Erik Visits a (Non) American Grave, Part 1,714

This is the grave of St. Ursula.

The famous St. Ursula is supposedly buried in Cologne. I think this is claiming to be her. This is from the church in Madrid where these bones lay. The original died in the 4th century too.

So I don’t really know what is going on here. In a sense I don’t care either I guess. But I do have to say this–and I grew up Lutheran so while I might be as agnostic as it is possible to get in 2024, I still hold some of this dour Protestantism in me–what is with the bone worship? I was a Religious Studies minor in college. A quite well known Dominican and early Christianity scholar taught the Christianity classes. As a priest, he had all sorts of relics and he would bring them to class. What I am supposed to think about a bone of St. Augustine? Why should I think it is even St. Augustine? When I am in European museums, I see these reliquaries with Christ’s true blood or a piece of the True Cross and I’m like, some merchant in Constantinople totally bilked these idiot Christians out of lot of money for some lamb blood. Good call dude.

Also, and I say this as a guy who spends a lot of time finding dead people, the open display of full skeletons is pretty much the weirdest fucking thing among major global religions.

Anyway, St. Ursula, or whoever this is, is presently displayed in the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, Toledo, Spain.

If you want more pictures of saints, send me to Europe and I will take them. Why not?