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74-587: Xeropotamou houses numerous relics , the most prominent being the largest extant piece of the True Cross . For this reason, the monastery also celebrates a patronal feastday on September 14, the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross . The library contains 409 manuscripts, and about 600 printed books. Today the monastery has about 25 monks. The name Xeropotamou, literally "of the dry river", refers to

148-533: A Greek Christian monastery, abbey, priory or other religious house is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism , Christianity , Islam , shamanism , and many other religions. Relic derives from

222-482: A wax seal . In Catholic theology, sacred relics must not be worshipped, because only God is worshipped and adored. Instead, the veneration given to them was " dulia ". Saint Jerome declared, "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are." Until 2017,

296-486: A band; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Also cited is the veneration of relics from the martyr and bishop Saint Polycarp of Smyrna recorded in the Martyrdom of Polycarp , written sometime from 150 to 160 AD. With regard to relics that are objects, an often cited passage is Acts 19:11–12, which says that Paul

370-558: A certificate of authentication, signed and sealed by someone in the Congregation for Saints , or by the local Bishop where the saint lived. Without such authentication, relics are not to be used for public veneration. The Congregation for Saints, as part of the Roman Curia , holds the authority to verify relics in which documentation is lost or missing. The documents and reliquaries of authenticated relics are usually affixed with

444-410: A clan of seers at Olympia , claimed to be the descendants of a Clytius , who they said was the son of Amphiaraus' son Alcmaeon. According to Roman legends, the founder of the town of Tibur (modern Tivoli ) near Rome , was a son of Amphiaraus. Amphiaraus was a seer, and greatly honored in his time. Both Zeus and Apollo favored him, and Zeus gave him his oracular talent. In the generation before

518-570: A colony where eventually appeared the city of Tibur (now Tivoli ), named after his eldest son Tiburtus. In the Python , the first book to describe Pyrrhonist philosophy, the book's author, Timon of Phlius first meets Pyrrho on the grounds of the temple of Amphiaraus. The symbolism of this may be due to Pyrrho being a member of the Clytidae, a clan of seers in Elis who interpreted the oracles of

592-459: A great church built just outside the walls of Tours. When Saint Martin died on November 8, 397, at a village halfway between Tours and Poitiers , the inhabitants of these cities were ready to fight for his body, which the people of Tours managed to secure by stealth. Tours became the chief point of Christian pilgrimage in Gaul, a place for the healing of the sick. Gregory of Tours travelled to

666-522: A legendary seer, and a member of one of the most powerful dynastic families in the Argolid . The mythographer Hyginus says that Amphiaraus's mother was Hypermnestra , the daughter of Thestius . She was the sister of Leda , the queen of Sparta who was the mother of Helen of Troy , Clytemnestra , and the Dioscuri ( Castor and Pollux ). Hyginus also reports that "some authors" said that Amphiaraus

740-437: A new location. Offerings made at a site of pilgrimage were an important source of revenue for the community who received them on behalf of the saint. According to Patrick Geary , "[t]o the communities fortunate enough to have a saint's remains in its church, the benefits in terms of revenue and status were enormous, and competition to acquire relics and to promote the local saint's virtues over those of neighboring communities

814-569: A ninth-century Italian deacon named Deusdona, with access to the Roman catacombs, as crossing the Alps to visit monastic fairs of northern Europe much like a contemporary art dealer. Canterbury was a popular destination for English pilgrims, who traveled to witness the miracle-working relics of St Thomas Becket , the sainted Archbishop of Canterbury who was assassinated by knights of King Henry II in 1170. After Becket's death, his successor and

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888-755: A priest by his bishop as a means of bestowing faculties upon him (i.e., granting him permission to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries). The antimens is kept on the Holy Table (altar), and it is forbidden to celebrate the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist) without it. Occasionally, in cases of fixed altars, the relics are built in the altar table itself and sealed with a special mixture called wax-mastic . The necessity of provide relics for antimensions in new churches often necessitates continuous division of relics. An account of this process can be found in

962-574: A ship from. A study in 1870 found that, put together, the claimed relics of the cross at that much later time weighed less than 1.7 kg. By the middle of the 16th century, the number of relics in Christian churches became enormous, and there was practically no possibility to distinguish the authentic from the falsification, since both of them had been in the temples for centuries and were objects for worship. In 1543, John Calvin wrote about fake relics in his Treatise on Relics , in which he described

