No body parts this time. We visited Chartres yesterday and spent not enough time in the cathedral. Chartres is pretty much the first example of a Gothic cathedral, built to replace the Romanesque one destroyed in the fire of 1194, with old stained glass and sculpture (12/13th century). On display at the cathedral is the Sancta Camisia, the veil the Virgin Mary wore during childbirth!!!! Wow. Quite a relic.
A couple comments. First, the veil has been in a Chartres place of worship since 876. Charlemagne had received it as a gift, and his grandson gave it to Chartres.
Also, the veil we saw doesn’t look like the piece of cloth in the guidebooks or in the link below – it isn’t clear if there are a couple of these, or if the real one is in safekeeping somewhere.
http://sites.tufts.edu/textilerelics/2011/02/08/marian-relics/
In the end it doesn’t really matter which parts of the story you choose to believe or not believe. In Europe the timescales are different.
bellifontains 