0:00:14 > 0:00:21The impulse to keep a memento of a departed person is both ancient and profound.
0:00:21 > 0:00:27Even the smallest thing can generate a powerful emotional connection.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34It might be a connection to someone you've known personally, perhaps even a celebrity,
0:00:34 > 0:00:39but it could also be a connection to a saint who has the power
0:00:39 > 0:00:42to protect and heal you, spiritual power
0:00:42 > 0:00:49that might still be present in a fragment of fabric they once wore, or even in their physical remains.
0:00:51 > 0:00:52They were known as relics,
0:00:52 > 0:00:57and for centuries they lay at the centre of Christian devotion.
0:00:57 > 0:01:03They were held to work miracles, and they defined the relationship between Christians and their God.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12The relics themselves were kept in reliquaries...
0:01:14 > 0:01:17..containers crafted from the most precious materials...
0:01:19 > 0:01:24..so as to express the value of what was inside.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28Wow.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34Poised between death and the hope for eternal life, the reliquary
0:01:34 > 0:01:39is a brilliantly vivid, yet largely forgotten art form.
0:01:40 > 0:01:47I believe it deserves to be brought out of the darkness of neglect and into the light.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54The history of relics and reliquaries is a 2,000-year story,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58rooted in the deepest human longings and fears,
0:01:58 > 0:02:03and reflected in some of the richest, most enthralling,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07yet also hidden away, works of art ever created.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40The murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170
0:02:40 > 0:02:44is one of the most infamous moments in British history.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49Becket had defied the will of the King, Henry II of England,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53and he was killed inside Canterbury Cathedral by four knights
0:02:53 > 0:02:57who had taken it upon themselves to rid their monarch
0:02:57 > 0:03:00of this contemptuous "low-born cleric".
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Becket died in this space, on this spot.
0:03:14 > 0:03:20We're told that his head was cleaved open by the blow of a sword,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23and, for good measure,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26one of the knights' party, Hugh of Horsea,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29planted his foot on the martyr's neck
0:03:29 > 0:03:34and used the tip of his sword to scoop some of his brains out
0:03:34 > 0:03:36onto the cathedral floor.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42The murder made Becket a martyr.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46Within three years, he was made a saint.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52And such was the number of pilgrims to his tomb that, in 1220,
0:03:52 > 0:03:57Saint Thomas's body was placed in a shrine behind the main altar.
0:04:03 > 0:04:09Now, this candle marks the spot where Becket's shrine once stood.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14Apparently, it had a stone pillared base and was capped
0:04:14 > 0:04:17by a painted wooden canopy suspended from that ceiling boss.
0:04:17 > 0:04:23But within, there was a gold-plated casket,
0:04:23 > 0:04:28decorated with sapphires and rubies, diamonds, emeralds and pearls,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31and it contained Becket's remains.
0:04:31 > 0:04:36The shrine was an intoxicatingly rich object,
0:04:36 > 0:04:38designed to awe and amaze,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42and it had an electrifying effect on the pilgrims of the Middle Ages.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46They flocked to Canterbury in their hundreds of thousands
0:04:46 > 0:04:51and established Becket as England's very first, truly international saint.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06These are the Miracle Windows.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10They were installed at the same time as Becket's shrine
0:05:10 > 0:05:13and they describe the early history of his remains.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Now, right at the bottom of the window
0:05:20 > 0:05:23we've got this precious record of the original appearance
0:05:23 > 0:05:27of Becket's tomb and, if you look closely, you can see
0:05:27 > 0:05:29that there are these two oval, pinkish shapes
0:05:29 > 0:05:33that have been cut into the stone side of that tomb.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37That was so the people at large could reach into it with their hands
0:05:37 > 0:05:40and touch the coffin within, the idea being,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44that act of touching might, in some way, help them or heal them.
0:05:44 > 0:05:51And, indeed, all around you've got these images of people who have, indeed, been healed
0:05:51 > 0:05:52of all kinds of ailments
0:05:52 > 0:05:58by the miraculous, transformative power of the saint's remains.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14St Thomas's shrine was destroyed in 1538, during the Reformation,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17on the orders of Henry VIII.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22His bones were burned and the ashes scattered.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29But, nearly 500 years later,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32you can still find two Becket relics in Canterbury.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39They're here, in a small chapel at the Catholic Church of St Thomas.
0:06:51 > 0:06:58This modern reliquary contains two relics of Thomas Becket,
0:06:58 > 0:07:04a shard of bone, and a tiny piece of bloodstained vestment.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08Now, they survived the destruction of his shrine because,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10in the early 1200s, they were sent abroad
0:07:10 > 0:07:15as part of a drive to extend the scope of his spiritual influence
0:07:15 > 0:07:19across Christendom, and they were only returned to this country
0:07:19 > 0:07:23in the last century, when they were donated to this church.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27The bone came from a religious foundation in Belgium,
0:07:27 > 0:07:29and the vestment came from Italy,
0:07:29 > 0:07:33and if these really are authentic relics of Thomas Becket,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37then they are objects of extraordinary historical importance.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41But it's only when you really get up close to them, as I am now,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45that I think you can feel the sheer amount of faith
0:07:45 > 0:07:50that has been invested in these fragments.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53To those who really believe,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57the spirit of Becket himself is still alive there.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01That is holy matter, the most precious thing of all.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27To see how blood and bones came to be imbued with such significance,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29you have to go back to the first century
0:08:29 > 0:08:33after Christ's death, when there were no churches
0:08:33 > 0:08:36and Christians were brutally tortured
0:08:36 > 0:08:38and executed for their beliefs.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41The only way to keep the faith alive
0:08:41 > 0:08:45was for Christians to mimic the Roman practice of honouring the dead
0:08:45 > 0:08:48by gathering at their tombs on feast days.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55The early Christians inherited this Roman and relatively new veneration of the dead,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57but they gave it their own twist.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00You have to remember that theirs was a proscribed religion,
0:09:00 > 0:09:06a persecuted religion, they had to bury THEIR dead, they had to venerate THEIR ancestors, in secret.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10And, in a sense, down in the catacombs, as they did so,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12that was all they had.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16They only had the bones of their forefathers,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19the early Christian martyrs' relics, and their faith, and that was it.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23And that combination of circumstances explains why the relic,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28through the centuries, for Christians, has had such a deep, primal power.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32By the time the Roman Emperor Constantine
0:09:32 > 0:09:36converted to Christianity in the fourth century,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40the idea that relics provided a direct link to the saints in heaven
0:09:40 > 0:09:42was a core belief.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48And over the next 1,000 years, the reliquary developed
0:09:48 > 0:09:52into a sophisticated art form, so that by medieval times
0:09:52 > 0:09:54it had become a type of sculpture
0:09:54 > 0:09:59that very precisely reflected the nature of the relics inside.
