A Symbol of the Universal Church. The Twelfth-Century Reliquary Shrine from Warffum (Groningen)

Abstract

The focus of this article is a small reliquary shrine from the parish church of Warffum (prov. Groningen, Netherlands) that has lost most of its decoration. Only the wooden casket, some ornamental plaques, strips with inscriptions and empty sockets have survived. The shrine has previously been dated either to around 1300 or to the fifteenth century. I argue that the shrine, in its oldest form, belonged to the late twelfth century or the early years of the thirteenth century at the latest, and that it was a so-called collective shrine, the purpose of which was to give expression to the universal character of the church and its message of salvation. The shrine was obviously a cherished object as it was repaired at least once before its final desecration that probably took place in the late sixteenth-century during the period of reform. The additional material on the shrine includes some very interesting Merovingian plaques.