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| The James Ossuary* |
A reliquary (stone box
containing sacred relics) was discovered back in 2010 on the Black Sea island of
Sveti Ivan (which means "St. John") off the coast of Bulgaria. Inside were eight pieces of bone,
including pieces of a skull, face, and a tooth. Because there is a monastery on
the island which claims John the Baptist as its patron saint, the excavation
leader, Kazimir Popkonstantinov, suggests that the bones might belong to the
Baptist. The possibility is strengthened, he suggests, by the fact that found
alongside the reliquary was a small sandstone box with a Greek inscription that
said, “God, save your servant Thomas. To St. John. June 24.” June 24 is the
date celebrated by Christians as the birthday of John the Baptist, and the
inscription suggests that a pilgrim had come to the monastery to seek the
Baptist’s blessing in the place where, he believed, John’s bones resided. Alternatively, Thomas may have been the patron who built the monastery and, as an act of sanctification, donated the bones of John the Baptist to the monastery as a sacral gift.
