Joan Of Arc Relics Deemed A Fake

Wow, this is a surprise! :sarcasm:

From the Egyptian Gazette today. (For those of you wondering, yes, my atheistic self is still in Egypt. And hoping the Muslims and Coptic Christians don't celebrate Holy Week with a flaming big religious riot, as they did last year here in Alexandria.)

Joan Of Arc Relics Deemed Fake

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Relics advertised as being remains of St. Joan Of Arc are no such thing and may in fact be parts of an Egyptian mummy, NATURE magazine reported this week.

The magazine quoted French researchers who analyzed the relics and found they did not appear to be the burnt remains of anyone from the 15th century, but in fact dated to more than 2000 years ago...

Joan Of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431 in Rouen. The so-called relics were discovered in 1867 in a jar in the attic of a Paris pharmacy. The Roman Catholic Church formally recognized them and they are kept in a museum in Chinon, France that belongs to the Archdiocese Of Tours.

They include a blackened human rib, a cat's leg bone, some black chunks and a fragment of linen. Cats were often embalmed in ancient Egypt, but were also sometimes burned at the stake with accused witches in medieval Europe.

As long as I'm here, some irrelevant Egyptian cat trivia:

Cats were embalmed because they were sacred, being represented in the cat-headed goddess Bastet (or Bast). According to one of my Egyptian friends, in the ancient Egyptian language Bastest was also called a name that meant "Funny Face." When women were giving birth or babies were teething, holding up a statue of Bastet was supposed to ease the pain by inducing laughter. It probably didn't work all that well.

According to legend, while Julius Caesar was in Alexandria, one of his soldiers accidentally killed a cat. An outraged lynch mob of Egyptians surrounded the soldier and intentionally killed him for offending their religious sensibilities.

I'll see the Hopeful Cats when I go out walking in Alexandria today. Hundreds of these critters patiently lurk on the breakwaters along the beaches, carefully eyeballing the fishermen working there and hoping for a free lunch.

Occasionally I see a cat dozing happily in the sun, beside a fish skeleton.

Thanks for your post, onager. I have a cat-lover friend visiting now, while on her way to Egypt. I'll make sure she sees this.



Cher

:wow: :rofl:

from the time of Napolean's invasion of Egypt, if not before. It was believed that they had curative powers. I'm sure that that is how the remains wound up at the pharmacy. But I don't see how the Vatican would have ever taken them to be saint's relics, knowing where they were discovered and the time frame. I believe it is considered historic fact that many relics were faked, starting around the 13th Century. And many remnants of earlier religions were given a Christian veneer--some of the Black Madonnas of Europe are now believed to be ancient statues to the Goddess Isis; sacred wells that are often found in Irish churches were places of worship for the Druids.

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:loveya:

This is 'news'; the tests were only just reported. See http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7136/full/446593a.html , or about 260 other articles in the past couple of days. That a church museum has been falsely labelling an exhibit for a century, perhaps for church political reasons, seems worthy of note. A lot of the world's media thought so, anyway.

Actually, I didn't, but apparently one in ten Americans do