Reliquary
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A reliquary is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a feretory. A brooch-like container for a very small relic may be called a "theca".
Reliquary Shrine, French, c. 1325–50, The Cloisters, New York
Inside the shrine of St. Boniface of Dokkum in the hermit-church of Warfhuizen in the Netherlands. The little folded paper on the left contains a bone fragment of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the folded paper on the right a piece of the habit of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The large bone in the middle (about 5 cm in length) is the actual relic of St. Boniface.
Reliquary Cross, French, c. 1180
Domnach Airgid, Irish, 8th–9th century, added to 14th century, 15th century, and after
Holy Thorn Reliquary
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The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferd
Front view
Detail of one of the Apostles (over actual size)
The thorn rises before Christ
Rear view