The Medieval Black Market for Christian Relics
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- Опубліковано 25 січ 2025
- Relics were very hot items during the Middle Ages, so much so that they spawned a very profitable (and highly questionable) trade that spanned from England to the Holy Lands... and that's what we'll explore in this episode of SideQuest.
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Further Reading:
“Furta Sacra” by Patrick Geary - www.google.com...
“The Medieval Pilgrimage Business” by Adrian Bell and Richard Dale - blog.oup.com/2...
“The Unmaking of a Saint: Thomas Becket and the English Reformation” by Robert E. Scully - www.jstor.org/...
To (mis-)quote Baldrick from the first series of Blackadder: "You only got one finger of Saint John my lord? I thought they always came in sets of ten."
Yeah, Blackadder covers it perfectly: ua-cam.com/video/PyF7YmHYhYc/v-deo.html
Yeah, but the big money was in noses. You could buy Jesus’ nose, St Peter’s nose and Joan of Arc’s… those.
😁
@@patrickstewart3446 you mean human horn?
@@Gr3nadgr3gory Upper horn
People think a rabbit's foot is lucky, so here's a full rabbit.
"Man presents priceless gold holy relic"
Pawn Stars: *Tell you what I'll do $10*
It wasn't priceless then xD, not now at least
Lol I feel that deeply. Damn pawn shops.
and i am taking all the risk
“I’m taking all the risk”
@@himesilva You really are in the 14th century, no way to verify.
"Eager to spend their hard-earned coin in hopes of receiving a miracle" is how the modern-day lottery works.
Yeah, but at 1 in 13,983,816, the lottery has better odds.
@@condorboss3339 lmao I’d say a “miracle”, meaning an unexplainable positive phenomena, is more likely to happen to someone that a lottery win.
Don't disparage the lottery, dude. It's a way of getting people to pay taxes without coercion, and is thus valuable to society.
@@psyxypher3881 There is a bit of coercion inherent in promising a better life to those just barely scraping by, but I do like this point of yours tbh
@@psyxypher3881 It's a tax for being poor and stupid. Not equitable or ethical.
Nice job with the animations! I do recall seeing a relic at my Catholic high school.
Cap
@@chrishowland8857 yeah it was proven to be fake
that unexpected places to find a fake relic.
Which one?
@@dubuyajay9964 Which school or which relic? I unfortunately no longer remember who the relic was supposed to be from.
In 1248 King Baldwin II of the Latin Empire (formerly Byzantine) sold one of Christendom's greatest relics, the Crown of Thorns to the French king, Louis IX. The sum of money the French king paid was said to have equaled two years of France's GDP. Louis built the Sainte-Chapelle royal chapel to house this particular relic, though it was removed during the French Revolution and placed in Notre Dame after. Louis IX himself himself would go on to become a saint years into his death and his body parts and personal belongings were also made into relics.
Any idea what happened to those thorns.
@@polishherowitoldpilecki5521 It remained at the Notre Dame and was exhibited to the public every first Friday of every month. In 2019 firemen rescued it when Notre Dame burned and moved the thorns to the Louvre museum.
Genius investment strategy
@polishherowitoldpilecki5521 yes, they are embedded into our psyche.
Me: *having collected 3 holy foreskins of Jesus*
"Wait, you're saying they might be fake!?"
Not all relics are authentic it must have a wax seal of the office of the postulator and the certificate of authentication
"behold! the miraculously regrowing foreskin!"
Hmmm the forbidden holy jerky.
@@killiansonck6278 omnomnom
@@killiansonck6278 this made me spit my tea at the screen.
Okay this channel is officially amazing, I’ve always wondered about this topic, having heard often about these so called holy objects yet the fact that they aren’t as talked about as much is a pity!
Sidequest is a diamond on the precipice of being discovered by the masses. Here’s to your further success, and may your views be ever growing my friend!! :)
Exactly
Excellent animation! And great topics! I found a new favourite history channel!
Nice addition of Abby Sciuto for the forensic investigation. Great animation on an interesting topic.
Never noticed that, wow
The greatest forensic investigator what i have saw in tv
Why are you so underrated? How can a channel with such a great quality content and presentations have so less subscribers?
Man! You deserve more! 🙌🏼
The answer is simple: this channel is quite new and it had very few videos.
Just found this channel, and I’m extremely impressed by the quality of the content! Instantly subscribed, looking forward to more videos and to the growth of your channel!
