Holy Prepuce
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[[Image:CirconcisionRothenburg.jpg|thumb|Circumcision of Christ]]
[[Image:CircumcisionofChrist.JPG|thumb|Circumcision of Christ, fresco from the [[Preobrazhenski Monastery]], Bulgaria]]
The '''Holy Prepuce''', or '''Holy Foreskin''' (Latin ''præputium'' or ''prepucium'') is one of several [[relics attributed to Jesus]]. At various points in history, a number of churches in Europe have claimed to possess it, sometimes at the same time. Various [[miracle|miraculous]] powers have been ascribed to it.
==History and rival claims==
All Jewish boys are required by Jewish religious law to be [[Circumcision|circumcised]] on the eighth day following their birth; the [[Feast of the Circumcision of Christ]], still celebrated by many churches, accordingly falls on [[January 1]]. The first reference to survival of Christ's severed foreskin comes in the second chapter of the [[New Testament Apocrypha|apocryphal]] [[Arabic Infancy Gospel]] which contains the following story:
# And when the time of his circumcision was come, namely, the eighth day, on which the law commanded the child to be circumcised, they circumcised him in a cave.
# And the old Hebrew woman took the foreskin (others say she took the navel-string), and preserved it in an alabaster-box of old oil of [[spikenard]].
# And she had a son who was a druggist, to whom she said, "Take heed thou sell not this alabaster box of spikenard-ointment, although thou shouldst be offered three hundred pence for it."
# Now this is that alabaster-box which Mary the sinner procured, and poured forth the ointment out of it upon the head and feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wiped it off with the hairs of her head.<ref>''The Lost Books of the Bible'', Bell Publishing Company, New York City, 1979</ref>
Foreskin relics began appearing in Europe during the Middle Ages. The earliest recorded sighting came on [[December 25]], [[800]], when [[Charlemagne]] gave it to [[Pope Leo III]] when the latter crowned the former Emperor. Charlemagne claimed that it had been brought to him by an [[angel]] while he prayed at the [[Holy Sepulchre]], although a more prosaic report says it was a wedding gift from the [[Irene (empress)|Byzantine Empress Irene]]. The Pope placed it into the [[Sanctum Sanctorum]] in the [[Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano|Lateran basilica]] in [[Rome]] with other relics.<ref name = "s2155752">[http://www.slate.com/id/2155745/sidebar/2155752/ Who stole Jesus' foreskin? - By David Farley - Slate Magazine<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
"Depending on what you read, there were eight, twelve, fourteen, or even 18 different holy foreskins in various European towns during the Middle Ages."<ref name="s2155753">[http://www.slate.com/id/2155745/sidebar/2155753/ Who stole Jesus' foreskin? - By David Farley - Slate Magazine<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In addition to the Holy Foreskin in Rome, other claimants included the Cathedral of [[Le Puy-en-Velay]], [[Santiago de Compostela]], the city of [[Antwerp (city)|Antwerp]], [[Coulombs, Eure-et-Loir|Coulombs]] in the [[diocese of Chartres]], France as well as Chartres itself, and churches in [[Besançon]], [[Newport]], [[Metz]], [[Hildesheim]], [[Charroux]], [[Conques]], [[Langres]], [[Antwerp]], [[Fécamp]], [[Puy-en-Velay]], [[Stoke on Trent]], [[Calcata]], [[Santiago de Compostela]], and two in [[Auvergne (region)|Auvergne]].<ref name="s2155753"/>
One of the most famous prepuces arrived in Antwerp in the [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]] in [[1100]] as a gift from king [[Baldwin I of Jerusalem]], who purchased it in Palestine in the course of the first [[crusade]]. This prepuce became famous when the [[Archdiocese of Cambrai|bishop of Cambray]], during the celebration of the [[Mass]], saw three drops of blood blotting the linens of the altar. A special chapel was constructed and [[processions]] organised in honour of the miraculous relic, which became the goal of pilgrimages. In 1426 a brotherhood was founded in the cathedral ''"van der heiliger Besnidenissen ons liefs Heeren Jhesu Cristi in onser liever Vrouwen Kercke t' Antwerpen"''; its 24 members were all abbots and prominent laymen. The relic disappeared in [[1566]], but the chapel still exists, decorated by two [[stained glass]] windows donated by king [[Henry VII of England]] and his wife [[Elizabeth of York]] in [[1503]].
