This is a gorgeous book with lovely photos. I enjoyed Dr Koustounis’ last book ‘Th e Empire of Death’ which was about ossuaries and charnel houses and this is even better.

Jewelled Bodies, or Dead Blingers, is the story of the Catholic Church’s PR efforts to counteract the effect that the Reformation had on some of its basic beliefs. This was the worship and praying to religious relics. The emerging Protestant church saw it as idolatry as it believed that worshippers weren’t praying to God when

This is a gorgeous book with lovely photos. I enjoyed Dr Koustounis’ last book ‘Th e Empire of Death’ which was about ossuaries and charnel houses and this is even better.

Jewelled Bodies, or Dead Blingers, is the story of the Catholic Church’s PR efforts to counteract the effect that the Reformation had on some of its basic beliefs. This was the worship and praying to religious relics. The emerging Protestant church saw it as idolatry as it believed that worshippers weren’t praying to God when they when they prayed to a relic but a mere shinbone or finger or twist of hair. Relics were, and are, a memento mori and become a way of summoning the dead.

Dr Kountonis has done his research thoroughly and the is book began when he was researching sites on his last one. Whilst visiting church, a local took him aside and asked if he wanted to see a skeleton, covered in jewels, standing up and holding out a cup of its own blood to the onlooker. Who couldn’t resist such an invitation? So he followed the local to an isolated church in nearby woods and there was the figure. When the author returned a few years later the church had vanished and no-one knew what had become of the skeleton. So this book is a way of recording these once deified objects which once had pride of place in small town churches and were part of community life until tastes changed and they were either hidden from view or destroyed.

In the 16th century, in 1578 to be exact, a vineyard worker stumbled upon catacombs in which Rome interred its dead. They’d been abandoned for centuries as burial sites and the remains dated from 2-5th centures BC. The Catholic church realised that these anonymous bones could be of use to them in reaffirming faith in the face of the Reformation. And so they romanticised their find by immediately assuming that the bones belonged to early Christian martyrs and saints. This was done on very flimsy evidence as the bones could have belonged to anyone and there was scant identifying information with the bones.

Papal secretaries were assigned to authenticate in a fairly relaxed manner i.e if a skeleton had M on it then it must mean Martyr and the word Pax had to mean that the deceased was a Christian. There were also clerical mediums who apparently communed with the inhabitants of the catacombs. After selection the articulated skeletons were sent off to convents for the nuns to create the dazzling costumes and ornamentation required for whatever saint the body was supposed to be. St Valentine was the most popular and there was also a St Anonymous. No-one ever seemed to query that there could be 2 figures of the same saint within a town. Sometimes it wasn’t even a complete skeleton but a skull or a skeletal limb that was on display.

The decoration could take between 5-10 years as the work was so detailed. There were variations in decoration according to the convent; some put wax faces on the skulls which has an unsettling effect on the viewer to say the least , gold wire to recreate hair and different poses as well as outfits, even a suit of armour. The work is extremely fine with the ribcage exposed to show that it was a skeleton. The jewellery wasn’t real and was made from glass, from either Venice or Bavaria but it was still expensive. Local aristocrats or guilds could also sponsor the saints. Dr Kostounis has managed to attribute the intricate work on some of them to one nun but mostly the creators remain anonymous.

Then once work was complete the skeletons were sent to their respective new homes with paperwork apparently confirming that they were a certain saint. The villagers must have been dazzled by the creation that arrived and was installed in their local church. The saints often became part of village life and were carried proudly aloft during processions as a source of local pride that they had been so honoured . The largest number of them are in the Basilica at Waldsassen which has 10.

They were usually in one of the three poses, recumbent in a alcove like a 1930’s Hollywood screen goddess, standing up or seated. The latter was the most difficult to create. Then came the Enlightenment in the 18th century and tastes changed. The skeletons were deemed macabre and shouldn’t be on display. After all, no-one even knew what sex these people were, let alone whether they were Christians or pagans. And so the skeletons vanished; either walled up, hidden behind hangings or simply removed never to be seen again.

Dr Kostounis reveals what happened next to some of them as they have returned to the anonymity from which they came. The research has been meticulous in shedding light on a little know n area od Church history. The book also discusses the faith in relics and the creation of the body as a fetish object rather as the Celts venerated their dead with their worship of heads. A stunning and fascinating book containing the author’s photos of these gilded and bejewelled peacocks which give an interesting insight into the nature of faith and politics in the face of an upheaval in religious beliefs.

