During my semester abroad in Rome, I learned more during the span of four months than I have during most of my college career. I experienced the history of many European countries, Renaissance art, the culture of the Roman Catholic church, and what it's like to travel internationally on a budget. I also was able to observe that despite the relatively close proximity between most European nations (especially those in the West) there are major differences between each country's cultures and ways of life. However, there was one interesting phenomenon that I noticed in nearly every city I went to, which was the presence of religious relics. I've always found the idea and history of Christian relics really interesting. The fact that people sometimes travel thousands of miles just to see a tooth or bone that was allegedly from the body of a Saint or other religious figure despite the fact that there is a known historical record of people faking these relics in order to sell them and make money off of them. But I had already decided that I would have no shame in being an obviously-American tourist during my time abroad, and I took pictures of EVERYTHING. Here are the most interesting relics I encountered throughout Europe (but mostly in Italy).
1. The Arrow of St. Sebastian: I was able to take a study trip during one of my weekends in Rome, which involved visiting the Roman catacombs. The section that we went to was dedicated to Saint Sebastian, and at the end of our tour, we were taken to a the church at the site of the catacombs, and this was the sculpture that is used to display the alleged arrow that pierced St. Sebastian. You may be wondering, "Hey! Where is St. Sebastian actually buried though?" and my answer is: yepp. Under that marble sculpture. Allegedly.
2. The Footprints of Jesus: So this was also at the catacombs of St. Sebastian. These are supposed to be Jesus'
actual footprints. If you look closely, the toes look like rectangles. The footprints don't even look human, but people come from all over the world to pray to and worship these footprints, so I had to at least take a picture of them. They're the only footprints I know that people worship, and the chances of them being real are... slim.
3. Saint Jerome: Saint Jerome's body is located in St. Peter's, along with the bodies of many other religious figures (mostly popes). The first time I saw one of the glass tombs like this, I got really freaked out, but I ended up going to St. Peter's so much that it became a normal sight for me. The fact that people came and prayed to an actual dead body was absolutely fascinating to me.
4. Reliquary Arm: When my Grandma came to visit me during my semester abroad, we decided to go to Florence for the day and sight see. We ended up in the church of Santa Maria de Novella, where there's a huge museum filled with relics of all kinds. This is a reliquary arm bone, but I was unable to find who the bone supposedly belonged to. You can see the bone if you look inside the clear oval in the arm.
5. Reliquary Teeth: This was another one of the relics on display in Florence, and once again, I'm not sure which saint it belongs to. I was just really creeped out by fact that they displayed the relics on a bust of the saint, and also that they used her dress to display the reliquary teeth and organs. It doesn't get too much creepier than that tbh.
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