Monday, April 7
Disturbing Relics Week: "Cloister-Work" in Austria
From Alert Reader Gregor, some photos taken at a church in Lech, Austria, neatly illustrating one of the more extreme and extravagant forms of the Catholic veneration of relics (not worship) discussed in the combox last week by the Shrine's resident polymath Sandra Miesel:
And now some photos from Peterskirche in Vienna from Alert Reader Laura, who tells us they're labeled as unknown martyrs of the catacobs, and that her daughter was fascinated and grossed out at the same time. (What can I tell you? Kids love 'em!)
All right, I admit it, they give me the willies too. But they also make you think, and in spite of how you feel, the saints deserve our honor and respect, which for some people involves lots of glitter and spangles. I can live with that.
What I'm describing are bones covered with gold netting to which paste jewels have been liberally applied, eye-skockets filled in with pearls and aquamarines, then dressed in strange costumes. It's a Germanic thing. Germans ain't got no taste.It all depends on how one defines taste. And they're pretty memorable, anyway.
And now some photos from Peterskirche in Vienna from Alert Reader Laura, who tells us they're labeled as unknown martyrs of the catacobs, and that her daughter was fascinated and grossed out at the same time. (What can I tell you? Kids love 'em!)
All right, I admit it, they give me the willies too. But they also make you think, and in spite of how you feel, the saints deserve our honor and respect, which for some people involves lots of glitter and spangles. I can live with that.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
