5 relics of the passion of Christ that the Catholic Church custody in Spain

Although the Santa de Turin sheet (Italy) is the object preserved to the most important days of those related to Jesus, Spain also houses among its treasures 5 important relics related to the passion of Christ.

In the Cathedral of Valencia, the Holy Chalice or Holy Grail is guarded; The Holy Southeet can be venerated in the Holy Chamber of the Cathedral of Oviedo; And in the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liebana is the Wood crosspiece of wood from the cross of the Lord.

In the Cathedral of Coria the tablecloth that was used during the last dinner is venerated and in Valladolid a crown thorn is kept that the Roman soldiers put the Lord during the passion.

These relics have been studied in depth and allow the faithful Catholics to approach the mysteries of Christ’s passion in a more conscious way.

The Holy Chalice of the Last Supper

According to tradition, the Cup that Jesus used during the Last Supper, the Holy Chalice or Holy Grail, is the sacred object that is preserved in the Cathedral of Valencia.

This sacred vessel is formed by an agate glass glass, a base and handles. What is known is that only the Ágata glass glass would have been used by Jesus. The base and the handles with the precious stones were inserted during the medieval era.

According to Fr. Jaime Sancho, custodian of the Holy Caliz in the Cathedral of Valencia, the most complete study of this object was made in 1960 and showed that there is a very high number of tests that confirm the authenticity of this relic.

“No subsequent archaeological study has denied this research. It is the only chalice that has resisted critical criticism and research,” said Fr. Sancho in an interview with ACI Press, in July 2016.

“When you look at this relic, discover the love of God in the Eucharist, and that is what it converts,” said the priest. He also said that during his years as a custodian of the Holy Chalice, he has seen “many people” when contemplating this relic “and realizing how much God loves us. How much God is waiting for me and awaits me in the simplest and smaller things.”

The Holy Chalice has had a very special relationship with the potatoes. In fact, four pontiffs have been related to him: San Juan XXIII granted plenary indulgence at the feast of the Holy Chalice held on October 30; San Juan Pablo II venerated him in the Cathedral of Valencia and consecrated with him during his visit to Spain in 1982.

Benedict XVI used it during the Mass of the V meeting of the families that took place in Valencia in 2006 and Pope Francis granted the celebration of the Holy Year of the Chalice that began on October 29, 2015 and was closed in November 2016, together with the year of mercy. The Jubilee Year of the Holy Chalice will be held periodically every five years.

The Holy Chapel chapel can be visited virtually HERE.

The Holy Southeet of Oviedo

According to tradition, the shroud that covered Jesus’ face is stored in the Cathedral of Oviedo and exposes the public only three times a year: Good Friday; on September 14, Santa Cruz Day; and on September 21, Fiesta de San Mateo Apostle, patron of the Spanish city.

The apostles venerated in Jerusalem the relics of passion, including the shroud, during the first years of Christianity. With the invasion of the Persians in the seventh century, the relics moved to put them safe and the shroud arrived in Spain.

Jorge Manuel Rodríguez Almenar, president of the Spanish Center for Syndonology, explained on numerous occasions how the studies find that all the elements of the face of Oviedo’s shroud fit those of the Holy Sheet or Turin Trustee.

The last of these studies was carried out by the Catholic University of Murcia in Spain, which concluded that both fabrics wrapped the same person. It was also specified that the man of the holy sheet and that of the Holy Southeet suffered the same wound on the side; Something that agrees with the Gospel of St. John, where he reads: “When they arrived at Jesus, as they saw that he was already dead, his legs did not break; but one of the soldiers transferred his side with a spear, and at the moment blood and water came out.”

Wood cross: A relic of the Cross of Christ

The Franciscan monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, in Cantabria, has been a large part of the cross of Jesus for more than 1200 years.

This relic is known by name in Latin “Wood cross”, Which means wood or wood of the cross. This sacred object corresponds to the left horizontal wood.