0:10:06 > 0:10:12So, a few fragments of skull would be contained in a head reliquary.
0:10:12 > 0:10:18Or, in this case, pieces of bone from the saint's hand or arm
0:10:18 > 0:10:22would have been visible through these tiny windows.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31I've come here to meet Sister Wendy Beckett,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35who has a deep knowledge of relics and reliquaries,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and a deep, emotional attachment to them.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44How do you think the power of the relic is expressed
0:10:44 > 0:10:47by the splendour of the reliquary?
0:10:49 > 0:10:52The glory of the container
0:10:52 > 0:10:55is meant to show the glory of the saint.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59So that was the first desire, something beautiful
0:10:59 > 0:11:02to show what it means to love God
0:11:02 > 0:11:07and, if possible, to get in something about the life of the saint.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11So here, for example, we seem to have a Catherine relic,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13because there's Catherine with her Catherine wheel.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17- It's almost like a story box.- It IS a story. There's St Catherine,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20whose relics are said to be in here at the top,
0:11:20 > 0:11:25holding her wheel so insouciantly, you know? Spinning it round, almost.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28And then round are the stories of her life.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Here you have the famous story of how, as a young girl,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Our Lady appeared with the child Jesus, who put a ring on her finger,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40and from then on she wanted to be a virgin dedicated to him.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43So when the emperor fell in love with her, Catherine said no.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48So he brings 50 pagan philosophers to talk her down,
0:11:48 > 0:11:51and she talks them down, converts the whole 50,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53who are then promptly beheaded.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57And then they show St Catherine being beheaded herself.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01She was originally going to be ripped apart by a wheel.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04- God struck it with a thunderbolt, didn't he?- Yes.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07But inside this, presumably, there would have been,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11or perhaps there still is, one of her bones?
0:12:11 > 0:12:14What they would have thought was one of her bones.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18I think with these very early saints, it's almost impossible
0:12:18 > 0:12:22that they are the real bones, but they stand in for the real bones.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24But what is it that it makes you feel?
0:12:24 > 0:12:28It makes you aware...
0:12:28 > 0:12:30of God's transforming love,
0:12:30 > 0:12:35because we don't make ourselves saints, we're made saints by God.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37We simply have to say yes.
0:12:37 > 0:12:43So when you're near a relic of somebody who did say that yes,
0:12:43 > 0:12:51you feel a great wave of encouragement that you, too,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54might be drawn into holiness.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56It's something that you should live up to?
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Yes, yes.
0:13:03 > 0:13:09I think this has to be the star reliquary of all, here in the V&A.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11It's just amazing.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15To me, this is the apotheosis of all reliquaries.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19This is what they all wanted to be - gleamingly beautiful,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23a complete work of art, and yet, showing the story of the saint.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29Because, as you know, St Sebastian was not only shot with arrows
0:13:29 > 0:13:33because of his Christianity, he was shot by his own regiment,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37his fellow soldiers, and that's why, I think,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40although he was wounded, he wasn't actually killed.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43The officer probably thought he was killed and marched off
0:13:43 > 0:13:49having done his job, but he'd just been gravely wounded.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51And then St Irene came and took the body away
0:13:51 > 0:13:53and brought him back to health,
0:13:53 > 0:13:58just in time for him to be clubbed to death and thrown into the sewer.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03So this is not his martyrdom, but a stage on his martyrdom.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08And apart from being a miraculous work of art,
0:14:08 > 0:14:15we have the intimacy of knowing that within that work of art are relics of the saint.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20They think they might be little pieces from the arrows,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23which seems to me most unlikely.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28- It's a little window at the back, isn't it, with little pieces of wood?- Yes.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32But those little pieces of wood symbolise what killed him.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37They are holy in their meaning, if not in their actuality.
0:14:37 > 0:14:42There's such a strong sense of suffering and torture expressed in this image.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46Was that sense of the martyr's suffering very important
0:14:46 > 0:14:49to people's perceptions of their holiness?
0:14:49 > 0:14:54Well, not all saints suffered physically, but I think it was
0:14:54 > 0:15:00important to people in their own lives, because we're all very aware of pain at one level or another,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04and to see a saint being tortured and rising above it like that,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07that must have mattered a great deal.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10But, of course, we actually know why this was made.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13It was made because there was plague at the monastery,
0:15:13 > 0:15:17and so the abbot commissions St Sebastian,
0:15:17 > 0:15:21who is one of the patron saints of health in time of plague,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25and it was all those wounds that plague brought to people.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27- Like plague sores.- Yes.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30Also, of course, they were hoping that he would avert
0:15:30 > 0:15:32the plague from them.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36So, it's rare to know exactly why
0:15:36 > 0:15:38a reliquary was made,
0:15:38 > 0:15:40and it's such a magnificent one.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45You couldn't have a more wonderful image of what it means to be a saint
0:15:45 > 0:15:47and to suffer for God.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Another reason for making reliquaries so alluring,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58and for making relics so visible,
0:15:58 > 0:16:03was to attract pilgrims whose donations sustained the church,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06and medieval churches did compete with each other in this way.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17But relics were central to the daily business of the Church
0:16:17 > 0:16:20in more than just financial terms.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24As early as the eighth century, the Vatican decreed
0:16:24 > 0:16:28that every altar must contain relics in order to be consecrated.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33'James Robinson is curating a major exhibition of medieval reliquaries
0:16:33 > 0:16:35'at the British Museum,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39'and among the objects that will be on view is a rare,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43'perfectly preserved example of the importance of relics
0:16:43 > 0:16:44'in the act of worship.'
0:16:44 > 0:16:49So, what exactly is this magnificent object?
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Well, this is one of the museum's great masterpieces.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55It's a very rich, visually rich and exciting object,
0:16:55 > 0:17:01with this wonderful combination of ivory, painted vellum, gilt copper.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03What was its function?
