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Incredible skeletal remains of 'Catholic saints' dug up, still dripping in gems and jewellery
Daily Mail ^ | 6 September 2013 | Daily Mail Reporter

Posted on 09/06/2013 7:15:37 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

A relic hunter dubbed 'Indiana Bones' has lifted the lid on a macabre collection of 400-year-old jewel-encrusted skeletons unearthed in churches across Europe.

Art historian Paul Koudounaris hunted down and photographed dozens of gruesome skeletons in some of the world's most secretive religious establishments.

Incredibly, some of the skeletons, said to be the remains of early Christian martyrs, were even found hidden away in lock-ups and containers.

They are now the subject of a new book, which sheds light on the forgotten ornamented relics for the first time.

Thousands of skeletons were dug up from Roman catacombs in the 16th century and installed in towns around Germany, Austria and Switzerland on the orders of the Vatican.

They were sent to Catholic churches and religious houses to replace the relics destroyed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s.

Mistaken for the remains of early Christian martyrs, the morbid relics, known as the Catacomb Saints, became shrines reminding of the spiritual treasures of the afterlife.

They were also symbols of the Catholic Church's newly found strength in previously Protestant areas.

Each one was painstakingly decorated in thousands of pounds worth of gold, silver and gems by devoted followers before being displayed in church niches.

Some took up to five years to decorate.

They were renamed as saints, although none of them qualified for the title under the strict rules of the Catholic church which require saints to have been canonised.

But by the 19th century they had become morbid reminders of an embarrassing past and many were stripped of their honours and discarded.

Mr Koudounaris' new book, Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs, is the first time the skeletons have appeared in print.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Catholic; History; Mainline Protestant; Worship
KEYWORDS: artifacts; catacombsaints; catholic; ghoul; godsgravesglyphs; graverobbing; indianabones; paulkoudounaris; photography; religion; romancatholicism; sectarianturmoil; thereformation
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To: miss marmelstein
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.

Click on my profile page for more guidelines to the Religion Forum.

361 posted on 09/07/2013 9:21:54 AM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: Boogieman

This is actually the first thread I’ve been on that pits Prods against RCs. I only came here because I was interested in the German relics. I found the photos intriguing. I had no idea I had fallen into a swill of anti-Catholic bigotry. But like Michael Corleone, the more I tried to get out, the more I got pulled in. I will avoid these posts in the future now that I know some of the names involved here. So, I’m only replying to people on this particular thread. I have no idea what went on in other places.


362 posted on 09/07/2013 9:22:40 AM PDT by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: Alex Murphy

Somehow this does not ring true. How does someone gain access to dozens of remains of the dead that are surely situated to prevent access by just anyone? Call me skeptical.


363 posted on 09/07/2013 9:24:19 AM PDT by rcofdayton (.)
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To: Religion Moderator

Why are you chastising me when the hatred towards Catholics here is overwhelming? I’ve had three private messages from Catholics who refuse to post on this thread because they fear what will be said. You need to read all of the remarks in their entirety. Hilariously, I’ve been damned to hell on 10 different posts but you didn’t feel the need to rebuke any of those people.


364 posted on 09/07/2013 9:25:34 AM PDT by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: miss marmelstein

“Frankly, God doesn’t have to write everything down for me to know he loves beauty. Truth and beauty, in fact!”

Alright, but what if He has already written down the opposite sentiment? We can quote many verses about God not being pleased by the works of our hands, not finding such things acceptable, etc. That’s why the Israelites were only allowed to use unhewn stones for altars, because if human hands cut a single chip from them, God found them corrupt and unfit for use.

When that is the case, you NEED a written statement to annul the previous ones, or you are just making up your own rules.


365 posted on 09/07/2013 9:42:33 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: miss marmelstein

Maybe because the “hatred” and “damning” is in your imagination, and not in the content of the posts?


366 posted on 09/07/2013 9:44:30 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: miss marmelstein
I have read every post on this thread and pulled the ones which were "making it personal" meaning either reading minds, attributing motives or making the thread "about" another Freeper, personally. If I missed such a post, let me know by Freepmail.

In "open" Religion Forum debate, the poster who gets his feelings hurt - accuses others of hatred, bigotry, Nazism or Islamicism - or uses abuse reports and/or messages to the moderators to shut down the debate - that poster is the disruptor, not the ones who are accustomed to having their own beliefs, religious authorities, etc. abhorred or ridiculed. A poster must have thick skin to defend his beliefs or challenge another's beliefs in "open" religious debate.

The contention cuts in all directions, e.g. there are Catholic posters whose posts drip with contempt for Protestantism just like there are Protestant posters whose posts drip with contempt for Catholicism.

Posters who cannot tolerate withering criticism of their deities, religious authorities and beliefs should stay on the caucus threads for their own religions to discuss such things among their own co-religionists.

You are welcome to do so. Find a comparable article on the same subject and put "Catholic caucus" in the title. As long as neither the article nor the reply posts mention the beliefs of non-Catholics, the thread will remain closed to anyone who does not share your beliefs.

