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The other day when I went to the Met I forced myself to meander, looking at things I don’t normally look at. It was fantastic, although I did have a moment where I wished I was rich so I could own things like the objects I was looking at in the various decorative arts sections.
But this was one of the usual things I look at. This is a reliquary and it’s said to contain … Mary Magdalen’s tooth. I think it was Mary Magdalen.
Now I’m worried I’m remembering wrong.
A beautiful reliquary. When we went to the Vatican Splendors display back in July, we saw a much smaller one that supposedly contained bone fragments from both Sts. Peter and Paul.
I Googled it. Yup… it’s reportedly the tooth of Mary Magdalen herself.
In all likelihood, it was yanked from the mouth of a dead camel, and sold for an exhorbitant price to some gullible crusader back about 1,100 AD. A lot of “relics” found their way to Europe in just this fashion. Doesn’t make the object any less beautiful, but take any provinence with a grain of salt.
I’m guessing no one, not even the most religious, thinks it’s Mary Magdalen’s tooth.
Dan is more than likely right. I had to laugh though because I took a lot of flak over MM when I was in grade school. (My birthday is her feast day.) One of the evil nuns said that I would “be trouble” due to that fact.
Well, don’t I get the last laugh on that point now that, in all probability, she was JC’s WIFE. Or at least his main squeeze. 🙂
Totally.