The solemn consecration of the altar
As was customary in those days, during the consecration of the church a reliquary was deposited within the altar. In this case it took the form of a small wooden casket or coffer, with a sliding lid, that contained a cross-reliquary. According to the description found on strip of parchment of the time, it contained fragments of the Lord’s cross and the Holy Sepulchre together with pieces of the clothing and footwear of the Mother of God. The casket, which seems to be a wooden version of the metal Byzantine Holy Cross reliquaries, was lined with a Byzantine fabric decorated with two simurvs, mythological animal of Persian origin, half dog, half bird. |
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A letter from Abbott Oliba of Ripoll addressed to Arnau Mir de Tost informed him that the relics had been acquired by the Abbott himself in the Italian city of Lodi (Lombardy), and were given to the Lord of Tost as a gesture of his friendship and gratitude. In fact, these relics almost certainly came from the same lot as that which had provided the reliquaries for the consecrations of Ripoll (1032) and Cuixà (1040). Both the reliquary and the letter, which survives in a 13th century copy, were found in the old Rectory in Tost in 1922 by Pere Pujol i Tubau, becoming part of the MEV collection in 1930. |
