# Christ's foreskin and the medieval church



## Pergamum (Mar 24, 2015)

I am reading up on the Catholic Church's veneration of the relic of Christ's foreskin. A current book is, "An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town."

The Church claimed to have this artifact in possession. Indulgences were granted to view it. This would mean that the Church would possess the only flesh of Jesus available to be seen after the ascension. Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) issued a bull granting indulgences to any and all who made a pilgrimage to Charroux, where the foreskin was housed.

Did any of the Reformers use this relic as a means to discredit the Catholic Church? Did they mention it at all?

p.s. This relic went missing not too long ago.


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## earl40 (Mar 24, 2015)

Why Our Lord put up with that institution for so long almost evades me. I recently put on FB how pope Francis turned solidified blood into liquid and not one commented on my comment how this was also pure craziness as the foreskin of Jesus being around then. The sheer lack of protesting in Protestantism has about vanished in the public square.


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## Pergamum (Mar 24, 2015)

"In the late 17th century the Vatican librarian Leo Allatius wrote an unpublished treatise entitled _De Praeputio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Diatriba_ (A Discussion of the Foreskin of Our Lord Jesus Christ), claiming that the Holy Prepuce ascended, like Jesus himself, and was transformed into the rings of Saturn..."


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## Pergamum (Mar 24, 2015)

> The Holy Foreskin first made an appearance in medieval Europe around 800 ad, when King Charlemagne presented it as a gift to Pope Leo III. Charlemagne said it had been given to him by an angel.
> 
> However, rival foreskins soon began to pop up all over Europe. All told, twenty-one different churches claimed to have the Holy Foreskin, often at the same time. Various miraculous powers were attributed to these foreskins. In particular, they were supposed to be able to protect women during childbirth.
> 
> ...



and again:



> The foreskin of Christ is perhaps the most controversial missing relic after it disappeared in 1983 under mysterious circumstances. Until then, it had been encased in a gilded box and paraded through the village of Calcata, north of Rome, in an annual procession marking the annual day of circumcision. It was purported to be the only piece of Christ’s body on earth. Those who made a pilgrimage to pray to the relic were given a 10-year indulgence. The practice was altered in 1900 when anyone who dared mention the holy foreskin—except during the feast day on which it was honored and put on display—was subject to excommunication. The practice of parading the prepuce once a year continued until it disappeared in 1983. Conventional wisdom was that the foreskin found its way to the Vatican, either taken there by the priest of Calcata or snatched in secret. The fear, according to David Farley, who wrote the book An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oldest Town, was that scientists might attempt to clone Christ from the tiny flap of flesh.



Sounds like a fiction movie, trying to clone Jesus from the DNA from his foreskin.


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## BGF (Mar 24, 2015)

The absurdity is astounding. However, just to satisfy my own curiosity, what was the first century practice concerning foreskin disposal? Were they discarded as refuse? Were they kept as momentos in baby's first yearbook? Where are the Jesus baby teeth relics, or cradle cap, or hair that fell out? Or shed skin cells? I don't know whether any of the reformers used such things to discredit the RCC, but they (the relics) certainly deserve something akin to Luther's acerbic mockery.


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## reaganmarsh (Mar 24, 2015)

I may sound like an idiot here, but I've never really given the foreskin of Jesus that much thought. An ascended foreskin, now visible as a planet's rings. Oy vey. 

Thank you, Lord, for the mercy of bringing us to "the simplicity and purity of faith in Christ," and not the veneration of relics.


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## RamistThomist (Mar 24, 2015)

Pergamum said:


> "In the late 17th century the Vatican librarian Leo Allatius wrote an unpublished treatise entitled _De Praeputio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Diatriba_ (A Discussion of the Foreskin of Our Lord Jesus Christ), claiming that the Holy Prepuce ascended, like Jesus himself, and was transformed into the rings of Saturn..."



I have some friends who believe that. Amazing what you run into with Trad Circles.


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## Logan (Mar 24, 2015)

Pergamum said:


> Did any of the Reformers use this relic as a means to discredit the Catholic Church? Did they mention it at all?



If I remember correctly, Calvin mentioned it in his "Treatise on Relics", among other things such as milk from the Virgin's breasts.


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## arapahoepark (Mar 24, 2015)

Logan said:


> Pergamum said:
> 
> 
> > Did any of the Reformers use this relic as a means to discredit the Catholic Church? Did they mention it at all?
> ...


Is it freeze dried? If so will the Pope now perform another miracle???


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## MichaelNZ (Mar 24, 2015)

How do they know it's really His?


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## Pergamum (Mar 24, 2015)

Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) said that it was so.


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## Physeter (Apr 15, 2015)

The absurdity of this astounds me. Macabre and vile. I am well aware that Catholic churches all over Europe and South America keep corpses. Some cathedrals are full of bones. There even a cathedral that is almost all bones. I thought this was ridiculous. This foreskin business is even worse.


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## Somerset (Apr 16, 2015)

I think this is correct - apologies if not.

There are two skulls of one saint - explained as being from the saint at different ages.

"The rings of saturn" - think someone might have over done the communion wine


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## Captain Picard (May 10, 2015)

Calls to mind Calvin's comment that, were all Europe's pieces of the True Cross put together, you'd have enough wood for a second ark.

I knew that quote back when I was a Romanist, and it kept me, even at the time, from venerating a purported splinter of the same. 

Sometimes astounds me, the grace of God in our sin...


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