majority of the bodies (over 2,000 corpses) ended up in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Because the body was meant to showcase the promises of splendor in the afterlife, it needed to be outfitted in the most lavish finery possible before being presented to the congregation. Teams of skilled nuns and monks would outfit the skeleton in fine fabrics and jewels in a process that took up to three years. Every parish and convent would develop its own signature style of covering the bones in gold, jewels, and fine fabrics. Nuns were experts in clothmaking, so they would spin fine mesh gauze to wrap each individual bone to prevent dust from settling. Local nobles donated personal garments, gems, and gold.

However, the nuns were not trained in anatomy, leaving some bones improperly placed or attached to the wrong body. To make the corpses seem more appealing, some were given full wax faces with gaping smiles and wide eyes. Members of modern culture, however, seem to perceive these efforts as terrifying.

St. Valerius (Weyarn, Germany)

In the villages housing the bodies, surges of popular piety would course through the veins of the people. Baptismal records show that, following the arrival of a body, the first-born child would be given male or female variations of the saint's name. Communities also believed that their patron saint protected them from evil and credited them with any miracle or good deed. Churches were known to archive "miracle books" documenting the positive events occurring after the saint's installation in the area.

St. Valentinus (Waldsassen, Germany)

However, as generations passed, the modern world (particularly the upper classes) began to find the bodies less alluring. The corpses were seen as a reminder of the barbaric past, hearkening back to the age of feudalism, vassalage, and anti-intellectualism. It appealed only to those uneducated (and poor) enough to not know any better. Emperor Joseph II, an Enlightenment man, was determined to dispel all superstitious sentiment from his territory. He forbade all relics lacking a definitive and specific religious history and demanded that they be destroyed. The jeweled corpses certainly lacked the qualifications and were promptly stripped of their status, torn down, plundered for their jewels, and locked away in boxes.  Naturally, this was traumatic for the locals. The saints that had given them names and brought them miracles for over a century were being stripped from their lives. Although pilgrimages to see the skeletons were outlawed, local people would often follow their patron skeleton and mourn as it was taken and dismembered by the nobles.

For every ten skeletons, nine have been lost to time. They were destroyed by nobles and Protestants, plundered by thieves, and mourned by the common people. In local Protestant writings from the areas surrounding the churches containing skeletons during the period of their installation, there are numerous references to Catholic "necromancers" which have led modern researchers to find several of the holy bodies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some have been found in storage units, some have been found underground, and some have been found wrapped carefully in cloth in church basements having been preserved untouched for hundreds of years.

Art historian Paul Koudounaris wrote a book entitled Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs after years of researching over 250 of these jeweled skeletons. He concludes, "They're the finest pieces of art ever created in human bone... Whoever they may have been as people, whatever purpose they served as items, they are incredible achievements."

St. Luciana (Heiligkreuztal, Germany)