Reliquaries held relics of religious significance. Being a good Italian woman living in Venice in all likelihood I would be Catholic. Being a courtesan I would be classed as a fallen woman an there were many laws limiting when I could attend church and where I could sit. Being devote I would still do my prayers and appeal to the saints. The patron saint of fallen women is Mary Magdalene.
Reliquaries were often very ornate
I was able to get a 3rd class relic which means an item (often cloth) that had been in contact with a 1st or second class relic. A First Class Relic is the body or a portion of the body of a Saint (bone, flesh, or hair). These are considered so precious that they are rarely entrusted to individuals, but are placed in Faith Communities. The Second Class Relic is an item or piece of an item used by the Saint while on the body (clothing, Bible, Breviary, Mass vestments, and so on). Again, Second Class Relics are considered so precious that they are rarely entrusted to individuals, but are placed in Faith Communities. Third Class Relics typically fall into 2 categories. The first category is a piece of cloth touched to a First or Second Class Relic of the Saint. The second category, in cases where there is no known existing relic of a saint, the cloth has been touched to the shrine of the saint. Generally, the Third Class Relic is a piece of cloth, but it need not be, as long as the item so touched conveys Holiness and is touched with the intent that it be a Third Class Relic.
My third class relic is a piece of the cloth that carried Mary Magdalene's bones when they were on tour in the US.
I decided to display this relic within a very gothic looking shadow box
I was gifted a beautiful rosary that I have draped around the box.
I have plans to also create a triptych, which is a style panel painting
also a walk able labyrinth
The pattern of Chartres labyrinth , labyrinths were used for meditation and contemplation
