Reliquary

Traditionally, a reliquary is a type of religious artifact. Though later on, they were seen by a particular Judeo-Christian breed as being idolatrous, –men and women who worshipped an image, and a material thing, rather than the actual divine spirit. Despite their protests, the practice survived, and also despite the destruction of numerous ancient reliquaries. Since then, some forms of reliquaries have been demonized;  to hold the remains of witches, or to even contain evil spirits. Aladdin’s lamp, in this line of thought, would be a kind of reliquary, since it held the genie, who were normally perceived as evil spirits.

But with religious significance, the reliquary often contains pieces of clothing, bones, objects owned or associated with saints or important religious figures in various religions, such as Jewish, Islamic, Christian, or Catholic, –although a sect of Roman Catholics still do not practice the worship of reliquaries. Also, Buddhists, and several others. There are numerous kinds of reliquaries, and some are even large tombs, gilded, or made of gold, and sealed to contain the remains. The remains are often the most prominent forms of reliquaries, and millions of people travel to view the reliquaries of saints every year, –much like shrines.

On the other hand however, because reliquaries are often sealed, and it is considered extremely sacrilegious to actually open such a container, there have been a history of also millions of fraudulent reliquaries. Before they can be accepted as genuine religious artifacts, the reliquaries must also be accompanied by genuine documentation of their contents, or at least a substantial amount of evidence as to what the container holds.