Holy Prepuce

The Holy Foreskin (Latin sanctum prepuce ) was considered a Christian relic, when it should be the foreskin of Jesus of Nazareth. As a central content of Christian faith is the ascension of Jesus Christ, to his body, only the components have been left that he had not at that time. Starting from the idea that the circumcision of Jesus was conducted in the temple, claimed in the Middle Ages, several European churches to be in possession of this healing relic.

Circumcision

Since the early Middle Ages was in commemoration of the circumcision of Jesus eight days after his birth, is reported by the EU in Luke 2:21 ( " And when eight days were around and you had to circumcise the child, they gave him the name Jesus as he was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. " ), celebrated the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord ( circumcisio Domini ) on January 1. However, the hard mystery came in the wake of the Latin liturgical reform in the background. Today the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Octave of Christmas, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God. By Pope Benedict XVI. However (for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite ) set September 14, 2007, the older calendar back into legally binding validity, which relates to the celebration of the Latin liturgy according to the applicable during the last Council and again in force today books.

History

The relic of the holy foreskin to Pope Leo III. have been given by Charlemagne at his coronation as emperor in Rome on 25 December 800. Karl again they should have received from an angel or by the Empress Irene of Byzantium. The holy foreskin was kept with other relics in the chapel Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran.

According to legend, the relic said to have been stolen during the Sack of Rome in 1527 from a participating German mercenary who was again arrested on the retreat north of Rome by Count Anguillara and set in the castle of Calcata. The soldier is said to have hidden the reliquary in his cell, where it was only 30 years later and has since been found preserved in the parish church of the village. 1584 Pope Sixtus V granted an indulgence for pilgrims to Calcata. The holy foreskin was shown regularly until 1983 in processions in public. 1983, however, she disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The attempt of the British television journalist Miles Kington in 1997 to find the holy foreskin, ended unsuccessfully.

The Abbey Charroux led the possession of the relic back to Charlemagne. Pope Innocent III. however, refused to recognize their authenticity.

A relic of the holy foreskin appeared in Antwerp in 1112. After a solemn entry into the Frauenkirche, where specially erected a chapel, saw the bishop of Cambrai fall three drops of blood from her. This relic remained until she disappeared in the iconoclasm of 1566.

Catherine of Valois in 1421 asked her husband, King Henry V of England, to give her this relic, as their sweet fragrance would guarantee a good birth. The relic was enshrined in the abbey church of Coulombs and disappeared there during the French Revolution.

Also the Andechs Monastery claimed in the Middle Ages, to be in possession of the holy foreskin.

Importance

After presentation of GW Foote and JM Wheeler, Crimes of Christianity (1887 ), to the Greek scholar and curator of the Vatican Library, Leo Allatius († 1661), in a treatise De Praeputio Domini Nostri Jesus Christ diatriba ( " Lecture on the foreskin of our have speculated Lord Jesus Christ " ), that the Holy foreskin of Jesus to heaven rose and turned into one of the rings of Saturn. These rings were discovered in 1610 by one of the first telescopes.

The day of the circumcision ( circumcision ), ie the 1st of January, was the occasion for one of the possible seven years after beginning of the Christian era ( Circumcision ).

Cult

Also this part of the body of Jesus became the object of transcendent worship. In the 18th century reported a peasant girl from Plambach, the mystic Agnes Blannbekin, she would have felt the sense of Christ's foreskin in their mouth at the expense of the Eucharist. The notes relating to their pastor ( " Vita et Revelations " ), published in 1731 by the Benedictine Bernhard Pez were recruited at the instigation of the Jesuits.