1036-431: A testament to its authenticity. In Likeness and Presence , Belting argued that the cult of relics helped to stimulate the rise of painting in medieval Europe. Reliquaries are containers used to protect and display relics. While frequently taking the form of caskets, they have many other forms, including simulations of the relic encased within (e.g., a gilded depiction of an arm for a relic consisting of arm bones). Since

1110-742: A treatise of the pre-revolutionary Russian church historian Nikolay Romansky  [ ru ] . According to Romansky, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church operated a special office, located in the Church of Philip the Apostle in the Moscow Kremlin , where bones of numerous saints, authenticated by the church's hierarchs, were stored, and pieces of them were prayerfully separated with hammer and chisel to be sent to

1184-422: Is because the mortal remains of the deceased are associated in some manner with the holiness of their souls which await reunion with their bodies in the resurrection ." Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) pointed out that it was natural that people should treasure what is associated with the dead, much like the personal effects of a relative. In an interview with Catholic News Service , Fr. Mario Conte, executive editor of

1258-544: Is due to God alone. Thus Orthodox teaching warns the faithful against idolatry and at the same time remains true to scriptural teaching (vis. 2 Kings 13:20–21) as understood by Orthodox Sacred Tradition . The examination of the relics is an important step in the glorification (canonization) of new saints. Sometimes, one of the signs of sanctification is the condition of the relics of the saint. Some saints will be incorrupt , meaning that their remains do not decay under conditions when they normally would (natural mummification

1332-408: Is not the same as incorruption) . Sometimes even when the flesh does decay the bones themselves will manifest signs of sanctity. They may be honey-coloured or give off a sweet aroma . Some relics will exude myrrh . The absence of such manifestations is not necessarily a sign that the person is not a Saint. Relics play a major role in the consecration of a church . The consecrating bishop will place

1406-508: Is possible, to remind them that the Buddha was a real person, and to also promote good virtue. One of the earliest sources that purports to show the efficacy of relics is found in 2 Kings 13:20–21: And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites used to invade the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied

1480-656: Is reserved for the display of the Blessed Sacrament (host or prosphora and Eucharistic wine after consecration in the sacrament of the Eucharist). The importance of relics in the Byzantine world can be seen from the veneration given to the pieces of the True Cross . Many great works of Byzantine enamel are staurothekes , or relics containing fragments of the True Cross. Other significant relics included

1554-593: The Golden Legend or the works of Caesarius of Heisterbach . These miracle tales made relics much sought-after during the period. By the Late Middle Ages, the collecting of, and dealing in, relics had reached enormous proportions, and had spread from the church to royalty, and then to the nobility and merchant classes. The Council of Trent of 1563 enjoined bishops to instruct their flocks that "the holy bodies of holy martyrs ... are to be venerated by

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1628-704: The Latin reliquiae , meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere , to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics. In ancient Greece , a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying, the remains of a venerated hero as a part of a hero cult . Other venerable objects associated with the hero were more likely to be on display in sanctuaries, such as spears, shields, or other weaponry; chariots , ships or figureheads ; furniture such as chairs or tripods ; and clothing. The sanctuary of

1702-609: The Leucippides at Sparta claimed to display the egg of Leda . The bones were not regarded as holding a particular power derived from the hero, with some exceptions, such as the divine shoulder of Pelops held at Olympia . Miracles and healing were not regularly attributed to them; rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, as the tomb of Oedipus was said to protect Athens . The bones of Orestes and Theseus were supposed to have been stolen or removed from their original resting place and reburied. On

1776-621: The Trojan War , Amphiaraus was one of the heroes present at the Calydonian boar hunt and also counted as an Argonaut . The material of the tragic war of the Seven against Thebes was taken up from several points of view by each of the three great Greek tragic poets. Eriphyle persuaded Amphiaraus to take part in the raiding venture, against his better judgment, for he knew he would die. She had been persuaded by Polynices , who offered her

1850-452: The catacombs of Rome . These places were always outside the walls of the city, but martyriums began to be built over the site of the burial. Since it was considered beneficial to the soul to be buried close to the remains of saints, several large "funerary halls" were built over the sites of martyr's graves, including Old Saint Peter's Basilica . These were initially not regular churches, but "covered cemeteries" crammed with graves, wherein

