They called them the Catacomb Saints – the corpses of ancient Romans were exhumed from the catacombs of Rome, given fictitious names and sent abroad as relics of saints from the 16th to the 19th century. 19. They are lavishly decorated, as you can see below.
But why – why are they so luxuriously decorated? Were they really buried like this, or did something happen? Well, they weren’t really saints in the strict sense, although some of them may have been early Christian martyrs. During the 15th century, Western Europe was rocked by the Beeldenstorm – a term used to refer to an outbreak of the destruction of religious images. During these iconoclastic periods, Catholic art and many forms of church decoration and accessories were destroyed in informal or mob actions.
When Catholic churches were systematically stripped of their icons, the Vatican came up with a rather strange solution. They ordered thousands of skeletons exhumed from the catacombs beneath Rome and installed in towns across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Few, if any, of the corpses belonged to people of any religious significance, but they were decorated as saints.
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The skeletons became a gruesome symbol of Catholicism in areas dominated by protesters. It is unclear whether this move was effective at any time, but by the 19th century they had become an embarrassing symbol of past friction. Although considered imitative and forbidden to sell skeletons or their jewelry, some ‘entrepreneurial’ priests still make money from transporting them around the country and for certain blessings.
In 1803, the secular magistrate of Rottenbuch in Bavaria auctioned the town’s two saints. 174 years later, in 1977, the residents of the town raised funds to have them returned, but for the most part, the catacomb saints were mostly forgotten and cast aside.
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But it was their time to come in the spotlight again in 2013, when Paul Koudounaris revived interest in them with his new book, where he tried to photograph and document each and every one of the catacomb saints. It’s unclear if he actually did, but he certainly managed to bring them into the public eye. He explains:
‘They must be handled by those who have taken a sacred oath to the church – these people are said to be martyrs and they cannot let anyone handle them. They were symbols of victorious faith and were canonized as saints in cities. One of the reasons they are so important is not because of their spiritual value, which is quite incredible, but because of their social importance.
He also added that as time passed, their meaning changed, becoming from religious symbols to city symbols.
‘They are supposed to be magical and really strengthen people’s relationship with a town. He added: ‘It is impossible to place modern value on skeletons.’
