Other Tombs of St. James

[Sally Haden]

Hi Jeffrey
You said:
>Interestingly in his TV programme Brian Sewell referred to the remains of
>St James being all there 'except the head and one hand'.
>
>I can understand the head being missing - afterall he was beheaded - but
>why the hand?

Reading on in "The Pilgrimage to Santiago" by Mullins, he comments that of
course the body from which this hand was supposed to come (but see also
other slightly contradictory information in above emails... but which is
very interesting, thanks...) might not have been St James at all.  So he
goes on to talk about  a couple of examples of attempted verification:
Aymery Picaud says "the body of the apostle is here in its entirety", and a
Fr John Morris SJ in 1882 published a report of his pilgrimage in which he
satisfied himself that the left hand of the apostle's body was indeed
missing.  Noting that in the Acts of the Apostles (Ch12, v2) it is stated
that Herod "killed James the brother of John with the sword", Fr Morris
concluded that the hand at Marlow-on-Thames in England (where it still is
today, apparently - see above emails) must have been struck off as the
apostle raised it to protect his head from the Roman sword.

At first sight this seems to the modern mind rather spurious proof, but
still, who knows... perhaps... well maybe even history is a matter of faith
sometimes?!

Again, with our modern mind we can find an absolute fascination (or horror)
in relics.  Personally I enjoyed Mullins account of Reading abbey, to try to
get some insight into a part of the medieval mind-set .  He conjours for us
the scene on the High Altar on feast days (which were MANY in those days).
"The conscientous pilgrim could worship, besides the celebrated hand of St
James and the cloth it was wrapped in, such unexpected delights as the
foreskin of Our Lord, which the Emperor Constantine had once owned ..., a
piece of Christ's shoe, blood from His side, some hair and garments of the
Virgin Mary, the robe of Doubting Thomas, a tooth of St Luke, bits of
Aaron's rod, a fragment of the rock which Moses struck, a collection of
fingers of minor martyrs and two pieces of the Holy Cross.  A venerable
catalogue."

Maybe Brian Sewell had a point when he said that the modern art gallery is
the new cathedral.

Talking of which, I haven't seen many comments on his programme, which I
recorded and have just watched all five episodes right through.  Any
thoughts?
Sally

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