1924-491: The ephemeral stream running near the monastery, which is a stony brook that dries up in the dry season. The brook is crossed by Xeropotamou Bridge  [ bg ] ( Greek : Γεφύρι Στην Ιερά Μονή Ξηροποτάμους ), which connects Xeropotamou Monastery with St. Panteleimon Monastery . This article on an Eastern Orthodox church building in Greece is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about

1998-457: The girdle worn by the Virgin , and pieces of the body or clothing of saints. Such relics (called contact relics , or secondary relics) were, however, scarce and did not provide most believers with ready access to proximity to the holy. The growth in the production and popularity of reproducible contact relics in the fifth and sixth centuries testifies to the need felt for more widespread access to

2072-418: The necklace of Harmonia , daughter of Aphrodite , once part of the bride-price of Cadmus , as a bribe for her advocacy. Amphiaraus reluctantly agreed to join the doomed undertaking, but aware of his wife's corruption, asked his sons, Alcmaeon and Amphilochus , to avenge his inevitable death by killing her, should he not return. He had foreseen the failure and for this reason did not agree to join first. On

2146-461: The "very famous" son of Poseidon , who wanted to kill him, but Zeus threw his thunderbolt, and the earth opened to swallow and conceal Amphiaraus – right on the same spot the laurel had grown from his spear – and his chariot, before Periclymenus could stab him in the back and thereby disgrace his honor. Thus becoming a chthonic hero , Amphiaraus was later propitiated and consulted at his sanctuary. Alcmaeon killed his mother when Amphiaraus died. He

2220-575: The Apostle 's handkerchiefs were imbued by God with healing power. In the gospel accounts of Jesus healing the bleeding woman and again in the Gospel of Mark 6:56, those who touched Jesus' garment were healed. The practice of venerating relics seems to have been taken for granted by writers like Augustine , St. Ambrose , Gregory of Nyssa , St. Chrysostom , and St. Gregory Nazianzen . Dom Bernardo Cignitti, O.S.B., wrote, "[T]he remains of certain dead are surrounded with special care and veneration. This

2294-500: The Canterbury chapter quickly used his relics to promote the cult of the as-yet-uncanonized martyr. The motivations included the assertion of the Church's independence against rulers, a desire to have an English (indeed Norman English ) saint of European reputation, and the desire to promote Canterbury as a destination for pilgrimage. In the first years after Becket's death, donations at the shrine accounted for twenty-eight percent of

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2368-627: The Catholic Church divided relics into three classes: In 2017, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints abolished the relics of the third degree, introducing a two-stage scale of classification of relics: significant (insigni) and non-significant (non insigni) relics. The first are the bodies or their significant parts, as well as the entire contents of the urn with the ashes preserved after cremation. The second includes small fragments of

2442-521: The Eastern Empire, though still prohibited in the West. The Eastern capital was therefore able to acquire the remains of Saints Timothy , Andrew and Luke , and the division of bodies also began, the 5th century theologian Theodoretus declaring that "Grace remains entire with every part." In the West, a decree of Theodosius only allowed the moving of a whole sarcophagus with its contents, but

2516-550: The Messenger of St. Anthony magazine in Padua , Italy , said, "Saints' relics help people overcome the abstract and make a connection with the holy ... Saints do not perform miracles. Only God performs miracles, but saints are intercessors." In the early Church the disturbance of the remains of martyrs and other saints was not practiced. They were allowed to remain in their often unidentified resting places such as in cemeteries and

2590-493: The Romano-Christian concepts that gave relics such a powerful draw. He distinguished Gregory's constant usage of sanctus and virtus , the first with its familiar meaning of "sacred" or "holy", and the second as "the mystic potency emanating from the person or thing that is sacred... In a practical way the second word [virtus] ... describes the uncanny, mysterious power emanating from the supernatural and affecting

2664-629: The advice of the Delphic Oracle , the Spartans searched for the bones of Orestes and brought them home, without which they had been told they could not expect victory in their war against the neighboring Tegeans . Plutarch says that the Athenians were likewise instructed by the oracle to locate and steal the relics of Theseus from the Dolopians . The body of the legendary Eurystheus

2738-440: The availability of access to the divine but were not infinitely reproducible (an original relic was required), and still usually required believers to undertake pilgrimage or have contact with somebody who had. The earliest recorded removal, or translation of saintly remains was that of Saint Babylas at Antioch in 354, but, partly perhaps because Constantinople lacked the many saintly graves of Rome, they soon became common in