Stumbled upon this channel a couple of days ago. I subscribed instantly to it and I think many others did the same. I think he is gaining 1k subscribers per hour since I subscribed, which is well deserved, very fine content here.
Right? Criminally undersubscribed! Almost as criminal as a fake relic!
Same I just found it and love it
This channel is amazing. Idk how it’s so small.
There is still debate on the Shroud of Turin to this day. I watched a documentary and if I remember correctly, the Shroud was housed in a building that caught fire. Why does this matter? Well, in order to carbon date the Shroud to find out how old it is, they needed to cut off a section of it and destroy it in the process. The clergy who were responsible for the Shroud did not want to do that, but reluctantly agreed to have a small portion taken off. The carbon dating showed that the section that was removed came from the 13th century, but going back to that fire I mentioned, there is speculation that the cloth was mended at some point to repair the damage caused by the fire. The proponents of this theory obviously wanted to cut another portion off of the Shroud in order to test it, but I believe the clergymen have not allowed that.
The romantic in me hopes that it truly rested on the Lord, but even if it is not a relic, it is a very fascinating piece of history and art.
All relics are fake. All of them.
@@FrankFurther In this case we are trying to prove if the relics were owned by (or were a part of) a Saint or holy figure, it’s not just a question of faith, but of historical, cultural, and artistic significance.
You perfectly articulated my sentiment. I want to believe the shroud is legit by my analytical mind just hasn't see sufficient evidence.
As of 2019 the scientists who originally did the c13 dating have even said there should be new tests, and testing on different areas show that it is anywhere from 1300 to 3000 yo. It's covered in pollen specific to Jerusalem and the images imprinted on the cloth are so unique that we would have trouble replicating them today.
The org reason they thought it was only 700yo was because it was damaged and repaired at some point, and as above testing them at different locations from the 1980s study reveals a date which is much older.
@@FrankFurther verifiably false, because there were indeed relics made in the Middle Ages via saints lol
Can you please do a video about how empires administer their colonies?
That's a good idea! I do have a video on the Spanish colonies in the Americas, but it's not really about administration.
Literally everything in and about this video: Pure educational awesomeness.
I just found your channel today. You are gravely underrated, but given the comments your channel is poised to blow up. Keep up the great work.
Just all around awesome. Love all your videos!
The algorithm has finally blessed this man
“So why didn’t the clergy demand proof?”
That’s a touch ironic of an expectation, no?
That, and they like money.
4:43 loved the abby reference!!
If you'd like to read a story (fiction) of someone being part of this relic forging in the middle ages. I can really recommend the book "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco. It's a really entertaining story about a mischievous telling the story of his life, fittingly also not always being honest with the reader either.
As Martin Luther (as far as I can tell only the actor and not an actual quote) said "Good thing that there are enough Nails from the holy cross in Rome to shoe every horse in saxony."
Was that one of the 99 or his table talks?
Wow, this channel is going to blow up, mark my word!
I really hope so! It's one of my favourites. I followed them over to Patreon... keeping my fingers crossed that more people do the same.
I'm amazed it hasn't blown up already
I like how he answers the questions nobody asked but everyone wants the answer to
There's also the interesting story that Notre Dame, Paris's most famous church, was specifically built to house the Crown of Thorns, as brought to France by St King Louis IX.
Congratulations for the 10k! You deserve a lot more! Your work is amazing, continue this way and you will achieve a lot more.
This dude is almost at 200k subs, he was at 145k yesterday (I think). Damn, he's coming up fast.
This brings to memory the first brother Cadafel story. Adds a lot of perspective to the events. Nice video
When you concluded that the saint would then have 3 heads and 5 arms, I dunno why maybe it's the way you said it, but I burst out laughing for a good 4 minutes, and almost choked on my food. I'm in love with the unique style of presentation!
I still laugh at that 🤣
The Cologne Dome supposedly houses the remains of the three kings (you know, Caspar, Melchior and Baltasar), but there are parts of atleast four different skeletons in it's crypt. It's very likely that these remains originally belonged to a group of Roman legionaires.
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo cologne also has the "remains" pf a few Virgin the were patronized after something they did with the Romans
Because the idea of a Saint running around looking g like a Greek monster is awesome.
in my city-
Dubrovnik - Croatia
in one church is relic -' diapers of Jesus ' 😂😂
but more shockingly is that people still pray over it lol
Wow, im from Sisak, there we have a piece of the cross on which Jesus was crucified
@Prasanth Thomas They did. Cloth diapers that could be reused. Of course they weren't Pampers.
