Tomb Of Relics

A supernatural relic. A thousand-year-old conspiracy. A madman who turns death into art. It's all in a day's work for the agents of ARKANE. When a priceless relic disappears from Canterbury Cathedral, ARKANE – the agency tasked with protecting the world from supernatural adversaries – fears the worst... and sends its best. Now, ARKANE agents Morgan Sierra and Jake Timber are on the job. Across Europe, through historical cities and into spectral forests forgotten by time, Morgan and Jake will follow the bloody trail of hidden relics wherever it leads, whatever the cost. But even they aren’t ready for what’s coming. Their hunt will lead them beyond danger, beyond darkness to the shadowed heart of a hidden citadel where lives an evil unlike any they’ve ever seen... and to a dark choice that will change them both forever. NY Times and USA Today bestselling author J.F. Penn invites you to brave her most thrilling adventure yet. A world of the strange. A world of the supernatural. A world... of the ARKANE. Click the link and grab your copy today!

When a relic of St Thomas Becket is stolen, ARKANE agents Morgan Sierra and Jake Timber are called in to find it. The trail of missing relics leads them in a race against time across sacred sites in Europe.

As a major advance in the study of medieval piety the interrelationship between the veneration of relics and of the Eucharistic Host is presented here for the first time. Traced through Christian Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the veneration of the Host proves to be closely associated with the piety focused on relics of the Saints. Both were kept in the sleeping area of private homes, carried on journeys and placed in graves. They were buried together in altar tables and monks called on both for help in threatening circumstances. Like the relics, the sacred Host was later carried in procession, shown to the people for veneration and used to give blessings. This book offers a rich account of one of the most revealing dimensions of medieval belief and practice.

A relic can be anything from the past that has survived to the present. In some branches of the Christian Church, relics are more specifically either the bodily remains of the saints or their clothing, items they used, things they touched or which were touched to their remains, or things associated with the life of Christ or of his blessed mother. Throughout history, many people have venerated holy relics because the saints bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit, through which each of them, in their own individual ways, channeled the presence of Christ to their contemporaries. In the early Christian era and in the Middle Ages, people believed that the aura and the energy of the saints continued to exude from their remains, even after their deaths. Just as people who knew the saints personally during their lifetimes often experienced them as radiating Christs presence through the many ways they were a blessing to others, so honoring their remains and their images were considered valid ways of honoring them and of imploring their assistance.

This book employs a biographical approach to comprehensively study a set of Tang era-tomb guardian figurines, known as the Four Gods (Sishen), comprising a pair of warriors (Dangkuang and Dangye) and a pair of hybrid beasts (Zuming and Dizhou). These objects were exclusively used by officials until 841 AD and were mainly found in capitals then. They disappeared in the 9th century AD. The book is divided into three sections. Part one focuses on their symbolism through names, images, burial contexts, associated ritual regulations, and the interplay of all of these, revealing their dual significance – apotropaic and political, tied to ritual propriety, nuo exorcism, yin-yang divination, and more. Part two explores their connection to other supernatural tomb figurines in the early and middle Tang periods, challenging previous theories and highlighting regional standardization. Additionally, this part delves into the Four Gods’ regulated production, government oversight, and role in funerary processions. Part three examines their disappearance due to shifting views on the afterlife and diminishing national power. It also explores changes in the usage of related tomb objects after the Tang era, focusing on protective functions and spatial concepts.

Relics and Writing in Late Medieval England uncovers a wide-ranging medieval discourse that had an expansive influence on English literary traditions. Drawing from Latin and vernacular hagiography, miracle stories, relic lists, and architectural history, this study demonstrates that, as the shrines of England’s major saints underwent dramatic changes from c. 1100 to c. 1538, relic discourse became important not only in constructing the meaning of objects that were often hidden, but also for canonical authors like Chaucer and Malory in exploring the function of metaphor and of dissembling language. Robyn Malo argues that relic discourse was employed in order to critique mainstream religious practice, explore the consequences of rhetorical dissimulation, and consider the effect on the socially disadvantaged of lavish expenditure on shrines. The work thus uses the literary study of relics to address issues of clerical and lay cultures, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and writing and reform.

Religious relics, defined as "either portions of or objects connected with the body of a saint or other holy person," are among the most revered items in the world. Christian relics such as the Holy Grail, the True Cross, and the Lance of Longinus are also the source of limitless controversy. Such items have incited people to bloodshed and, some say, have been a source of miracles. Relics inspire fear and hope among the faithful and yet are a perennial target for skeptics, both secular and Christian. To research the authenticity of numerous Christian relics, Joe Nickell takes a scientific approach to a field of study all too often tainted by premature conclusions. In this volume, Nickell investigates such renowned relics as the Shroud of Turin, the multiple heads of John the Baptist, and the supposedly incorruptible corpses of saints, first examining the available evidence and documented history of each item. From accounts of true believers to the testimony of the relics' alleged fabricators, Nickell then presents all sides of each story, allowing the evidence to speak for itself. For each relic, Nickell evaluates both the corroborating and contradictory bodies of evidence and explores whether the relic and attributed miracles can be reconstructed. In addition to his own experiments, Nickell presents findings from the world's top scientists and historians regarding these controversial objects of reverence and ire, explaining the circumstances under which each case was examined. Radiocarbon dating and tests to determine the validity of substances such as blood or patina indicate a variety of possible origins. Nickell even reveals some of the techniques used to create archaeological forgeries and explains how investigators have exposed them. Each relic is a mystery to be solved; guided by the maxim, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof," Nickell seeks only the truth.