The abbey of Charroux claimed the Holy Foreskin was presented to the monks by Charlemagne. In the early 12th century, it was taken in procession to [[Rome]] where it was presented before [[Pope Innocent III]], who was asked to rule on its authenticity. The Pope declined the opportunity. At some point, however, the relic went missing, and remained lost until [[1856]] when a workman repairing the abbey claimed to have found a [[reliquary]] hidden inside a wall, containing the missing foreskin. The rediscovery, however, led to a theological clash with the established Holy Prepuce of Calcata, which had been officially venerated by the Church for hundreds of years; in [[1900]], the [[Church]] solved the dilemma by ruling that anyone thenceforward writing or speaking of the Holy Prepuce would be [[excommunication|excommunicated]].{{Fact|date=February 2008}} In [[1954]], after much debate, the punishment was changed to the harsher degree of excommunication, ''vitandi'' (shunned);{{Fact|date=February 2008}} and the [[Second Vatican Council]] later removed the [[Day of the Holy Circumcision]] from the Latin church calendar, although Eastern Catholics still celebrate the [[Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord]] on January 1.<ref name = "s2155745">[http://www.slate.com/id/2155745/ "Fore Shame"], David Farley, ''Slate.com'', Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006 </ref>
The foreskin given to the Pope by Charlemagne was looted during the [[Sack of Rome]] in [[1527]]. The German soldier who stole it was captured in the village of Calcata later the same year. Thrown into prison, he hid the jeweled reliquary in his cell, where it remained until its rediscovery in [[1557]]. Housed in Calcata, it was venerated from that time onwards, with the Church offering a ten-year [[indulgence]] to [[pilgrim]]s.<ref name = "s2155752"/>
==Modern practices==
Most of the Holy Prepuces were lost or destroyed during the [[Reformation]] and the [[French Revolution]].<ref name = "s2155745"/>
[[Calcata#Holy_Prepuce_of_Calcata|The Holy Prepuce of Calcata]] is worthy of special mention, as the reliquary containing the Holy Foreskin was paraded through the streets of this Italian village as recently as [[1983]] on the [[Feast of the Circumcision]], which was formerly marked by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] around the world on [[January 1]] each year. The practice ended, however, when thieves stole the jewel-encrusted case, contents and all.<ref name = "s2155745"/> Following this theft, it is unclear whether any of the purported Holy Prepuces still exist. In a 1997 television documentary for [[Channel 4]], British journalist [[Miles Kington]] travelled to Italy in search of the Holy Foreskin, but was unable to find any remaining example.
==Historical allusions and references to the Holy Prepuce==
[[Voltaire]], in ''A Treatise of Toleration'' (1763), ironically referred to [[veneration]] of the Holy Foreskin as being one of a number of superstitions that were "much more reasonable... than to detest and persecute your brother". <ref>[http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/TOTOL.HTM Voltaire: A Treatise on Tolerance<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
[[Umberto Eco]], in his book ''[[Baudolino]]'', has the young Baudolino invent a story about seeing the holy foreskin and navel in Rome to the company of [[Frederick Barbarossa]].
==See also==
{{ Portalpar|Christianity}}
* [[Circumcision]]
* [[Holy Umbilical Cord]]
* [[Shroud of Turin]]
* [[True Cross]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{refbegin}}
* Müller, Alphons Victor: ''Die hochheilige Vorhaut Christi im Kult und in der Theologie der Papstkirche''. Berlin 1907.
* Shell, Marc: "The Holy Foreskin; or, Money, Relics, and Judeo-Christianity." ''Jews and Other Differences: The New Jewish Cultural Studies''. Ed. Jonathan Boyarin and Daniel Boyarin. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1997.
* Palazzo, Robert P. "The veneration of the sacred foreskin(s) of baby Jesus : a documented analysis." Multicultural Europe and cultural exchange in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. James P. Helfers. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2005.
{{refend}}
==External links==
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12734a.htm Relics] article from the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]]
*[http://www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=relics The Relics of Romanism] article at the European Institute of Protestant Studies (anti-Catholic site)
* Peter Charles Remondino. ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/23135 History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present].'' Philadelphia and London; F. A. Davis; 1891.
[[Category:Circumcision]]
[[Category:Relics attributed to Jesus]]
[[Category:Famous body parts]]
[[Category:Jesus and history]]
[[de:Heilige Vorhaut]]
[[es:Santo Prepucio]]
[[fr:Saint Prépuce]]
[[it:Santo Prepuzio]]
[[nn:Jesu omskjering]]
[[pt:Prepúcio sagrado]]
[[ru:Обрезание Господне]]
[[sl:Jezusovo obrezovanje]]
[[sr:Обрезање Исуса Христа]]
[[tl:Pagtutuli kay Hesus]]
[[zh:聖包皮]]