‘The relics of Jesus allow Catholicism to assert its foothold in areas where it is a minority’

Duration This Easter period, the city of Argenteuil (northwest of Paris) becomes, for a while, the stage of an unusual event: the “ostension of the Holy Tunic of Christ”, as the Catholic Church calls it. From Friday, April 18 to May 11, this garment, which is said to be used by the duration of Jesus, his passion, is exhibited to the public in the Basilica of Saint-Denys.

The municipality and the diocese expect around 400,000 tourists and pilgrims, including Pietro Parolin, the second to the municipality of the Vatican. What is the story of this robe? How can such anticipation be explained in a secularized France? Historian Nicolas Guyard, author or I relics them Christ. Unne Histoire du sacré and western (“The relics of Christ: a story of the sacred in the West”, 2022), provides answers.

What do we know precisely about the tunic or argenuil?

According to the tradition, it is a part of the tunic that is said that Christ has in his burial or crucifixion: the exact moment is debated. Of the 12^Th Century Onard, several texts shaped the legend that it was given by Carlomagno, who died in 814, to his daughter Théodrade, abbess of the argenteuil monastery. An extensive body of literature, in particular through Geste chansonsHe recounts a journey from Emperor Francio and then to Jerusalem, from where, according to the reports, he brought the tunic back.

All this lacks historical basis. However, it is known that there were numerous exchanges between Charlemagne and Byzantium, and Emperor Frankish housed the amuladas to emulate the practice in the Eastern Roman Empire of the objects associated with imperial power. Duration of his reign, imported volunteer objects from the East and distributed them to several sacred sites within the empire, and their descendants continued this practice. The legends then arose, especially the duration of the crusades, when claiming to have received a Charlemagne relic was a mark of distinction.

Is the authenticity of the Argenteuil tunic subject to the same debates as the Santa de Turín Sabbath, supposedly used to wrap Jesus in the grave?

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