367 posted on 09/07/2013 9:46:46 AM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: Boogieman

Eventually -- it will all be burned up in a fervent heat, right?

There won't be any baubles left for any of us to gaze upon. Nor (I imagine) would we need or desire too either, if we be with Him, and have Him for "light" while in presence of the Holiness which is His very "nature" (using "nature" here for lack of a better term).

But in the meantime, most now living, pretty much seem to need this planet we are presently living on. So we get distracted and gaze at baubles, sometimes..?

...in that meantime, before this "fervent heat" it could be hoped one of those wandering black holes doesn't get to close? Though one of those might be seen from an earth perspective to roll up the heavens as a scroll, if that passage need be understood as to relating to visible "universe", and not have something otherwise more fundamental even than that, which 'science' has yet to gain some grasp of.

Though as to this "meantime" (while we on this earth, await?) I confess to being more concerned with comets disturbing Jupiter and Saturn's titans enough, along with other asteroids, to have put (some of) them on a collision course with this planet, or having done so in times past --- having us be cruising for a bruising, but scarcely knowing it. Astronomers do occasionally catch sight of some good sized objects passing quite "close" to us.

The velocity we are traveling in orbit is tremendous. The velocity of our entire "orbit" as it were, as that is moving along with the Sun itself, is a bit more difficult to calculate? Add potential movement of the mass of the Milky Way galaxy itself in relation to other galaxies (or even inter-galactic "dusts") and we are boogy-ing right along.

A few space rocks could ruin an entire day...

368 posted on 09/07/2013 9:50:32 AM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: Religion Moderator

I just looked back over all the posts and see that you’ve removed so many nasty comments that it looks like we’re a group of stutterers, lol. So, I guess it’s not just me who has a problem with making it personal. Personally, since I’ve been on FR since 2001, I don’t remember when it didn’t get personal. But this is my last post here - I’ll let everyone get on with their business.


369 posted on 09/07/2013 9:53:20 AM PDT by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: miss marmelstein

That was the point.

370 posted on 09/07/2013 9:57:58 AM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: miss marmelstein

Something so openly idolatrous, and pagan as the sistine chapel is an affront to Yehova and all who love him.

Your problems with the mods have nothing to do with the rest of us.


371 posted on 09/07/2013 9:58:22 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: miss marmelstein; metmom; CynicalBear
Looks to me like the RCC has forfeited ANY right to discern what constitutes “good art”. Tell me, are you funeral hearses low-riders?
372 posted on 09/07/2013 11:37:39 AM PDT by smvoice (Better Buck up, Buttercup. The wailing and gnashing are for an eternity..)
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To: Alex Murphy
That headline was very accurate about "Dripping in Gems".
Very impressive burial. Nice teeth too, must've been young.
373 posted on 09/07/2013 11:59:28 AM PDT by MaxMax (If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention)
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To: miss marmelstein; editor-surveyor
Sorry, when one of you strange people posts that the Sistine Chapel must be destroyed, I’ll compare you guys to the Taliban and it won’t be an overstatement.

Fine, then we can compare all Catholics to Teddy Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, and Chavez.

I don't have a clue what denomination e-s goes to. But I do know that the above mentioned people are/were vocally Catholics and Kennedy and Chavez died in the bosom of the Catholic church and were given Catholic funerals by said church.

They're your buddies.

374 posted on 09/07/2013 12:47:08 PM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: smvoice
I just wonder if the tables were turned, and "protestants" gathered skeletons, decorated them with jewels and posted them around the podium in their church, just what WOULD the RCCs think about the whole tradition then?...

You and I both know what the reaction would be.

375 posted on 09/07/2013 12:48:05 PM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: RedMonqey
As every individual cannot claim to be prefect, neither can any Christian sect can claim to be “Holier than Thou”I know this will make both sides of this argument howl but it is true.

Oh, you do, do you?

Well, you know what? You're right.

Nobody or no organization is perfect, even when the Catholic church claims it is.

376 posted on 09/07/2013 12:52:14 PM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: boatbums
Is it only “religious bigotry” when it’s criticism of the Roman Catholic Church?

Pretty much.....

Are all the non-Catholic Christians here supposed to just bear it when Catholics go at them and should they not be entitled to defend their beliefs - even when it disproves something Roman Catholicism holds?

You're getting the idea now.....

The rules of the Religion Forum are fair - and that means if you want to join in an open thread, you better be prepared to bear it.

That's not FAAIAIIIIRRRR......

377 posted on 09/07/2013 12:55:36 PM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: miss marmelstein

378 posted on 09/07/2013 12:57:57 PM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

Last comment: I am the original Whore of Babylon dedicated to Satan. Now, my husband and I (who is also a minion of Satan) are going to watch a great lecture series on Renaissance art. We are at the second lecture and the first was filled with gory paintings of dead and crucified bodies! Can’t wait for what’s up next. Bye!


379 posted on 09/07/2013 1:12:44 PM PDT by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: miss marmelstein

Whatever floats your boat.......


380 posted on 09/07/2013 1:17:43 PM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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