0:17:03 > 0:17:07It's a portable altar. It dates from around 1200,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11and it's from Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony in Germany.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13And this altar stone in the centre
0:17:13 > 0:17:17is designed to take the footprint of a chalice.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21In certain contexts, Mass or Communion, the Eucharist
0:17:21 > 0:17:24might need to be celebrated outside
0:17:24 > 0:17:26of the confines of a consecrated church
0:17:26 > 0:17:30and objects like this took the power of consecration with it.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33So it could be used on pilgrimage, in the battlefield...
0:17:33 > 0:17:37I was going to say, so if the emperor is going to war
0:17:37 > 0:17:44against the infidel, on the morning of the battle, he can take communion
0:17:44 > 0:17:47and he will be filled with the power of God.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Yeah, yeah. So, that's why it's such a densely powerful object.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53But what's beneath the stone?
0:17:53 > 0:17:58- Beneath the stone are relics of some 40 saints.- 40 saints!
0:17:58 > 0:18:0240 saints, yes. It is an incredibly powerful object for that reason.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06So how long has the museum owned this extraordinary thing?
0:18:06 > 0:18:08It was acquired in 1902.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13Did you know from the beginning... did the museum know it contained all these relics?
0:18:13 > 0:18:17I think we probably suspected that it did, but we didn't open it
0:18:17 > 0:18:22- until the late '70s, early '80s. - Have you seen the contents taken out?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25I haven't seen the contents taken out, this will be the first time.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29- So are you looking forward to it? - Very much, yeah!
0:18:29 > 0:18:30I can't wait!
0:18:51 > 0:18:53That's amazing!
0:18:53 > 0:18:57I hadn't imagined they'd be scrunched up together in that way.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00I thought it was going to be more...
0:19:00 > 0:19:02It's a very compact arrangement, yeah.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05It's like you couldn't get another one in there.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16You're starting with the relics of St Godehard.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20I have to say he's not one of my saints that I know about.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25He's connected very closely to the history of Hildesheim, which is where this portable altar was made.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28When was he canonised?
0:19:28 > 0:19:31He's active in the late 10th and, perhaps,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35the first quarter of the 11th century, and he's canonised
0:19:35 > 0:19:38shortly after his death, within the 11th century.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40So, it's a recent history
0:19:40 > 0:19:43in terms of the manufacture of this altarpiece.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48So, that all suggests to me that it's probably very likely
0:19:48 > 0:19:51that those really are the remains of the real Godehard in that bundle.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55- He's a local saint, relatively recent.- Yeah.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03'This particular relic is supposed to be a tiny fragment of bone.'
0:20:03 > 0:20:04Gosh, there it is!
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It looks like what it purports to be, doesn't it?
0:20:15 > 0:20:20'Conservator Nicole Rode, whose job it is to check the condition of each
0:20:20 > 0:20:26'of these fragile bundles, turns next to the relic of a rather more famous saint,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28'Saint John the Evangelist.'
0:20:31 > 0:20:33What do you think you're going to find inside?
0:20:33 > 0:20:39I believe there's a number of strands of hair inside this bundle.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41There we go.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46And the hair is surprisingly quite bright, it's quite yellow.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48It's the same colour as the hair
0:20:48 > 0:20:52of St John the Evangelist in Leonardo's Last Supper.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54He's the most angelic,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and the favourite. He's Christ's favourite.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02In all those depictions of the Last Supper, John has got his head
0:21:02 > 0:21:06on the shoulder of Christ, so that hair would have actually touched Christ,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08so it would be yet more imbued.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10Absolutely. What a wonderful thought!
0:21:12 > 0:21:15I suppose the first question a sceptical modern viewer will have is,
0:21:15 > 0:21:20is this really the hair of John the Evangelist?
0:21:21 > 0:21:27But I rather like the idea that John the Evangelist is said to have had blond hair
0:21:27 > 0:21:30and, hey presto, you open the bundle after how many hundreds of years
0:21:30 > 0:21:32and the hair is blond!
0:21:32 > 0:21:35So...there's room for faith.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38There's room for faith, absolutely.
0:21:38 > 0:21:39Wow!
0:21:43 > 0:21:46As objects of faith, the relics of saints
0:21:46 > 0:21:50were among the most precious things in the medieval world...
0:21:51 > 0:21:54..but they weren't quite the most precious.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02There was one kind of relic that was even more highly prized
0:22:02 > 0:22:04and even more powerful.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14To worship the relic of a saint is to approach the realm of the sacred.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17But what if you could venerate, perhaps even touch,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20a relic of Jesus Christ himself?
0:22:20 > 0:22:24According to the Bible, Christ's body ascended directly,
0:22:24 > 0:22:26miraculously, to heaven.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30But there are, nonetheless, relics associated with him,
0:22:30 > 0:22:32and that's why I'm here in Paris, because here,
0:22:32 > 0:22:37they hold the holiest of all those remains.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46At Notre Dame Cathedral on the first Friday of every month,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49a remarkable service takes place -
0:22:49 > 0:22:53the Veneration of the Crown Of Thorns,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56the actual crown of thorns, it is believed,
0:22:56 > 0:23:01that was placed on Christ's head at the time of his crucifixion.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16Around 3,000 worshippers attend this service every month.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20Many travel from abroad in an act of modern-day pilgrimage.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34The Crown Of Thorns relic has been in Paris for nearly 800 years,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36but not always in Notre Dame.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46It was originally housed here at the Sainte-Chapelle,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50the private church of the wealthiest and most pious king
0:23:50 > 0:23:52in all of Christendom,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Louis IX of France.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Now, I've been told if you want to experience the full impact of the Sainte-Chapelle,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07you've got to come here horribly early in the morning,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10just as the sun is beginning to rise, on your own,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14and that, amazingly enough, is what I've been allowed to do.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Wow! I mean, it is completely stunning.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42The Sainte-Chapelle has often been described
0:24:42 > 0:24:46as the single most beautiful medieval building in the world.
0:24:46 > 0:24:54But it's only if you come now that you really do appreciate quite how this building works.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59It's a space that is meant to be just light and colour,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02almost no sense of structure at all.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05A building that has dissolved into light and colour.