Did they check it for the authentic holy shit😂
The host sounds so similar to Sheogorath from Skyrim. Also, it's so nice to see the channel getting the subscribers it deserves
I can’t believe this channel hasn’t grown faster, so good
Homoeopathic Saint Blood.
Love it.
This channel deserves a LOT MORE VIEWS
Lol "there are enough splinters of the holy cross to build a whole warship!" is definitely the oldest meme I've heard
I heard one guy saying "if you collected all the splinters of the 'true cross', you would be able to build a 3 stories house out of all the wood, and if you collect all the rubble from the Berlin wall and tried to rebuild it with it, it would be the size of the great wall of China".
Rubble from the Berlin Wall is actually sold with a certificate of authenticity.
These animations are solid and the voiceover is really good! Glad I found this channel :)
The dating of the shroud from the 13th century was problematic because the dating was done on a piece of the cloth that was a 13th Century repair, and not the original fabric.
Thank you. They also found for the cloth to be from the 1200s it would have needed ro be stored in Mali as rhe heat would spead uo the aging process, radiometric dating that uses weather conditions to check ages, the cloth has been confirmed via pollen samples to be from Jerusalem so their is no way the new datings that are consistent with each other are wrong. What makes more sense thst the new dates with better technology and multiple people is all wrong or that the old date made by a single lab was wrong and people just stopped reaserching.
I found this video linked on reddit, Instantly earned a subscribe, I love the fact you focus on a the random history question like this, or how much mideval candles cost!
Amazing video! I never knew about these relics beforehand :0
This needs more attention!
Its so well made :)
I want this channel to blow up and become a future UA-cam relic
It will
This channel deserves more!
Found this channel from a comment recommendation. Bless that commenter for telling me of such a gem.
Too notch quality content on this channel.. thanks for sharing this my friend.. ☺️
Nice channel. I wish you growth, you deserve it!
GUYS GUYS! I’m a newbie because I just found this channel a few minutes ago, but THIS is the channel! TELL EVERYONE!
A few years ago I was in Istanbul and saw the pillar Jesus was tied to and scourged before the crucifixion.
A couple of days later I was in Rome and saw the pillar Jesus was tied to and scourged before the crucifixion.
It was very nice of Jesus to have himself brutally tortured against two different pillars just so the Catholic and Orthodox churches could each have a special icon.
This is so underrated
For some reason, I really want to design a card game based around this now.
This channel is criminally undersubbed ,I am a new sub and I am sure you are about to blow up with this kind of content.
Fun fact: Rubbing an object (usually a cloth) onto a relic actually turns it into a relic. There are many different grades of relics.
Wasn't there also a type of mirror relic? You could "show" an existing relic to the mirror, then lock it in a box to keep the holy reflection from escaping.
Or to put it another way ,"Six degrees of Saint John".^^
@@Eloraurora not sure about that
saw your ad on an Extra History video. video is good shit
A good medieval mystery that uses the relic's craze is "A Morbid Taste for Bones" by Ellis Peters. It's part of the Brother Cadfael series.
Funny you mentioned True Cross splinters. Recently sunk russian Moskva cruiser allegedly had one on board. Iirc they paid either 4kk or 40kk USD for it.
I guess that proves that the cross didn't float.
Nice vide man love the channel I subscribed
You, sir, are dangerously underrated.
Man, this channel needs to have more people watching. The good information paired with unique animation designs are perfect
underrated channel
SideQuest enjoys watching NCIS, kewl beans.
I will watch till this chanel grow grow grow to 1 billion
My favorite debunking of the shroud is that it’s a weave that didn’t exist in the era. Don’t have to go further than that.
Apparently others have found the blood, pollen, and the basic cloth to be from the first century in Jerusalem. The main theory that all the new dates support is that the cloth was repaired. Which likely occured after a fire, so the diffrent weave is likely that. Other reports show jt to be from the time, and show that image was not caused by pigments but a light source.
Contains a error in the age of the shroud of torrent. You see the shot of Turin was patched up over the years and different parts of it are different ages but Most experts do agree that the shroud is that of a man that that was crucified and it carbon dated from anywhere between 1300 to 3000 years old.
Rome also band crucifixion in the 4th century
I love the animation style, the narration, and history/interesting things channels but why was this video an actual ad on another video lmao. I'll be wait for more videos tho
Deusdona? Now, there's a clear marketing message: god-given.
