Rock fragment or soil from the site of Christ’s Crucifixion.
[Holy Land] / [Calvary] / [Golgotha]. Ex Sacra Rupe Montis Calvarii. S.l.: s.n., s.a. [middle of 19th century]. [5.3 x 2.5 cm], [1] f. letterpress leaf of laid paper with typographical borders, folded into envelope and sealed with red wax stamped with Jerusalem Cross. Minor toning, chipping to wax seal.
Small letterpress ‘envelope’ enclosing, as the text tell us, soil or a rock fragment “From the Holy Rock of Mount Calvary” (Ex Sacra Rupe Montis Calvarii), i.e., Golgotha, the site where Christ was crucified in Jerusalem and which is now enclosed by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On the verso is a red wax seal with the Jerusalem Cross.
Similar soil, dust or rock relics are known from various sacred sites in Europe, but it is uncommon to encounter one from the Holy Lands. Did this piece actually come from Jerusalem? An anecdote reported by Christian Jakob Wagenseil (1756-1839) (Versuch einer Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg ein Lesebuch für alle Stände, vol. 5 [1822], pp. 500-02) gives a glimpse into the active trade of such Holy Land relics in the 18th century and suggests that at least some such soil relics are authentic. He writes, “In 1723, a vexed exchange of letters arose between a citizen of Augsburg, Jakob Franz de l’Ecluse, and the Franciscans, specifically a certain Father Kandidus Neimann or Nicht. The former himself traveled several times to the Holy Land to obtain relics and other so-called ‘holy wares’ in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and elsewhere, and to sell them to the people of Europe at a considerable profit. The bishops of Eichstätt, Augsburg, Constance, Freising, and others granted permission for this trade within their diocese, declaring the wares authentic, consecrated and touched to holy places; the Franciscans in Augsburg praised their high value from the pulpit and bought them in large quantities to act as intermediaries. Since the matter was of considerable importance, the Franciscans in Turkey were the first to take notice, perhaps because they would have preferred to have the lucrative trade for themselves. They denounced l’Ecluse as a thief, murderer, and forger, and consequently, Rome forbade him from trading in consecrated & touched goods. Now the German Franciscans also cried out after the accused had defended himself in a printed work, and the aforementioned Father Neemann wrote against him. He presented the matter as if de l’Ecluse had claimed that his goods carried indulgences, which, however, was not the case. Now the goods fell into disuse. De l’Ecluse found himself abandoned by buyers, his prosperity threatened, poverty and misery at his doorstep, and despair drove him to take up writing against his opponents, for Neemann had even managed to seize several crates of such goods that de l’Ecluse had bought in Palestine, e.g. rosaries, supposedly consecrated at the tomb of Christ, roses of Jericho, crosses made of olive and other wood, etc., by claiming that these goods were stolen, and P. Cassian Grundler in Vienna even filed a complaint against de l’Ecluse, as if he had wanted to murder him in Augsburg, which, however, an official testimony declared untrue.”
OCLC and KVK locate no copies of this print.
*Christian Jakob Wagenseil, Versuch einer Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg ein Lesebuch für alle Stände, vol. 5 (1822), pp. 500-02.