0:25:06 > 0:25:13These great walls of stained-glass windows which tell the whole story of the Bible.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22And if you look at those windows through half-closed eyes,
0:25:22 > 0:25:27and you look at them in an abstract sense, you get this intense blue,
0:25:27 > 0:25:29and these vivid drops of red.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33It's almost like looking into a sky flecked with blood.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39And I think that symbolism is very important,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42it takes you to the heart of what this building was for.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46Many people who visit this place don't actually know
0:25:46 > 0:25:50that it's not a cathedral, not a chapel in the conventional sense.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54It's a gigantic reliquary box.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02King Louis had this entire building constructed
0:26:02 > 0:26:04as a setting for the Crown Of Thorns.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10It's an astonishing statement of earthly and divine power.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14Emily Guerry has made a study of the art of the Sainte-Chapelle.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20- Hi, Emily.- Hi!
0:26:20 > 0:26:23- Nice to see you. - Fantastic space, isn't it?
0:26:23 > 0:26:26- Yes, it is.- I feel like we're eating colour when we're in here.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32So, Emily, how did Louis actually acquire this famous relic, the Crown Of Thorns?
0:26:32 > 0:26:38Well, his cousin, who was the Latin Emperor of Byzantium, he's named Baldwin, he wrote Louis in 1238
0:26:38 > 0:26:42saying, "I'm in big trouble, our empire is being invaded,
0:26:42 > 0:26:46"we're in need of money, we're in need of an army,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49"can you help us? And, by the way, the relics in my imperial collection
0:26:49 > 0:26:52"need someone to take care of them."
0:26:52 > 0:26:58So Louis immediately despatched somewhere in the realm of 140,000 livres.
0:26:58 > 0:27:04That's equivalent to half of his annual income as one of the wealthiest rulers in Christendom.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08So, that's half of the entire annual national budget of France?
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Of France, yes. So the Crown Of Thorns relic was then given
0:27:12 > 0:27:17- by Baldwin to Louis as an offering of thanksgiving for his assistance. - Wow!
0:27:17 > 0:27:21So it's a gift, because the sale of relics is technically illegal.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25Louis did not purchase the Crown Of Thorns, he acquired it.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27And here we have the story in glass.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31This is Window A. It's the history of the Passion Relics.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33You can see in the second lancet over,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36that's Louis reacting to seeing the Crown for the first time,
0:27:36 > 0:27:41and when Louis first saw the relic, he was overcome with tears.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46In the stained glass windows, the Crown Of Thorns is painted green,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50it's a living crown, it's still growing, in a way.
0:27:50 > 0:27:55So, when the relic arrives in France from Constantinople,
0:27:55 > 0:27:59what kind of ceremony does Louis devise to mark its arrival into the city?
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Well, if you just crane your neck a bit,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06at the very top, it shows the ceremony of Louis carrying
0:28:06 > 0:28:10the Crown Of Thorns in its reliquary with his brother, Robert of Artois.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14And they march through the streets in August of 1239,
0:28:14 > 0:28:18and the adoring public come to welcome the king and his crown.
0:28:18 > 0:28:24And not only the people are there, but also clerics are invited to bring out the relics
0:28:24 > 0:28:32of Parisian saints to bow to Christ's relic, in effect welcoming Christ to Paris.
0:28:32 > 0:28:33And he's barefoot.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37- He's barefoot here. - Which is a great statement, for a king to be barefoot.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41- That's humility.- Yes, because you're in the presence of God.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Yeah. And what does he actually do with it,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47other than house it, venerate it?
0:28:47 > 0:28:52What he did was he gave bits that were thorns of the crown
0:28:52 > 0:28:56to missionaries, to other rulers, to diplomats.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59- So he would actually break thorns off the crown?- Yes.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04That's amazing, because you'd think this was such a precious object, he'd want to keep it intact.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09It's the best way he could express his thanks, as a king, to those who helped him,
0:29:09 > 0:29:14was to give them a bit of the thing that mattered most to him, that is the Crown Of Thorns.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21One of the few surviving thorns given away by Louis IX
0:29:21 > 0:29:23is now in the British Museum,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27concealed within a beautiful and intricate locket.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34So, James, how is this intriguing little object
0:29:34 > 0:29:37catalogued in the collections of the British Museum?
0:29:37 > 0:29:41It's catalogued as a pendant reliquary of the Holy Thorn,
0:29:41 > 0:29:45so actually one of most precious jewels we have, not so much because
0:29:45 > 0:29:50of the external surface of it, which is amethyst and gold, but because of what it contains inside.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54It's secured in place by these two small pins,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58and I'm going to take them out now so you can get some sense
0:29:58 > 0:30:01of just how beautiful it is inside.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05- And it opens rather like a miniature altarpiece.- Oh, Good Lord!
0:30:05 > 0:30:07And that's the first face of it.
0:30:07 > 0:30:09That's extraordinary.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11It's decorated with translucent enamel,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15laid in shallow fields, it's known as basse-taille.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17What's the decoration?
0:30:17 > 0:30:24At the top there's a Virgin and Child with two angels.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28And at the bottom there's an image of a king and queen.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Now, based on the date of the enamels,
0:30:32 > 0:30:34which we date to about 1340,
0:30:34 > 0:30:40we can deduce that this is probably Philip VI and his wife, Jeanne de Bourgogne.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44And the king, barefoot, in imitation of St Louis.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46So, it's almost like a mini Sainte-Chapelle?
0:30:46 > 0:30:48- It's like a mini Sainte-Chapelle. - How amazing.
0:30:48 > 0:30:53Of course, this translucent enamel looks rather like stained glass.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55That's just fantastic.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58But the real secret, in fact, the real mystery of the object
0:30:58 > 0:31:02is contained beneath this panel that shows the Nativity.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Beneath the vellum. So, as it were, it's in the middle.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08- Yes. If I do this... - Goodness me.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10..and there you have the relic.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18In the centre you see a thorn from the Holy Crown of Thorns.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20What an amazing object!
0:31:24 > 0:31:31The design of the jewellery suggests that this was a very, very intimate-feeling object.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35Was this something that somebody perhaps carried on their person?
0:31:35 > 0:31:40Well, when it's closed you see it's not something that would be easily worn.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43The chain isn't original, but I think it replicates
0:31:43 > 0:31:47the original arrangement, rather like a security strap on a camera.