2812-476: The bodies, as well as objects used by saints and blesseds. The sale or disposal by other means of "sacred relics" (meaning first and second class) without the permission of the Apostolic See is now strictly forbidden by canon 1190 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law . However, the Catholic Church permitted the sale of third-class relics. Relics may not be placed upon the altar for public veneration, as that

2886-456: The cathedral's total revenues. In the absence of real ways of assessing authenticity, relic-collectors became prey to the unscrupulous, and some extremely high prices were paid. Forgeries proliferated from the very beginning. Augustine already denounced impostors who wandered around disguised as monks, making a profit from the sale of spurious relics. In his Admonitio Generalis of 789, Charlemagne ordered that "the false names of martyrs and

2960-415: The cremated remains or ringsel of prominent Buddhists. In rare cases, the whole body is conserved, as in the case of Dudjom Rinpoche . A year after his death in 1987, his physical body was moved from France and placed in a stupa in one of his monasteries near Boudhanath , Nepal. Pilgrims may view his body through a glass window in the stupa. The Buddha's relics are used to show people that enlightenment

3034-559: The dioceses that needed to place them into new antimensions. Many churches were built along pilgrimage routes. A number in Europe were either founded or rebuilt specifically to enshrine relics, (such as San Marco in Venice ) and to welcome and awe the large crowds of pilgrims who came to seek their help. Romanesque buildings developed passageways behind the altar to allow for the creation of several smaller chapels designed to house relics. From

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3108-399: The divine. These contact relics usually involved the placing of readily available objects, such as pieces of cloth, clay tablets, or water then bottled for believers, in contact with a relic. Alternatively, such objects could be dipped into water which had been in contact with the relic (such as the bone of a saint). These relics, a firmly embedded part of veneration by this period, increased

3182-593: The eleventh and twelfth centuries, substantial numbers of pilgrims flocked to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, in which the supposed relics of the apostle James, son of Zebedee , discovered c. 830, are housed. Santiago de Compostela remains a significant pilgrimage site, with around 200,000 pilgrims, both secular and Christian, completing the numerous pilgrimage routes to the cathedral in 2012 alone. By venerating relics through visitation, gifts, and providing services, medieval Christians believed that they would acquire

3256-432: The expedition against Thebes. Pausanias identifies (possible from inscriptions) other participants in the scene as: the infant Amphilochus, Eryphyle, her daughters, Eurydice and Demonissa , and a naked Alcmaeon. He goes on to add that the poet Asius also has Alcmena as a daughter of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. According to Plutarch , Alexida was a daughter of Amphiaraus. The Clytidae (alternate spelling "Klytidiai"),

3330-404: The exterior, this collection of small rooms is seen as a cluster of delicate, curved roofs at one end of the church, a distinctive feature of many Romanesque churches. Gothic churches featured lofty, recessed porches which provided space for statuary and the display of relics. Historian and philosopher of art Hans Belting observed that in medieval painting, images explained the relic and served as

3404-461: The faithful, for through these [bodies] many benefits are bestowed by God on men". The Council further insisted that "in the invocation of saints, the veneration of relics and the sacred use of images, every superstition shall be removed and all filthy lucre abolished." There are also many relics associated with Jesus . In his introduction to Gregory's History of the Franks , Ernest Brehaut analyzed

3478-580: The great seer Melampus . After making a sacrifice of a few coins, or sometimes a ram, at the temple, a petitioner slept inside and received a dream detailing the solution to the problem. Games, called the Amphiaria (ἀμφιαράϊα), were celebrated in his honour there. Etruscan tradition inherited by the Romans is doubtless the origin of a son for Amphiaraus named Catillus who escaped from the slaughter at Thebes and led an expedition to Italy, where he founded

3552-567: The model for Dante 's own seminal account of Ugolino gnawing on Ruggieri's skull in Cantos XXXII and XXXIII of the Inferno .) At some point, while the allies of Polyneices sat down to feast, an eagle swooped down and grabbed Amphiaraus's spear, taking it to a great height and then letting it drop on the earth. The spear was fixed in the soil, and transformed into a laurel tree. In the battle, Amphiaraus sought to flee from Periclymenus ,

3626-622: The mystical life of the Church, and especially by receiving the Sacred Mysteries ( Sacraments ). In the Orthodox service books , the remains of the departed faithful are referred to as "relics", and are treated with honour and respect. For this reason, the bodies of Orthodox Christians are traditionally not embalmed . The veneration of the relics of the saints is of great importance in Orthodoxy, and very often churches will display

