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    Stories of saints, biblical events, angels, and sacred places.

    The Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, Argentina, photographed during its construction in 1925
    Our Lady of Luján: The Clay Statue That Would Not Be Moved
    A small terracotta Virgin halted an ox-cart near the Luján river in 1630 and wouldn't move again — today she's Argentina's patroness, loved by Pope Francis.
    The Romanesque wooden statue of Our Lady of Montserrat, known as La Moreneta, enshrined at the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat in Catalonia, Spain
    Our Lady of Montserrat: Catalonia's Black Madonna on the Mountain
    The legend of La Moreneta, the Black Madonna statue found on a Catalan mountaintop, enshrined at the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat since the Middle Ages.
    The Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Vailankanni, Tamil Nadu, India
    Our Lady of Vailankanni: The Lourdes of the East
    A shepherd boy's vision, a cured buttermilk seller, and shipwrecked sailors built one shrine in Tamil Nadu, now among Asia's largest Christian gatherings.
    The facial relic of Saint John the Baptist displayed at Amiens Cathedral, France, set behind glass in an ornate reliquary case
    Relics of Saint John the Baptist: The Many Claims to His Head
    Saint John the Baptist's beheading, and the multiple churches, including Amiens Cathedral and a Damascus mosque, that have long claimed relics of his head.
    An 1885 engraving of pilgrims approaching the Holy Door of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral during a Jubilee year
    The Relics of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela
    How a Galician cathedral came to hold the bones of the Apostle James, and why a medieval pilgrimage legend still draws millions of walkers there today.
    The Basilica of San Domenico in Siena, Italy, at dusk, where Saint Catherine's head is enshrined
    Saint Catherine of Siena's Head: A Relic Divided Between Two Cities
    Catherine of Siena's body rests in Rome, but her head — and a thumb — were enshrined separately in Siena, a division tradition wraps in a smuggling legend.
    The colonnaded approach to the Basilica of Santa Rita in Cascia, Italy, with the twin-towered facade visible at the end of the arcade
    Saint Rita's Incorrupt Body: The Reliquary at Cascia
    At the Basilica of Santa Rita in Cascia, a glass reliquary holds a body examined by doctors in 1743 and 1892 — and a forehead wound she bore for 15 years.
    A skull crowned with dried flowers, venerated as a relic of Saint Valentine, displayed in a glass case at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome
    Saint Valentine's Relics: The Flower-Crowned Skull of Rome
    A flower-crowned skull in Rome, a gift to Dublin in 1836, and a patron of lovers the Church itself admits may really be two or three different martyrs.
    Close-up of the dark wooden face of the Black Christ statue, crowned with a crown of thorns and silver rays, carrying the wooden cross beam, inside the Church of San Felipe in Portobelo, Panama
    The Black Christ of Portobelo
    A dark wooden Christ with an unresolved origin draws tens of thousands of pilgrims to a small Panamanian harbor town every October 21, many on their knees.
    The icon of the Black Madonna of Montevergine, also known as Mamma Schiavona, showing the Virgin and Child in dark Byzantine-style tones with golden crowns
    The Black Madonna of Montevergine: Mamma Schiavona
    The Byzantine-style icon enshrined on Mount Partenio near Naples, its mountaintop sanctuary built over an ancient pagan temple, and its unique February devotion.
    Close-up photograph of the Holy Lance of Vienna, showing its iron blade, silver binding wire, and the gold sleeve added to enclose a relic nail, displayed at the Hofburg Treasury
    The Holy Lance of Vienna: Relic of the Holy Roman Emperors
    Inside Vienna's Hofburg Treasury, a Carolingian lance tipped in gold once crowned Holy Roman Emperors — and was later seized by the Nazi regime for its legend.
    Historic photograph of the Edicule, the small shrine built over the traditional tomb of Christ, inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
    The Holy Sepulchre's Edicule: The Shrine Over Christ's Tomb
    The Edicule shrine over the traditional tomb of Christ in Jerusalem, its long history of damage, and the landmark 2016-2017 restoration that reopened it.
    A 1685 Russian Orthodox icon of the Mandylion, depicting the face of Christ on a cloth held by two angels, from the Novgorod Kremlin Museum
    The Image of Edessa: Christianity's Oldest Miraculous Portrait
    The legend of the Mandylion, the cloth bearing Christ's face sent to King Abgar of Edessa, its journey to Constantinople in 944, and its mysterious disappearance.
    The original Baroque painting of Mary, Untier of Knots, by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner, showing Mary surrounded by angels untying knots in a long ribbon while standing on a crescent moon and crushing a serpent underfoot
    The Original Painting of Our Lady Undoer of Knots
    How a quiet Baroque painting in a German church became one of the world's most beloved Marian images, carried to Argentina by a young Jesuit named Bergoglio.
    An archbishop kneeling as a white woolen pallium, marked with dark crosses, is placed around his shoulders during a liturgical ceremony
    The Pallium: The Pope's Wool Band and What It Means
    Woven from wool blessed on Saint Agnes's feast, the pallium marks an archbishop's bond with Rome — and in 2015, Pope Francis changed how it is conferred.
    The stone sarcophagus of Saint Francis of Assisi in the crypt of the Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi, surrounded by an iron grille
    The Relics of Saint Francis of Assisi: Tunic, Tomb, and Stigmata
    Saint Francis of Assisi's hidden tomb, rediscovered in 1818, and the tunic, cord, and stigmata relics kept in the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.
    The tomb of Saint Nicholas in the crypt of the Basilica of San Nicola, Bari, Italy, where pilgrims venerate his relics
    The Relics of Saint Nicholas of Bari and the Mystery of the Manna
    How sailors from Bari took Saint Nicholas's bones from Myra in 1087, and the strange liquid still seeping from his tomb, venerated by Catholics and Orthodox alike.
    The gilded reliquary shrine at the Carmelite convent in Alba de Tormes, Spain, where Saint Teresa of Avila's relics are enshrined behind an iron grille.
    The Relics of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Body Divided Across Europe
    Saint Teresa of Avila's body was unusually divided after death: heart and arm at Alba de Tormes, a hand once kept by Franco, and fragments scattered across Europe.
    David Roberts's 1839 painting of the Stone of Unction in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, showing pilgrims gathered around the slab
    The Stone of Unction in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
    The pink limestone slab in Jerusalem venerated as the place Christ's body was anointed for burial, its 1810 restoration, and the Status Quo that protects it.
    The Royal Basilica-Sanctuary of the Vera Cruz on the hilltop castle grounds of Caravaca de la Cruz, Spain
    The True Cross of Caravaca: Spain's Double-Armed Relic
    The legend of two angels, a captive priest, and a converted Moorish king behind the Vera Cruz de Caravaca — and the real story of its 1934 theft and replacement.