Relics of Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal receive a new reliquary.

[St. Jane Frances de Chantal] / [Nuns of the Visitation] / [Relics]. Johannes Henricus Sacri Romani Imperii Comes à Franckenberg & Schellendorf, Die & Apostolicae Sedis Gratiâ Archiepiscopus Mechliniensis, Primas Belgii, Ordinis Sancti Stephani Regis Hungariae Crucis Majoris Eques … [in manuscript:] Tenore praesentium notum facimus et attestamur, quod nos capsulam osseam… S.l. [signed in Mechelen]: [s.n.], s.a. [dated in manuscript 14 February 1769]. Full sheet folded in half [31.7 x 20.3 cm as folded], [1] f. letterpress form filled out in manuscript, with original red wax seal, later blind stamp, typewritten and pen annotations. Folded in the manner typical of such documents, minor losses at the folds, minor toning, a few minor stains.
 
 
Unrecorded 18th-century letterpress authenticum, or certificate of authenticity for a relic, printed for use in the Bishopric of Mechelen. The form is filled out in manuscript indicating that the relics in question—not included here—were body parts of Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal (1572-1641), founder of the Sisters of the Order of the Visitation (i.e., the Visitandines or Salesian Sisters), and François de Sales (1567-1622), who was her spiritual advisor, Bishop of Geneva, and co-founder of the Visitandines.
 
The form was printed for the use of Joannes-Henricus Cardinal von Frankenberg (1726-1804), Archbishop of Mechelen. The manuscript portion of the document, dated 14 February 1769, notes that the relics came from the Order’s home convent at Annecy and were originally certified on 17 August 1753 by Joseph-Nicolas Deschamps de Chaumont (1701-63), Bishop of Geneva. The relics had been in a simple bone reliquary, but at Mechelen they were transferred to a silver reliquary suitable for “publicly exhibiting them for the veneration of the faithful.” 
 
Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal was beatified on 21 November 1751 by Benedict XIV and canonized on 16 July 1767 by Clement XIII. Her feast day was included in the General Roman Calendar in 1769. It seems clear that the relics were given an upgraded reliquary to correspond with Chantal’s rise in popularity following her canonization.
 
Also of interest here is a typewritten note and blind stamp at the left edge of the document noting that the Bishop Gaston-Antoine Rasneur (1874-1939), Bishop of Tournai, viewed the relics on 28 January 1929 and that they were still in the same silver reliquary. It is not known how or when the relics moved to Tournai or, indeed, where they are today.
 
In the early Middle Ages, simple parchment slips served as authentica for relics and today number among the oldest surviving examples of Latin handwriting to have survived from a Christian context. The use of letterpress forms as authentica was firmly established by the time this relic was re-certified in 1769 (on this matter see H. Leclerc, cols. 2338-46).
 
OCLC and KVK locate no examples of this form.
 
*H. Leclerc, “Reliques et Reliquaires,” Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, vol. 14/2, cols. 2338-46.