Reliquary of the True Cross
or of Pope Pascal

pictured: Reliquary to hold the true cross.or of Pope Pascal..  Constructed of wood, covered with gold leaf and gilded.  Probably twelfth century, built in the workshops of Conques monastery by order of Abbé  Bégon.  Restored in the fifteenth century to its present form.

The two figures at the bottom interior of the object are the Blessed Virgin and Saint John, who stood at the Cross during the crucifixion..

The most important event in Christian theology is the Resurrection of Jesus.  However, since the time of Constantine, the crucifixion has become a more dominant image.  Constantine's mother, Saint Helena, went to the Holy Land to discover the true cross, and brought part of it back to Constantine's western capital, Cologne in Germany (not Rome).  The devotion to the true cross spread across Germany and France.  One wag estimated that if all the splinters reputed to be pieces of the true cross were patched together, they would make up several telephone poles.  But every city and town wanted its piece of the true-cross-action.