geeez Gonzo, been there too, as a youth, and NEVER KNEW about the Golden casket or the bones of the three wise men...wonder how St. Helena got them all together? At any rate...I hope I get a chance to go back. It is an AMAZING cathedral!
Many of us skeptical Protestants suspect that Queen Mother Helena’s tour of the Holy Land in the early 4th Century was the original tourist scam. It seems that whatever she was looking for the local folks seemed to be able to locate “miraculously” and most of it ended up in the hands of the church.
I haven’t heard any tales about what the “guides” got out of it but I doubt they went unrewarded.