A new step before the opening of the cathedral. The new reliquary shrine intended to house Christ's Crown of Thorns was presented this Wednesday, November 6.
The new reliquary shrine intended to house Christ's Crown of Thorns in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris was presented to the press this Wednesday, November 6.
Resolutely modern, this contemporary “wall-reliquary”, made of cedar wood and glass blocks forming a halo, “will contain the crown of thorns which covered the head of Jesus Christ at the time of his Passion”, explained Guillaume Normand, vice-rector of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, during his presentation.
The reliquary is in the form of a large altarpiece (3.60×2.60m) in cedar wood “which is the wood of the Cross” set with bronze thorns inserted in increasingly wide notches, highlighting the cathedral and the diocese in a press kit.
“The inspiration was to make a large altarpiece in cedar wood in which a glass cabochon halo is inlaid, in the middle of which the relic of the crown is presented,” explained Sylvain Dubuisson, the designer.
“The symbols of Passion”
The Crown of Thorns, called the Holy Crown or Crown of Christ, is in Christian tradition the crown that was placed on the head of Christ before his crucifixion.
“These are the symbols of the Passion,” added Sylvain Dubuisson, emphasizing that the thorns “are the representation of suffering on the crown itself.”
The Crown of Thorns will be displayed in a deep blue half-sphere located in the center, according to this document.
The reliquary shrine “tells, through its majesty and its magnitude, the fact that we are in front of an important object”. It “captures attention, but not for its own sake, to focus us on the presence of this crown of thorns,” explains Guillaume Normand.
A broken glass case during the fire
On the evening of the fire, April 15, 2019, these relics, which are among the most sacred for Catholics, were evacuated from the cathedral. But to reach the chest of the Crown of Thorns, the glass case which encased it had to be broken by the firefighters.
This large reliquary shrine, manufactured by the Ateliers Saint-Jacques & Fonderie de Coubertin, will be installed “in the axis of the cathedral” and “not visible from the outside, but as something to be discovered at the moment of strolling inside the cathedral”, added the vice-rector.
It will arrive “at the end of November” then during the inaugural week, after the opening of the cathedral on December 7 and 8, “this reliquary shrine will be blessed by the archbishop and will receive the crown of thorns itself”, he added.
