It touched the True Cross: Kiss the crucifix for an indulgence. Unrecorded.
[True Cross] / [Touch relic] / [Indulgence]. Der ein Crucifix andächtig küst dem hat Pabst Johannes der 22 und Clements der 4 Ablass verliechen 1 Jahr u[nd] 40 tag. Ist an einen wahrhafften Particul des H. Creutz Christi berühet worden. Herr Jesu Christi in deine Händ Befeleh ich mich u[nd] auch mein End. S.l.: Antoni Sträberger, s.a. [end of 18th century]. [14.5 x 9.1cm], [1] f. engraving. Toning, spotting and minor edge wear.
Unrecorded 18th-century German engraving/etching advising its owner that indulgences of 1 year and of 40 days of relief from purgatory were granted by Popes John XXII (1249-1344) and Clement IV (1190-1268) to those who devoutly kissed a crucifix.
Small indulgence prints of this sort (Ablasszetteln) were produced in great numbers in the early modern period, but today individual examples are very rare. Their low survival rates no doubt results from the tendency of owners to carry them about as amulets or to use them (or, as here, to kiss them) to pieces.
The text here also notes that the print came into contact with a fragment of the True Cross (Ist an einen wahrhafften Particul des H. Creutz Christi berühet worden). The engraving is thus an example of a ‘touch’ relic (also called a ‘contact’ relic), i.e., an item that contacted or was in the vicinity of a saint’s primary relic (e.g., a body part or personal item) or another holy item. The touch relic carries with it some of the efficacious ‘charge’ of the original holy item/person.
The print depicts Christ suffering on the cross, with the INRI ‘titulus’ (Jesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum) visible at the top of the cross. The first-person text at the foot of the cross, which echoes Christ’s last words in Luke 23:46, has readers commending themselves into Christ’s hands.
These 1-year and 40-day indulgences were widely known from at least the middle of the 18th century through their inclusion in Lucius Ferrari’s (1687-1763) Prompta Bibliotheca canonica, juridica, moralis, theologica … (1746), and they were acted out in both private and public spaces: In the first half of the 19th century, W. M. Gould wrote of Padua, “In many parts of the city, I noticed small crosses sculpted upon blocks of marble fixed in the walls of houses and churches, and observed those figures to be habitually kissed by all classes. The advantage connected with this operation is fully explained in the following inscription: ‘Indulgenza di giorni quaranta dal Sommo Pontifice Giovanni XXII., e di un anno da Papa Clemente IV., a chi biacciera a S. Croce.’ ‘Indulgence of forty days conceded by the High Pontiff John XXII., and of one year by Pope Clement IV., to whoever shall kiss the Holy Cross’” (Zephyrs from Italy and Sicily [1850], p. 250).
Not located by OCLC, KVK, Omnia, or the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.
*A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert; Horst Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett.