Dust from the rediscovered tomb of St. Francis: Unrecorded touch-relic envelope.
[Saint Francis of Assisi] / [Relic]. Polvere delle Pietre Sepolcrali, sotto cui dalla collacazione nel 1230. fino al Dicembre 1818. riposarono le rivenute Spoglie del Patriarca S. Francesco nella Basilica Patriarcale, e Cappella Papale dedicate allo stesso Santo, e posseduta dai MM. RR. PP. Minori Conventuali dentro le mura della Città di Asisi. [Assisi or environs], s.n., [c. 1818-48]. [8.0 x 5.3 cm], [1] f. letterpress sheet folded into envelope, sealed. Minor toning and spotting. Well preserved.
Unrecorded early 19th-century letterpress leaf folded to form a small envelope containing dust collected from the stones covering the body of St. Francis of Assisi. His tomb was rediscovered in 1818
The text translated reads, “Dust from the Sepulchral Stones, under which, from their initial placement in 1230 until December 1818, rested the [now] recovered remains of the Patriarch St. Francis in the Patriarchal Basilica and Papal Chapel dedicated to the same Saint and owned by the MM. RR. PP. Minor Conventuals within the walls of the City of Assisi.”
This is thus an interesting example of a ‘touch’ relic (also called a ‘contact’ or ‘secondary’ 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 use of touch-relic dust to cure ailments (mixed with liquid and consumed or applied as a paste) is attested in early Christian sources, e.g., in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History.
During the early modern period, the Assisi tomb was not an especially popular pilgrimage site (unlike, e.g., Loreto or the various churches of Bavaria/Austria, which generated a huge quantity of printed souvenirs for the consumption of pilgrims). Vauchez remarks that, “In 1818, on the occasion of archeological digs that were being done in the basilica at Assisi, [Francis’s] tomb and his relics, lost since the fifteenth century, were rediscovered, and in 1850 those of Saint Claire, which had also been hidden in the great church dedicated to her, were also found. This helped relaunch pilgrimages to the two saints, whose cult had become purely local since the Middle Ages” (Vauchez, p. 232).
The relic was certified/authorized by Angelo Ferrari and Antonio Amone. Amone died in 1848, which can be taken as the terminus ante quem for the item.
This relic envelope is not located by OPAC/SBN/ICCU, OCLC, or KVK.
* C. J. Mews and C. Renkin, eds., Interpreting Francis and Clare of Assisi: From the Middle Ages to the Present; André Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint.