[Buddha-l] Het Gebeente van Sint Josaphat - WITHOUT NOTES

[Blezer, H.W.A.]

Dear Josephists,

For the Buddha-L records, the history of the relics of Josaphat in a
nutshell (from easily accessible secondary sources and certainly without
doing any laborious archival researches):

	1571 - Doge Luigi Mocenigo of Venice donated the relics (bone
and piece of vertebra) to King Sebastian of Portugal (Jacobs
1896:xviii*1* and Lang 1966:9*2*), through the Spanish Envoy Pedro
Velasco*3*
	1580 - Spain seized Portugal and Don Antonio, Pretender to the
Portuguese crown, removed the relics (Jacobs 1896)
	1595 - Don Antonio of Portugal is defeated by Alva and flees to
Paris, where he passes away*3*
	1633 - Relics arrive from Portugal with the Cistercians in St.
Salvator, in Antwerp (plaquette at the relic shrine? I am not completely
sure about the date)?
	1672 - August 7th 1672, the holy remains of St. Josaphat were
carried to the cloister of St. Salvator*4* in a grand procession (Jacobs
1896:xviii)

Jacobs (1896:xix) presumes that the relics may then still be in St.
Salvator. But they seem to have been removed, about a century before:

	1796 - December 19th 1796, some time after the French
revolution, during the French occupation, the monastics of St. Salvator
were led out of the Abbey, with drums beating (Cruys & Cheron 2003:7)*5*
	1797 - June 16th, 1797 the Abbey & possessions were sold
(ibid.)*6*

Already fearing that the 'paper' trail might stop here, much to my
surprise, I found an on-line article by Wilfried Nijs and Rudy Janssens
in a publication of a local history Circle in Holsbeek,*7* which
indicates that all 36 relics at around that point in time had been
relocated to the St Andrieskerk (see the section on "Relieken") -
serendipity now!

That's more or less what triggered our pilgrimage.

The present silver reliquary was produced around 1846 by J.B.A.
Verschuylen (quite a stunning piece of craftsmanship in fact).*8* The
angels adorning it were produced by others (Lodewijk Corijn and brothers
de Cuyper). The shrine is carried around yearly, in the procession of
"de parochie van miserie".*3*


Chris Fynn and Erik Hoogcarspel are right: Joseph -- for quite obvious
reasons -- is a rather frequent name in Christian traditions.

As outlined above, the earliest traces that I have seen for the relics,
so far, indicate that they were already around in Venice, as relics,
before 1571 AD. Time-wise that should effectively rule out any confusion
with Josaphat of Polotsk 1595-1623
(http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=71).

For the legendary Indian Saint Josaphat, who is probably intended here,
see the Martyrologium Romanum (1956), at the entry on Barlaam et
Josaphat apud Indos, 27 Novembris (p.297f. of my Latin edition).

The bulk of the literature on the many versions of the legend, quite
frankly, I find a bit intimidating, and much also has already been
accomplished in previous scholarly publication.*10* But, if I ever have
more time on my hands, I would enjoy tracking those relics back in time
(and also filling up some of the gaps). This might even make for a nice
documentary. There is more to be said about the history of the relics,
of course. Just today, I spotted a small old (1901) local publication on
the topic;*9* presently on route to my Leiden office.

However, the fact that the trail leads us to Venice in the 16th c. AD
does not bode well in this regard. Venice was a node in major trade
networks and we are looking at the aftermath of a rich history and
economy in mediaeval Europe of both trade and pilgrimage relating to
relics -- or what had to pass for relics anyway. I am therefore not
overly confident that we will find any useful antecedent trails. DNA
testing of the relics would of course be very interesting; but then,
permission and funding would become major issues.

As to Ngawang Dorje's doubts, I have not much to add or detract. I
presume that if we would try to fit all the teeth and other relics ever
presumed to be of the Buddha into human figure, we would probably end up
with an interspecies creature that would do well in the next sequel of
Alien.

BTW, a nice project for retired scientists: trying to fit replicas of
all the pieces of the Holy cross together?! They couldprobably  build a
spacious wooden retirement home for themselves from that.

If anyone has seen interesting leads, we would be much obliged. Many
thanks to Dan Martin for arousing my interest, with a reference to
Jacob's publication, and to Stefan Detrez for his great hospitality and
company in Antwerp.

Namo tassa Josaphato Arahato Sammaasambuddhassa,


Henk