Amazing animations as always
me: has all of the holy corpse parts
also me: why no d4c love train
Selling indulgences was another good money earner for the church.
i just found these and i’m loving them
Just one thing, the shroud, being one of the most tested and researched relics was actually more recently dated and was confirmed to be from around the 1st century. apparently the dating technique used when it was dated to be from around the 13th century was flawed in some way.
Excellent video, would've liked more examples of forged relics. I recall there was a famous crown that supposedly contained a nail from the crucifixion in the headband. Modern analysis proved that the nail was made of silver, not iron. Due to the price of silver, it's heavily implied the king in question ordered it forged himself.
The irony of Deusdona's name is not lost on me.
Fun fact: the largest collection or Catholic relics outside of the Vatican, at least the largest collection acknowledged by The Church, is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Blood dilution with no change is the same as...
x = x * 0.01
...which is only true if x = 0, so it means it was never effective at all.
The Shroud of Turin carbon dating test done in 1988 was admitted to be flawed and inaccurate because parts of the cloth were reconstructed after a fire which there is evidence of in the cloth. Not to mention there are traces of pollen from plants which grow exclusively around Israel.
I'm just imagining a secret group of vikings who set up an entire black market set up for relics they stole. That would have been awesome
You guys. Liking and subscribing this video and to this channel has miraculous effects! Why, my crippled cousin did so and got up running!
It didn't solve his lack of arms, but he was certainly cheerful!
@4:42 surprised to see Abby in the video!
My favourite name of a relic is the Holy Shinbone of St. Eric. I have NO clue whether it's a real relic, but I've heard of it in a couple of places.
Unrelated to that, I keep seeing people say "Oh, this channel is so small!" I'm a bit surprised, there's nearly quarter of a million subscribers! How is that small?!
This video is over a year old. Back then they didn't have that many subscribers.
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo Ah, fair enough.
A relic's value isn't based on its authenticity, but rather whether it can be used to kill vampires.
I can't tell you all the counterfeit holy nails I sold back in those days. By far the easiest relic to fake.
I like the nodd to Abbie Schuto, with the caff pow drinking science tech. 😂
Subscribed and and wasn't disappointed
There are enough pieces of the Veil of the Blessed Theotokos to make the sails for the warship made from the fragments of the True Cross.
I loved the NCIS refrence!
Hi there. Love your videos. Would you be able to put a list of the sources cited somewhere in your videos or in the video description? I'd be interested to know more of where you get your info from.
Did anyone else notice that Mr. SideQuest had his hat off when he was inside the church?
YOU are a precious relic. The genuine article.
NCIS reference spotted, taking my own life with great haste
Relics are actually pagan in origin and stem from the cult of the dead. This was particularly true in the Celtic sphere, where skulls of ancestors had oracular powers.
most pagans hated the practice lol
Your info on the shroud is out of date. The section that was tested was contained (its the part that is always grabbed)
Is the story of the shroud of turin so clear cut? I thought it was still very debated.
How was Constantinople not mentioned as a place one could find relics??
I love Saint John the Baptbeast 😂 I’m Catholic and know of the forgeries, so very well done and thanks for being very respectful (and funny)
What about the large number of relics at Constantinople? Surprised that wasn't mentioned.
hilarriously how he explains it like it is an obscure ancient Reliion not an Common Dying one
4:43 that's a reference to Abby from NCIS?
Actually the shroud of Turin was not disproven. Firstly it was concluded that it was made in 13th century but when better technology came it was revealed that it was borderline impossible to make such a correct forgery not only at the time but at all. For example, around the head, scientists have found pollen from a plant that only grows in and around jerusalem, there was found evidence of radiation which indicates that he really did resurect and so on and so on
Also, samples to testing were taken from the corner, which was heaivly touched, thus the contents of Carbon-14 was much higher. Not to mention few fires it has endured. Also there is lesser know "Shroud of Saint Magdalene", which was testes (as it was doubted more often), however it was concluded that:
-Both of them came from the same region and same place
-Both depicts the same person
-DNA of blood on both shrouds is from the same person
Not to mention that cloth pattern was used mostly at eastern coast of Mediterrean Sea during fist Century before and after Chist.
@@szymonpajak4102 true. Glory to God
Pozdrav Zadru
All relics are fake, Jesus was a fucking con man, like all prophets and priests