3700-665: The natural... These points of contact and yielding are the miracles we continually hear of." Rome became a major destination for Christian pilgrims as it was easier to access for European pilgrims than the Holy Land . Constantine the Great erected great basilicas over the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. A distinction of these sites was the presence of holy relics. Over the course of the Middle Ages, other religious structures acquired relics and became destinations for pilgrimage . In

3774-573: The necklace and clothes which Eriphyle wore when she persuaded Amphiaraus to take part in the battle. Alcmaeon had given these jewels to Phegeus who had his sons kill Alcmaeon when he discovered Alcmaeon's plan. In a sanctuary at the Amphiareion of Oropos , northwest of Attica , Amphiaraus was worshipped with a hero cult . He was considered a healing and fortune-telling god and was associated with Asclepius . The healing and fortune-telling aspect of Amphiaraus came from his ancestry: he descended from

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3848-534: The protection and intercession of the sanctified dead. Relics of local saints drew visitors to sites like Saint Frideswide's in Oxford , and San Nicola Peregrino in Trani . Instead of having to travel to be near to a venerated saint , relics of the saint could be venerated locally. Believers would make pilgrimages to places believed to have been sanctified by the physical presence of Christ or prominent saints, such as

3922-442: The relics of Theseus, the bones are sometimes described in literary sources as gigantic, an indication of the hero's "larger than life" status. On the basis of their reported size, it has been conjectured that such bones were those of prehistoric creatures , the startling discovery of which may have prompted the sanctifying of the site. The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have been transported to Lesbos , where it

3996-495: The relics of saints prominently. In a number of monasteries , particularly those on the semi-autonomous Mount Athos in Greece, all of the relics the monastery possesses are displayed and venerated each evening at Compline . As with the veneration of icons , the veneration ( Greek ; δουλια, dulia ) of relics in the Orthodox Church is clearly distinguished from adoration (λατρεια, latria ); i.e., that worship which

4070-400: The relics on a diskos (paten) in a church near the church that is to be consecrated, they will then be taken in a cross procession to the new church, carried three times around the new structure and then placed in the Holy Table (altar) as part of the consecration service. The relics of saints (traditionally, always those of a martyr) are also sewn into the antimension which is given to

4144-543: The relics themselves were considered valuable, they were enshrined in containers crafted of or covered with gold, silver, gems, and enamel. Ivory was widely used in the Middle Ages for reliquaries, its pure white color an indication of the holy status of its contents. These objects constituted a major form of artistic production across Europe and Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages. Amphiaraus Amphiaraus or Amphiaraos ( / ˌ æ m f i ə ˈ r eɪ ə s / ; Ancient Greek : Ἀμφιάραος, Ἀμφιάρεως, "very sacred" )

4218-518: The saints reflects a belief that the saints in heaven intercede for those on earth. A number of cures and miracles have been attributed to relics, not because of their own power, but because of the holiness of the saint they represent. Many tales of miracles and other marvels were attributed to relics beginning in the early centuries of the church. These became popular during the Middle Ages . They were collected in books of hagiography such as

4292-620: The shrine when he had contracted a serious illness. Later, as bishop of Tours, Gregory wrote extensively about miracles attributed to the intercession of St Martin. Nestorian Christianity utilized the hanānā –a mixture made with the dust of Thomas the Apostle 's tomb–for healing. Within the Assyrian Church of the East , it is consumed by a couple getting married in the Mystery of Crowning . The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 drew on

4366-516: The sick, to seek intercession for relief from famine or plague, to take solemn oaths, and to pressure warring factions to make peace in the presence of the sacred. Courts held relics since Merovingian times. St Angilbert acquired for Charlemagne one of the most impressive collections in Christendom. An active market developed and relics entered into commerce along the same trade routes followed by other portable commodities. Matthew Brown likens

4440-618: The site of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem . As holy relics attracted pilgrims and these religious tourists needed to be housed, fed, and provided with souvenirs, relics became a source of income not only for the destinations that held them, but for the abbeys, churches, and towns en route. Relics were prized as they were portable. They could be possessed, inventoried, bequeathed, stolen, counterfeited, and smuggled. They could add value to an established site or confer significance on

4514-474: The state of affairs with relics in Catholic churches. Calvin says that the saints have two or three or more bodies with arms and legs, and even a few extra limbs and heads. Due to the existence of counterfeit relics, the Church began to regulate the use of relics. Canon Law required the authentication of relics if they were to be publicly venerated . They had to be sealed in a reliquary and accompanied by

