English: Reliquary Cross

About 1000 (back and sides 900-1000)
England (figure)
Germany (cross)
Gold plaques on a cedar base; walrus ivory for the figure of Christ

The cross is one of the rare surviving pieces which give substance to descriptions in contemporary documentary sources of the sumptuous church furnishings of pre-Conquest England. The enamels are unique in Anglo-Saxon art and may have been made by an English goldsmith familiar with German work. A fragmentary and not totally legible inscription around the edge of the cross seems to list the relics of saints once contained in the cavity beneath the ivory figure of Christ.
This ivory figure was temporarily removed in 1926 for the purpose of being photographed and cast. Beneath it, lying in a hollow cut in the wood approximately 8.5 cm long, 2 cm wide and 1 cm deep was a dried human finger (perhaps a female index finger) pointing downwards with its outer surface to the front. Despite Papal disapproval of the dismemberment of saints, a finger relic was by no means unusual in Anglo-Saxon England: King Athelstan bestowed one third of his extensive collection of relics to the monastery of St. Mary and St. Peter at Exeter in AD 932. The gift included a finger, purportedly that of Mary Magdalene.

Relics attracted the laity to a church. As court members in the heavenly kingdom, saints were held to be close to God. Believers considered the veneration of saint's relics (both the physical remains of saints and secondary relics such as clothing) a means to secure intercession on their behalf. Through relics, lay people sought mediation for their prayers, the care of their souls and also sought miracles and cures for their physical ailments. The New Testament refers to the healing power of objects which had been touched by Christ and the Apostles. The role of relics in miracle working increased in England in the tenth century, a phenomenon reflected in the contemporary compilation of miracle lists.

Relics could be either the physical remains of saints or secondary material.