Santa Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, decided to keep the relics of the Lord’s passion. One of them was La Cruz, which arrived in Spain in the 16th century, with the remains of Santo Toribio, which had been custodian of Holy places in Jerusalem.

In 1958 some tests were performed to verify its authenticity and “confirmed that the wood is of a tree that is in the Holy Land and that it is an age of more than 2000 years,” said Aci Prensa, Fr. Juan Manuel Núñez, superior of the convent of Santo Toribio de Liébana.

In addition, the DNA of the relic coincides with that of other pieces of the smallest cross that is preserved in different parts of the world.

“The greatest veracity test of the Lignum Crucis are all the conversions that occur in the sacrament of confession in the monastery,” says the priest.

According to Fr. Núñez, the Wood cross He speaks “with a quiet language, of the love of God who gives to all the hearts of men. A love that remained forever reflected on the cross and that says to all: ‘Even if you do not know how to read it, here he says how much and how I love you.'”

Since the 16th century, the Lebaniego Jubilee Year is celebrated. This Holy Year takes place every time on April 16 (feast of Santo Toribio) coincides with a Sunday. The last year Jubilar Lebaniego began on April 23, 2017, since on April 16 it coincided with Resurrection Sunday, and ended on April 22, 2018. The last Holy Year Lebaniego was held between 2023 and 2024.

The Sacred Supper tablecloth

In the Museum of the Cathedral of Coria, to the west of Spain, bordering with Portugal, a white linen cloth that presents some blue decorative bands made with Indigo is preserved. It measures 4.42 meters long and 92 centimeters wide and is considered to be the sacred tablecloth that was used during the last dinner.

Several research They date the cloth in the first century, and until 1791 it was publicly exhibited for the devotion of the faithful pilgrims, who reached the cathedral. The interest in showing the relic was such that a remodeling of the cathedral was planned that included a balcony with sufficient height to display the more than 4 meters of fabric.

However, the ecclesial authorities decided to save the relic for fear that the faithful would take pieces. For more than 200 years the relic was gradually falling into oblivion until in February 2019 the then bishop of Coria-Cáceres, Mons. Francisco Cerro, today Archbishop of Toledo, created a diocesan commission to recover devotion to the tablecloth.

In addition, the realization of a documentary was carried out in which the scientist John Jackson participates, who coordinated the studies of the Santa de Turin Sabbons. Can be seen through the platform Famiplay y Digital Film Premieres.

The Holy Spina of the Crown of Christ

In the Diocese of Valladolid there is a thorn of the crown that the Lord behaved during his passion. It is preserved in a side chapel of the Church of the Monastery of the Santa Espina, founded in 1147 by Mrs. Sancha, daughter of Queen Urraca I of León.

The Infanta had begged San Bernardo de Claraval to the foundation of a Cistercian convent in Valladolid, for which it made a land available to the monastic order. The Church doctor sent his brother, St. Nirvando, as Abbot.

Back to Spain, in Pari, Mrs. Sancha was able to venerate the crown of thorns that custody in the monastery of San Dionisio. Admired by the relic, begged the king of France, Luis VII the young man to give him a thorn.

At the end of the 19th century, the bishop of Palencia (diocese to which the monastery belonged at that time), Mons. Enrique de Almaraz sent the relic to Rome to verify its authenticity. In 1905 the favorable resolution was announced.

The monastery of the Santa Espina suffered a terrible fire in 1731, which calcined most of the library and the archive. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Napoleonic invasion meant the expulsion of monks. Upon 1813, they prove that they had swept almost everything.

With the forced expropriation process caused by the liberal government of the early nineteenth century, the complex was passing from hand to hand until in 1865 the Marquis de Valderas buys.

La Marquesa, Doña Susana de Montes and Bayón, founds an orphanage that entrusts the Lasalle brothers, who arrive in 1888, who ran the place for almost a century and a half. The brothers of the Christian schools must leave the place for lack of vocations so the negotiations begin to take over the monastery the Educatio Servanda Foundation, which finally directs the place since 2022.

This article was originally published in 2017. It has been updated for republication.