Glass reliquaries could have resonated with the early modern viewer on a number of levels because of their dual ability to simultaneously reveal and conceal. These vessels had the paradoxical ability to display—and thus make present—the sacred contents and, at the same time, contain them—creating a barrier and denying access to them. The glass vessel’s dynamic capability eloquently reflected the nature of the relic inside. Relics embodied both a spiritual power and an earthly presence. Relics were both part of the human world because they were closely connected to the saint’s earthly life and they also had a divine component because
their ultimate reference point was the saint’s heavenly soul. Thus for medieval Christians, relics occupied a liminal space between the sacred and mundane and a close encounter with them could bring the viewer to the threshold of the divine sphere. Thus it should be fitting that their repositories reference this duality.
The visual connection established between the viewer and the holy relic rein-forced one’s experience of Christ and the loca sancta in a powerful way, both along the dangerous journey home and after they arrived. Viewing the relic could have reminded the viewer of their experiences in the Holy Land tracing the steps of the apostles and seeing the sacred sites. Such a visceral connection to the land where the biblical stories took place could have certainly strengthened one’s familiarity with the concept of Christ’s humanity and, in turn, one’s connection to God.
Transparent glass reliquaries could have also evoked the complex nature of the relationship between viewer and God. Like the relics God was both present in the Christian’s life and yet not entirely accessible. The early modern Christian might find signs of divinity within the earthly realm but God himself was not fully knowable until after the Beatific Vision, the spiritual union of believer and divine that happened after one’s death.
It is very likely that glass held additional symbolic meanings considering the many references made to this medium during the medieval period, particularly those related to the Virgin Mary. As early as the seventh century Venantius For-tunatus described Mary as a church with windows and the light filtering through those windows as God. This notion evolved into one of the Latin West’s most famous metaphors involving glass, namely, that the miraculous virgin birth of Christ was like light passing through glass without breaking it.24 A thirteenth-cen-tury verse expresses the concept saying
As the sunbeam through the glass Passeth but not staineth,
So the Virgin as she was Virgin still remaineth.25
Yrjö Hirn’s seminal book The Sacred Shrine: A Study of the Poetry and Art of the Catholic Church observes that “From the beginning of the ninth century theolo-gians, in writing about the virgin birth, commenced to quote the analogy of the passage of light through glass, and poets knew well how to make use of so apt and poetical a simile.”26
The doctrine which stated that the Virgin Mary was the mother of Christ and yet still remained a virgin was a complicated one but one well worth investigating because it lay at the heart of the God-Christ relationship. Central to this mystery
is the notion of the undisturbed passage. The process of viewing a relic contained in a transparent or translucent glass vessel could have eloquently resonated with the symbolism of the virgin birth as well as the other important miracles involving undisturbed passage associated with Christ’s death and Resurrection. After Christ’s Crucifixion and interment his resurrected spirit passed through the large stone sealing his tomb and, following this, he appeared to his apostles by passing through a closed door. The notion of passage without disturbance—a feat equally import-ant and elusive—was also associated with other importimport-ant moments in Christ’s life.27 This notion is referenced at both Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection, that is, moments involving a transition between corporeal and divine states of being.
For instance when Christ appears to Mary Magdalene and his apostles after the Resurrection, his former companions are able to see but not touch him. That the metaphor of glass was extensively employed to describe the ultimate example of the undisturbed passage, the virgin birth, suggests it may have had a unique place among materials when it came to symbolizing such paradoxical beliefs.
There were many other additional reasons a viewer might have imbued the medium of glass with miraculous or divine associations. The Bible mentions glass when describing the Heavenly Jerusalem, giving this material a place in the celestial sphere. As described in Revelations 21:18, “The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass.” Further reinforcing this is Revelations 21:21, which reads, “And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass.” Glass was also associ-ated with divine miracles. When describing the miraculously uncorrupted internal organs of deceased Saints Hugh of Lincoln and Edward the Confessor, accounts indicate that the former’s organs were “purer than glass” while the latter’s flesh was
“fair and fresh of colour, pure, and brighter than glass.”28 Glass also played a central role in two miracles recorded by Saint Gregory in his Life of Saint Benedict. In the first instance, several monks in disagreement with Benedict’s strict rules decided to poison his wine. But before Benedict tasted the tainted drink, he made the sign of the cross. At this point the glass shattered into pieces thereby saving the monk. In another instance, Benedict threw a glass vessel with oil out the window to punish a monk who refused to give the remaining oil to a poor man. But it did not break.
Instead a barrel’s worth of oil miraculously appeared after the incident.29
Thus glass held important symbolic associations with some of the faith’s most important mysteries and these associations, in addition to the medium’s ability to simultaneously reveal and conceal its contents, made it particularly well suited to function as a reliquary. As pilgrims carried back their sacred souvenirs from the Holy Land the glass would have provided ample meditative avenues to ponder.