Summary
Travelers to exotic places have always returned home with rare, expensive, or just plain odd souvenirs. Trade in trinkets to impress the folks back home is an ancient tradition, and today it supports a substantial part of Santa Fe's economy.
During past centuries, the most sought-after treasures were often relics -- mostly body parts from those considered saintly, but also bits of cloth or even torture implements that touched a saint's body. Pilgrims unable to plunder or buy holy hair, bones, or nails returned with small paintings or sculpture -- evidence that they had visited a sacred site. Trade in relics and portable holy images is older than Christianity and grows out of a seemingly universal need to own objects touched by the divine.See the full content of this document
Extract
Faith On Display
Relicarios: Devotional Miniatures From the Americas opens today, Feb. 10, at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and presents 78 pieces of sacred jewelry made in Europe and Latin America. Many of the works are from the collection of Martha J. Egan, author of a book that sha...
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