0:31:47 > 0:31:50- I think it was worn round the wrist. - Why is it an amethyst?
0:31:50 > 0:31:54Most jewels in the Middle Ages were used for their magical, medicinal properties.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58The amethyst is invoked to prevent drunkenness,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02gout, to staunch the flow of blood in situations like childbirth.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05If you handle it, and by all means pick it up, Andrew,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07you'll see it's immensely tactile.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10It fits into the fist of your hand, in a way.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14- Gosh, It does, doesn't it? - If you clench your hand around that, you'll see.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19That's how I feel the power of the relic was invoked, through clutching it in that way.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Yes. I know what you mean.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24I can imagine that you could feel
0:32:24 > 0:32:28that there was something almost going through you, like electricity.
0:32:29 > 0:32:35I think its power was probably invoked on very special occasions, and my personal belief is that
0:32:35 > 0:32:39it may have been used as a birth amulet by Jeanne de Bourgogne.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41Oh, yes!
0:32:41 > 0:32:46You just sent a shiver up the back of my neck because I think that's exactly right.
0:32:46 > 0:32:51You're giving birth, birth is all about blood... I mean, that's how you might die, you bleed to death.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54So, what do you hold?
0:32:54 > 0:32:57An object associated with the Holy Blood.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01And I think that also makes perfect sense of this arrangement.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06Because if you are a woman in the throes of childbirth, holding on
0:33:06 > 0:33:09to this thing for dear life in the hope that it might save you...
0:33:09 > 0:33:11You don't want it to slip.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15- And also you're very liable to lose control.- Yes.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17God, thank you. That's brilliant!
0:33:19 > 0:33:24So what I'd taken for a splendid locket to be worn around the neck
0:33:24 > 0:33:30turned out to be something far more magical - a hand-held charm.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34And if this was indeed the birth amulet of Jeanne de Bourgogne,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37she must have been in desperate need of its power.
0:33:37 > 0:33:42Three of her seven children died in early infancy.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51But this unique pendant isn't the only reliquary in the British Museum
0:33:51 > 0:33:53connected to the Crown Of Thorns.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58The other, known simply as the Holy Thorn Reliquary,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01is possibly the single most remarkable object
0:34:01 > 0:34:04to have come down to us from the Middle Ages.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12considers it to be one of the masterpieces of world art.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Neil, tell me how you would go about reading this object.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21I think this object is a theatre.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25It's a theatre in which the most important drama in any Christian's life
0:34:25 > 0:34:27is going to be played out,
0:34:27 > 0:34:32and that's the moment when the dead rise at the Last Judgment.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36The angels are sounding the last trumpet round the bottom,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40and the dead are coming out of their coffins.
0:34:40 > 0:34:46And on this wonderful green hillside you can see two men, two women,
0:34:46 > 0:34:48in enamel, coming out of their coffins,
0:34:48 > 0:34:53and what they know is going to happen next is judgment.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58They look up, and there at the top is God the Father, the judge,
0:34:58 > 0:35:03and the only thing that is going to save you, because you have sinned,
0:35:03 > 0:35:05is the redeeming blood of Christ.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08And there in the middle is one of the thorns
0:35:08 > 0:35:10which caused the blood to flow.
0:35:10 > 0:35:12It gives you a chance of being saved.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17The stakes couldn't be higher when you're in front of this object.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19Do we know who once owned this?
0:35:19 > 0:35:24We know from coat of arms that it belonged to Jean, Duc de Berry,
0:35:24 > 0:35:27who was son of the king of France, brother of the king of France,
0:35:27 > 0:35:31and he probably had it made in the 1390s in Paris.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36Paris, at that point, is THE great place in Europe for expensive
0:35:36 > 0:35:40goldsmith's work, and this is one of the greatest surviving creations
0:35:40 > 0:35:42of the Paris workshops.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45Because every bit of this is magnificently made.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48It's not just the gold.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51It's the enormous elaboration of the enamel figures,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55and then the way the jewels are deployed.
0:35:55 > 0:36:01And the jewels not just beautiful in their colour, but also in their meaning.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Because this is an object about the blood of Christ,
0:36:05 > 0:36:10so the rubies which symbolise the blood of Christ are everywhere.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13Sapphire is, of course, the blue of heaven.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17The pearls are about the purity of the Virgin and of Christ.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21So, the object is made up of speaking stones.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26They have a spiritual meaning as well as a physical value.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28How do you think it was actually used?
0:36:28 > 0:36:30Probably for private prayer.
0:36:30 > 0:36:36One person just alone with the object, in dialogue with the divine.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41And if you were Jean, Duc de Berry, and you were in your last days, dying...?
0:36:41 > 0:36:47I think if he knew he was dying, this is what he would want to look at.
0:36:47 > 0:36:54But it's pretty certain that Jean de Berry himself didn't, because this is made in the 1390s.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58When he does die, in 1416, he's in Paris.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02The English have invaded and occupied Paris after Agincourt,
0:37:02 > 0:37:06and almost all his goldsmith's work is melted down by the English.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10So, we have to assume that he gave it away as a very grand present.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15So, with this object, we're at the end of the 14th century.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20But, even then, am I not right in thinking there was a gathering discontent
0:37:20 > 0:37:25with the very idea of relics, and with these splendid objects?
0:37:25 > 0:37:27Not everybody thinks this is a good idea.
0:37:27 > 0:37:34No, there's obviously always a concern about the connection between wealth and access to God.
0:37:34 > 0:37:41And the kind of world where the possession of a relic
0:37:41 > 0:37:44might give you privileged access
0:37:44 > 0:37:47is the kind of world in which people question that privilege.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51And as the Reformation nears, it becomes a stronger and stronger issue.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54So, the storm clouds are gathering over things like this?
0:37:54 > 0:38:00They are. And when the lightning strikes, particularly in England, it strikes savagely.