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4588-460: The teaching of St. John Damascene that homage or respect is not really paid to an inanimate object, but to the holy person, the veneration of a holy person is itself honour paid to God. The Council decreed that every altar should contain a relic, making it clear that this was already the norm, as it remains to the present day in Catholic and Orthodox churches. The veneration of the relics of

4662-679: The town of Libretha, whence the people of Dion had transferred the relics to their own keeping. According to the Chronicon Paschale , the bones of the Persian Zoroaster were venerated, but the tradition of Zoroastrianism and its scriptures offer no support of this. In Buddhism , relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated. After the Buddha's death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism

4736-422: The uncertain memorials of saints should not be venerated." The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) of the Catholic Church condemned abuses such as counterfeit relics and exaggerated claims. Pieces of the True Cross were one of the most highly sought-after of such relics; many churches claimed to possess a piece of it, so many that John Calvin famously remarked that there were enough pieces of the True Cross to build

4810-515: The upheavals of the barbarian invasions relaxed the rules, as remains needed to be relocated to safer places. The veneration of relics continues to be of importance in the Eastern Orthodox Church . As a natural outgrowth of the concept in Orthodox theology of theosis , the physical bodies of the saints are considered to be transformed by divine grace —indeed, all Orthodox Christians are considered to be sanctified by living

4884-429: The way to the battle, Amphiaraus repeatedly warned the other warriors that the expedition would fail, and blamed Tydeus for starting it. For this, he would eventually prevent the dying Tydeus from being immortalized by Athena , by giving him the still-living severed head of his foe Melanippus , whose brains Tydeus devoured along with his last breath, revolting the goddess. (This scene, as rendered by Statius , provided

4958-525: Was also supposed to protect Athens from enemy attack, and in Thebes , that of the prophet Amphiaraus , whose cult was oracular and healing. Plutarch narrates transferrals similar to that of Theseus for the bodies of the historical Demetrius I of Macedon and Phocion the Good . The bones or ashes of Aesculapius at Epidaurus , and of Perdiccas I at Macedon, were treated with the deepest veneration. As with

5032-504: Was celebrated funerary and memorial services. It may have been thought that when the souls of the martyrs went to heaven on resurrection day they would be accompanied by those interred nearby, who would thus gain favour with God. Some early Christians attributed healing powers to the dust from graves of saints, including Gregory of Tours . The cult of Martin of Tours was very popular in Merovingian Gaul , and centered at

5106-407: Was enshrined and visited as an oracle . The 2nd-century geographer Pausanias reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion , his place of death and a major religious center. These too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual of incubation . The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon

5180-461: Was in Greek mythology the son of Oicles , a seer, and one of the leaders of the Seven against Thebes . Amphiaraus at first refused to go with Adrastus on this expedition against Thebes as he foresaw the death of everyone who joined the expedition. His wife, Eriphyle , eventually compelled him to go. Amphiaraus was the son of Oicles . This made Amphiaraus a great-grandson of Melampus , himself

5254-415: Was keen." Local clergy promoted their own patron saints in an effort to secure their own market share. On occasion guards had to watch over mortally ill holy men and women to prevent the unauthorized dismemberment of their corpses as soon as they died. Geary also suggests that the danger of someone murdering an aging holy man in order to acquire his relics was a legitimate concern. Relics were used to cure

5328-611: Was pursued by the Erinyes as he fled across Greece, eventually landing at the court of King Phegeus , who gave him his daughter Alphesiboea in marriage. Exhausted, Alcmaeon asked an oracle how to avoid the Erinyes and was told that he needed to stop where the sun was not shining when he killed his mother. That was the mouth of the river Achelous , which had been silted up. Achelous himself, god of that river , promised him his daughter, Callirrhoe in marriage if Alcmaeon would retrieve

5402-476: Was spread. Some relics believed to be original remains of the body of the Buddha still survive, including the relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka. A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics. Many Buddhist temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based. Today, many stupas also hold

5476-519: Was the son of Apollo . Amphiaraus married Eriphyle , the sister of his cousin Adrastus (the grandson of Melampus' brother Bias ), and by her was the father of two sons, Alcmaeon and Amphilochus . From the geographer Pausanias , we hear of three daughters, Eurydice , Demonissa and Alcmena . He reports seeing on the Chest of Kypselos at Olympia , a scene showing Amphiararaus' departure for

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