Saturday, May 11, 2019

 

Holy Hair and Nails

Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages, rev. ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 31, with note on p. 160:
The sources of relics did not even have to be dead. The famous incident in the late eighth century involving Aldebertus, the peripatetic Gaul who attracted a great following and even gave away bits of his hair and nails for the veneration of his followers, is proof that people were eager to focus their attention on some physical reminder of the persons whose power they sought.9

9. On Aldebertus see MGH Concil. II, Concilium Romanum 745, pp. 39-43. He is discussed at length in the valuable article of Leo Mikoletzky, "Sinn und Art der Heiligung im frühen Mittelalter," MIÖG, vol. 57 (1949) pp. 83-122.
MGH Concil. II, Concilium Romanum 745, p. 39:
Ungulas suas et capillos dedit ad honorificandum et portandum cum reliquiis sancti Petri principis apostolorum.
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