0:38:04 > 0:38:10The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century changed the landscape of faith in this country for ever.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18The Reformation ushered in a bleak and bitter period
0:38:18 > 0:38:22for those adhering to the old Catholic traditions of worship.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Churches were pillaged, stained-glass windows were smashed,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29statues and paintings ripped down,
0:38:29 > 0:38:35shrines were desecrated, and relics, in their thousands, were destroyed.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39But the old impulse to venerate and to cherish the remains of the saints
0:38:39 > 0:38:42could not be so easily routed out,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46and it continued in secret and undercover.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49And if you want to understand that history,
0:38:49 > 0:38:51largely a concealed history,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54there's no better place to come than this.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59CHORAL SINGING
0:39:04 > 0:39:08At this Jesuit school, they have a remarkable museum.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13It's a repository of objects
0:39:13 > 0:39:18from a faith that was suddenly driven underground.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20Jan Graffius is the curator.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27- Wow!- It's a nice space.
0:39:27 > 0:39:28It really is.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32Of all the objects here,
0:39:32 > 0:39:37the most revealing is also the most unassuming.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41Found in the 19th century behind a wall in a nearby Catholic home,
0:39:41 > 0:39:45it had lain undiscovered for more than 200 years,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48and it's the only one of its kind in the world.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54So, Jan, why have you led me to this
0:39:54 > 0:39:58distinctly enigmatic object? What is this?
0:39:58 > 0:40:02The simple answer is this is a travelling chest
0:40:02 > 0:40:06used by salesmen of threads, peddlers and so on.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08What does it contain?
0:40:08 > 0:40:12It contains everything a Jesuit priest would need to say Mass.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16- Can we open it? - Yes, by all means. I shall...
0:40:16 > 0:40:20just put my gloves on. So, the outside is pony skin
0:40:20 > 0:40:23and wood, with these rather lovely handmade nails.
0:40:27 > 0:40:33Well, at first sight, I can't see anything that suggests that this is a priest's box.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Quite right, as if you're wandering around and stopped by the authorities
0:40:37 > 0:40:42and they flick open your chest, the last thing you want them to see is what you're doing.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46So, what we've got on top here is a lady's bonnet
0:40:46 > 0:40:50with a sort of linen exterior and a very beautiful pink silk lining.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54Goodness me!
0:40:54 > 0:40:56Part of the camouflage.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Now, this is interesting, this is the altar stone. This is consecrated.
0:41:00 > 0:41:06And the crosses here, you can see the remains of wax around them, would once have held the fragments
0:41:06 > 0:41:12of relics of martyrs, because, again, that was necessary for the altar stone to be consecrated.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14This is a chasuble.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18And, again,
0:41:18 > 0:41:19you can see...
0:41:19 > 0:41:21Gosh.
0:41:22 > 0:41:29Early 17th century. Lovely green damask and some lovely green brocade,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and in any really elaborate 17th-century vestment,
0:41:32 > 0:41:35you have beautiful embroideries and so on and, obviously,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38that's not possible here, but they've done a very simple job
0:41:38 > 0:41:41just by taking the most precious fabric, the brocade,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45and outlining it with this white silk ribbon.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47Where do you think this brocade came from?
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Probably from some merchant's wife's best Sunday dress.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55What we have here is a corporal.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59The bread was consecrated directly on top of the corporal.
0:41:59 > 0:42:07What might happen to a priest using this kit if he were to be caught?
0:42:07 > 0:42:10The penalty was quite straightforward.
0:42:10 > 0:42:16You would be tried for treason, because it was illegal to be a Catholic priest in England,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19and then you would be hanged, drawn and quartered.
0:42:19 > 0:42:24The reasoning behind it was that after the Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth I,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27and thereby liberated Catholics from their natural allegiance
0:42:27 > 0:42:30to their sovereign, a law was passed saying
0:42:30 > 0:42:34to follow the Pope meant to be a traitor.
0:42:34 > 0:42:35And treason is a capital offence.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38- And that's that. - And that's the end of it.
0:42:38 > 0:42:44So, they were never officially executed for their faith, they were executed for being traitors.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52So, I'm intrigued by this -
0:42:52 > 0:42:55I don't know how to describe it - reliquary tube.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59It's sort of a tall cylinder of glass and silver gilt.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04It contains the rope that tied Edmund Campion down onto the hurdle
0:43:04 > 0:43:07that dragged him to Tyburn where he was hanged, drawn and quartered.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10He and Robert Parsons, who founded our school,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13came into England in 1580 as the first Jesuit missionaries
0:43:13 > 0:43:17to go back to their own country to try and minister to the Catholics,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21and Campion lasted 18 months before he was captured.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24I'm familiar with the phrase "hung, drawn and quartered",
0:43:24 > 0:43:27but I don't know actually what's involved.
0:43:27 > 0:43:32It's probably one of the most unpleasantly painful ways of killing somebody.
0:43:32 > 0:43:38You're dragged behind a horse to your execution, through the mud, you're then hanged,
0:43:38 > 0:43:43but before you die, they cut the rope so you're only half strangled,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46and then the executioner castrates you,
0:43:46 > 0:43:52and then you're slit open from breast bone to lower stomach, and you're disembowelled.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55That's the drawing part, they draw out your entrails.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57They are then burned in front of you.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59While you're alive?
0:43:59 > 0:44:03The executioners were very skilled in keeping people alive for as long as possible.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07And then your heart is removed,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09then your head is cut off,
0:44:09 > 0:44:11your body is divided into four pieces,
0:44:11 > 0:44:14and then the pieces are parboiled
0:44:14 > 0:44:15to preserve them for longer,
0:44:15 > 0:44:19because they are going to be stuck up around the city to deter people.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23- Urgh!- It's a public way of displaying the State's disapproval
0:44:23 > 0:44:29with your actions, and a public way of deterring anybody who wishes to follow in your footsteps.
0:44:31 > 0:44:36One of the most disconcerting body parts to have been preserved
0:44:36 > 0:44:42and passed down to the museum is kept in this small silver reliquary.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44If you look, it's inscribed,
0:44:44 > 0:44:46"Oculus Dexter".
0:44:46 > 0:44:47Oculus Dexter.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50The right eye?
0:44:50 > 0:44:53- So, this actually contains an eye? - It does.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57That is the right eye of the Blessed Edward Oldcorne.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01That is really getting to the grizzly end of the relic spectrum.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06It's quite a powerful thing. It is.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09May I ask how we come to possess
0:45:09 > 0:45:13the right eye of Oldcorne?
0:45:13 > 0:45:17He was hanged, drawn and quartered in Worcester in 1606.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21And you remember I was describing the process,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23the last part of which was the parboiling.
