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Handout #111 |
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Discoveries of Relics |
| The Histories of Ralph Glaber
(the Bald or the Beardless), a restless monk (985-1050 A.D.), are among
the best evidence of his time.
When the whole world was, as we have said, shining bright with new churches, a moment came in, the eighth year after the millennium of the incarnation of the Savior when various indications made it possible to discover numerous relics of saints in places where they had long been hidden. As if they had been waiting for the moment of some glorious resurrection at a sign from God they were presented to the contemplation of the faithful and produced great comfort in their hearts. It is known that these discoveries first began in a city of the Gauls, at Sens, in the church of the blessed martyr Stephen. The archbishop of the city at that time was Lierri, who made an amazing discovery there of objects from the ancient cult: among other discoveries he is said to have set hands on a piece of Moses' staff. When news of these discoveries was noised abroad, innumerable faithful came, not only from the country of Gaul but even from all over Italy and countries beyond the sea; and it was not rare to see sick people return from there cured by the intercession of the saints. However, it all too often happens that if something begins by being useful to human beings, their guilty greed soon makes it a stumbling block. This city to which, as I have said, people rushed in crowds, amassed great riches as a result of their piety, and its inhabitants became excessively insolent as a result of so great, a benefit. Ralph Glaber, Histories, III, 6. |