0:45:23 > 0:45:28At this point, the eye obviously came out of the socket and was collected
0:45:28 > 0:45:33by some Catholic brave enough to gather it from the pot.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37- Oh!- Sorry!- Oh, dear!
0:45:37 > 0:45:41When I see that, I can't help thinking that's the eye that watched
0:45:41 > 0:45:44the process as he was tortured to death,
0:45:44 > 0:45:49that watched the entrails leaving the body, so in a sense...
0:45:49 > 0:45:52There's a very tangible link.
0:45:52 > 0:45:57I have never seen anyone look at this and not be moved, shocked.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01There is always a reaction, there's always a human reaction.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03It's a relic of torture.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06What to you think the underlying message
0:46:06 > 0:46:11that Catholics might have got from these objects would have been?
0:46:11 > 0:46:16I think the real comfort that Catholics derived from holding,
0:46:16 > 0:46:21looking, being near these objects is a sense of affinity
0:46:21 > 0:46:26with the sacrifice of the priests who were trying to bring their faith to them, and hope for the future.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31Keep these safe until such a time when this cruelty and persecution
0:46:31 > 0:46:33is no longer in England.
0:46:33 > 0:46:38So, it's a pledge for the future as much as a contact with the past.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51The laws which banned Catholics from worshipping
0:46:51 > 0:46:54were not repealed until the end of the 18th century.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Emancipation led to a revival of the faith.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03But there was a problem.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Where could Catholics congregate?
0:47:10 > 0:47:14The Church of England had occupied their old places of worship,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17stripped them of their images and their shrines,
0:47:17 > 0:47:22so, this new generation of Catholics had to make new churches, and this is what they looked like.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37This is the chapel of St Edmund's College near Ware,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40and the architect of all this flamboyance
0:47:40 > 0:47:44was a Catholic convert named AWN Pugin.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47The Catholic Revival caught the wave of the Gothic Revival,
0:47:47 > 0:47:51an architectural movement inspired by the medieval world.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54It brought rich decoration, bright colour
0:47:54 > 0:47:59and images of Christ and the saints back into British churches.
0:48:02 > 0:48:07Rosemary Hill is Pugin's most recent biographer.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11Rosemary, thank you for coming. What a fantastic space.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14It's wonderful. I think it's one of Pugin's best buildings,
0:48:14 > 0:48:20actually, marked by this huge and beautiful stone rood screen.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23A rood screen was one of the things that Pugin
0:48:23 > 0:48:25was most enthusiastic to revive.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27R-O-O-D, meaning cross.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30Meaning cross, yes, with the crucified Christ above it.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Rood screens existed in medieval churches.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35They divide the part of the church
0:48:35 > 0:48:38where the congregation sits from the sanctuary.
0:48:38 > 0:48:44One of the many ironies of Pugin's career was that he used all the steam power and technology
0:48:44 > 0:48:49of the Victorian Age to push art and architecture back 300 years.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54And what he was trying to do here is to recreate the essence of medieval Gothic art.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56Sort of Stephenson's Rocket in reverse?
0:48:56 > 0:48:58Pugin's Backward Rocket, whoosh!
0:48:58 > 0:49:00Absolutely! And one of the things
0:49:00 > 0:49:06Pugin wanted to do was to remake, if you like, that breach in history that the Reformation had caused.
0:49:14 > 0:49:20I was very struck, looking at this drawing of the design for the chapel here...
0:49:20 > 0:49:23OK, it's in monochrome, but having visited the chapel
0:49:23 > 0:49:26I can see all those colours, I can feel that coming through.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31Do you think that was part of Pugin's ambition
0:49:31 > 0:49:35to re-enchant sacred space?
0:49:35 > 0:49:40Certainly, I think there were a lot of people who by then were feeling pretty starved
0:49:40 > 0:49:44by what the English Church was offering, which was very square, Georgian preaching boxes.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49It was all about sermons, very little colour, very little emotional warmth.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53And what was his attitude to relics?
0:49:53 > 0:50:00Well, he believed in them, I think both in a sacred sense, and also as romantic objects.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04I notice this beautiful reliquary, which is a Pugin design, as well, isn't it?
0:50:04 > 0:50:08Yes. A very architectural form, as medieval reliquaries often were.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12But it is like one of Pugin's buildings in miniature.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17In the Middle Ages, they were using gold and precious stones to symbolise heaven and eternity.
0:50:17 > 0:50:24Here he's using very polished brass and semi-precious stones, crystal.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26Yes. Well, this was the problem for Pugin,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29and the whole English Catholic community,
0:50:29 > 0:50:34after emancipation, as one of the bishops said, "We're like the first family after the flood."
0:50:34 > 0:50:38They hadn't got anything because they hadn't been allowed to build.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41So, everything was needed and there was very little money.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46Poor Pugin always had to battle against accusations of Brummagem ware,
0:50:46 > 0:50:50the very shoddy metalwork that the Victorians churned out of Birmingham.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55But to be fair to this particular "made in Birmingham" object, it's actually not half bad, is it?
0:50:55 > 0:50:57It's absolutely beautiful.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00The detailing, the finishing, is very fine,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03and the stones are only semiprecious stones
0:51:03 > 0:51:06but they're very beautiful colours and very carefully chosen.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09- And whose are the bones? - The bones are of Thomas a Becket.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12Pugin was a great enthusiast for the English Catholic Church,
0:51:12 > 0:51:17so in the context of the 1840s, it is a statement of English Catholicism.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22Pugin was a man of the modern industrial age
0:51:22 > 0:51:26who deliberately harked back to the medieval past.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29But the relic and the reliquary
0:51:29 > 0:51:32can still speak very directly to the present,
0:51:32 > 0:51:38the traumas of recent history and the desire to heal their wounds.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58During the 1970s and 1980s, a brutal campaign of repression
0:51:58 > 0:52:00by the military government in El Salvador
0:52:00 > 0:52:02claimed thousands of lives.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08The leader of the Church, Archbishop Oscar Romero,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12began to speak out on behalf of the victims and their families.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16Finally, on 23rd March 1980,
0:52:16 > 0:52:21he made a direct appeal to the Salvadoran army.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49The following day, Oscar Romero was shot dead in church,
0:52:49 > 0:52:51while celebrating Mass.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56In the eyes of most Salvadorans, Romero had been martyred,
0:52:56 > 0:52:58and today he is revered there as a saint,
0:52:58 > 0:53:03although he's not yet been declared to be one by the Vatican.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Romero's body was buried, but his possessions,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13including the vestments he was wearing when he died,
0:53:13 > 0:53:14have become modern relics.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19Jan Graffius, curator at Stonyhurst College,
0:53:19 > 0:53:23was closely involved in helping to preserve them.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26So, what are the relics and what's happened to them?
0:53:26 > 0:53:31The main relics are the contents of his tiny little three-room house
0:53:31 > 0:53:34in the grounds of the hospice where he lived,
0:53:34 > 0:53:35and in the little back room
0:53:35 > 0:53:38are the clothes he was wearing when he was shot.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40What do they look like?
0:53:40 > 0:53:43Well, he was a very simple man, so they're very simple clothes
0:53:43 > 0:53:47A simple purple chasuble, the semicircular garment
0:53:47 > 0:53:51that a priest wears when he's saying Mass, very thin cotton.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55Underneath that, a white alb, which is a floor-length white garment.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58- Are they very bloodstained? - They're very bloodstained.
0:53:58 > 0:54:03On the chasuble there is a tiny little hole directly over the heart
0:54:03 > 0:54:05and no sign of anything else.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08But when you look at the white alb underneath,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12it gives you some idea of the violence of his death.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14It's completely coated in blood.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27Are they just leaving it completely as it was, without touching it?
0:54:27 > 0:54:31Pretty much. It's now in a position where it should be safer
0:54:31 > 0:54:33from the point of view of environment,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36but at the end of my work - I was there over three years -
0:54:36 > 0:54:40the sisters presented me with a tiny piece of the blood-soaked alb
0:54:40 > 0:54:42to take back to Stonyhurst.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46It lives in this very small jewellery box,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49which is how it was given to me.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51And inside...
0:54:51 > 0:54:53is just...
0:54:53 > 0:54:57- Goodness.- We're in the process of commissioning a reliquary
0:54:57 > 0:55:00and we've asked Fernando Llort,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03who's a very famous Salvadorian artist, to design and paint
0:55:03 > 0:55:05something appropriate.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08It's an object rather like a folding altarpiece with wings
0:55:08 > 0:55:10and you've got two angels on the front?
0:55:10 > 0:55:14We've got the Annunciation on the outside, with Gabriel and Mary,
0:55:14 > 0:55:15then when you open it up,
0:55:15 > 0:55:17we have this central painting,
0:55:17 > 0:55:22and around it I will have painted the readings from the Mass
0:55:22 > 0:55:24that he was saying when he was murdered
0:55:24 > 0:55:27and a quotation from his last sermon,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30which was spoken seconds before he was shot.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32The Gospel that he was reading
0:55:32 > 0:55:34was about the grain of wheat that falls to the ground
0:55:34 > 0:55:36and unless it dies, it remains a grain,
0:55:36 > 0:55:40but if it dies, it brings back a rich harvest.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43- He knew he was going to die? - Oh, he did, yes.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45- Will this all be coloured? - Brightly coloured.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50When I was last there, I saw in one of the markets
0:55:50 > 0:55:52this little Christmassy triptych,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55which I bought for one of my children. This is not by Llort,
0:55:55 > 0:55:57but it's very much in his style.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00- In a sense, it's El Salvadorian folk art.- Very, yes.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02- With these bright colours. - Strong colours.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06- So, that gives us a sense of what your reliquary will look like.- Yep.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Where are you going to keep the relic?
0:56:08 > 0:56:10It's such a tiny little fragment
0:56:10 > 0:56:16that what I plan to do is to have a little silver and glass locket,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19which will be fixed permanently underneath the main painting
0:56:19 > 0:56:23and above it, this central figure here you can see,
0:56:23 > 0:56:25this is Archbishop Romero himself
0:56:25 > 0:56:28with his hand outstretched, holding his heart.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31And at the bottom, the rifle that killed him.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34And what do you hope it will say to the world?
0:56:34 > 0:56:36I want it to get some idea of the vibrancy
0:56:36 > 0:56:39of the culture and the people who Romero was standing up for.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43I want people to go away and think, "Who was this man?"
0:56:43 > 0:56:45and learn more about him.
0:56:45 > 0:56:47And I want them to understand
0:56:47 > 0:56:51that working for truth and justice and peace has a terrible cost,
0:56:51 > 0:56:54but that the end of your life is not the end of the struggle.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58In Stonyhurst College, where it will be displayed,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01we have many young people who are beginning to learn
0:57:01 > 0:57:02that the world has much injustice,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04and I want them to go and find out more
0:57:04 > 0:57:06and, maybe, in their own small ways,
0:57:06 > 0:57:09work to promote a more just and a peaceful world.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21When I set off on this journey into the art of the reliquary,
0:57:21 > 0:57:22I had my own preconceptions.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25I felt this was very much going to be
0:57:25 > 0:57:27an exploration of death and religion,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30and yes, of course, those things are there.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34I think of that wonderful Holy Thorn reliquary in the British Museum,
0:57:34 > 0:57:35an object designed
0:57:35 > 0:57:38for the contemplation of a man in his last days,
0:57:38 > 0:57:41perhaps fixing his eyes on God.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45But there's so much else to the art of the reliquary as well.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50I think of that extraordinary eye of Edward Oldcorne,
0:57:50 > 0:57:54a thing that speaks so eloquently of a community's determination
0:57:54 > 0:57:58to survive persecution and oppression.
0:57:58 > 0:58:03I think of that wonderful silver St Sebastian reliquary
0:58:03 > 0:58:06and I think of a very different community's desire
0:58:06 > 0:58:09to survive the strike of an epidemic.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12And, perhaps above all,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16I think of that amazing little birth amulet
0:58:16 > 0:58:21once held by a woman absolutely determined to give birth
0:58:21 > 0:58:23to a healthy child.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27So yes, reliquaries, at the literal level, speak of death,
0:58:27 > 0:58:29they contain emblems of death,
0:58:29 > 0:58:31but I think at the deepest level of all,
0:58:31 > 0:58:33what they really speak about is life,
0:58:33 > 0:58:37the passions that move us all as human beings.
0:58:58 > 0:59:01Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:01 > 0:59:04E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk