In the 13th century, a monk named Fernandus from the Riojan monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, Spain, detailed how, in the 11th century, the monastery completed a new casket – or box-shaped – reliquary for the remains of its patron saint, Aemilian. According to Fernandus, on 26 September 1067, the Aemilian casket was carried in procession and placed on the newly consecrated high altar of the church in the monastery then being built at Yuso, about 20 kilometres from Nájera.1 Given his devout and miraculous ways, the Visigothic hermit Aemilian (473–574) had attracted a following that led to the foundation of the original monastery in the cramped confines at nearby mountainous Suso in the 6th century. The new Yuso monastery – down the mountain from Suso – would provide not only ample space for the liturgical needs of a growing body of monks who had most likely recently switched over from the Visigothic to the Benedictine Office, but also for pilgrims coming to worship at the location of the saint’s remains. Analysis of the appearance of the 1067 Aemilian casket reliquary reveals how its design and iconography were deliberately devised to serve the monastery’s diverse devotional needs, as well as how this design constitutes a standard type of decorative programme for casket reliquaries that found widespread popularity in monasteries throughout Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.2
The Aemilian reliquary must have been a spectacular sight when the monastery first displayed it. Originally 1,030 mm long, 580 mm tall, and 330 mm wide, it consisted of a wooden armature decorated with thirty-eight carved elephant-ivory plaques, gold and precious stones. Unfortunately, in 1809 Napoleonic soldiers stripped the armature of its gold and jewels, and the ivory plaques were dispersed. Many of the ivories today decorate a reconstructed version of the reliquary at San Millán that does not accurately reflect its original appearance. Other ivories can be found in museum collections around the world or have been lost. Recently, scholars have reconstructed the original appearance of the reliquary based on the shape of the original armature – the Arca Antigua – still located today at San Millán, as well as a description of the reliquary that the Spanish historian Prudencio de Sandoval made when he visited the monastery in 1601.3
The Arca Antigua originally featured ivory plaques in two registers on each of its long sides as well as groups of additional ivory plaques on the pinions (Figure 16.1). The different location of these plaques reflected two different cycles: hagiographic and commemorative. Both cycles served to promote the saint and his monastery. The hagiographic plaques were located on the long sides and featured didactic scenes from the life and miracles of Aemilian. These scenes closely followed the events in the only written biographical source of Aemilian’s life – the Vita s. Aemiliani written by Braulio (c. 584–651), bishop of Saragossa, probably in 636.4 The commemorative cycle was located on the two pinions, and it focussed on iconic images of Christ and the death of Aemilian. Inscriptions found above or below both the hagiographic and commemorative plaques closely match Braulio’s text.5
Analysis of the imagery on the pinions provides the first clues as to how the Aemilian casket reliquary was used to facilitate worship. On one pinion, the extant Christ in Majesty plaque (Figures 16.2 and 16.3) served as the focal point, originally surrounded by now missing plaques of the tetramorph and images of archangels Michael and Gabriel in gold; it was topped with an ivory image of the Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God. To the sides of Christ, ivory plaques (now missing) depicted King Sancho IV (1054–76) and Queen Placentia – patrons of the monastery at the time – as well as San Millán’s Abbot Blas and scribe Munius.6 Accompanying inscriptions indicated that these contemporary figures represented those responsible for the creation of the casket paying homage to Christ at the moment of the Last Judgment.7 The primary plaque of the other pinion, now split into two pieces, featured Aemilian’s death (Figures 16.4 and 16.5).8 According to Sandoval, a triangular ivory plaque above it (now missing) contained the image of an angel and Benedict dressed as a monk with wings presenting the soul of Aemilian to God in Majesty.9 Smaller plaques depicting monastic figures from every station within the monastery10 – including another San Millán abbot named Pedro – and other noble patrons and artisans responsible for the production of the reliquary surrounded the scene of Aemilian’s death.11 Above them in gold stood Gabriel and Michael. The general appearance of patrons and members of the monastery honouring Aemilian in his death in the presence of the archangels mirrors the arrangement of figures on the Christ in Majesty pinion.
The size, form and decorative scheme of the Aemilian reliquary appear to represent a change in the general design of such objects used in monasteries at the end of the 11th century. For example, before the Aemilian reliquary, casket reliquaries with iconic Christological imagery were not only considerably smaller than the Aemilian reliquary but also typically came in the shape of what Joseph Braun refers to as Truhen,12 or caskets with a pyramidal or jewel-cut roof. Examples of this earlier type include the 1059 Pelagius-John the Baptist reliquary from San Isidoro in León, Spain: measuring 305 mm by 480 mm by 262 mm, it features ivory plaques of the Agnus Dei with a cross and of each of the four Evangelist symbols on its Truhen lid (Figure 16.6). In contrast, the pointed roof of the Aemilian reliquary resembles a house; this form is what Braun refers to as Schreinchen, or a shrine-shaped casket.13 Therefore, earlier casket reliquaries were often small and Truhen-shaped with iconic Christological imagery located on their roofs in contrast with the large, shrine-shaped Aemilian casket reliquary with Christological imagery featured on one of its pinions.
It appears that the overall design of the Aemilian reliquary emerged because the small Truhen-shaped reliquaries became impractical. Evidence from Yuso indicates that the Aemilian reliquary was large in size because it was used as a major focal point on the high altar. Fernandus describes the high altar at Yuso as being separated from the rest of the church by a gate or screen, which would have made it imperative to have a large reliquary so that the congregation could see it from a distance. Increasing its size and moving the Christological imagery to one of its pinions guaranteed that worshippers could read this decoration. As Kurt Weitzmann points out, the Aemilian reliquary’s ivory Christ in Majesty is carved in an extremely high relief that was uncommon in Spain at this time and was usually reserved for carvings of Christ on the cross made for the altar.14 Therefore, the deep carving of the Christ in Majesty plaque on the Aemilian reliquary indicates that it was meant to be a focal point easily visible from a distance, analogous to how crucifixions would have been seen in churches at the time. Commensurate with the use of such imagery, Spanish sacramentaries and missals of this period usually started the canon of the Mass with two illustrated pages of Christ in Majesty and the Crucifixion, alluding to the glory of Christ and his mission as redeemer;15 as such, the monks could have focussed on the Christ in Majesty image on the Aemilian reliquary as they began Mass.16 Given the reference to ‘Christi triumphalis victoriae’ in the opening Missa of the Officium in diem Sancti Emiliani,17 the monks also could have done the same at the beginning of the celebration of Aemilian’s Office.
The imagery on the pinions of the Aemilian reliquary also served another function. With its depiction of the monastery’s patrons, monastic members and artisans surrounding the Christ in Majesty and Aemilian death plaques and accompanied by gold images of Gabriel and Michael, these pinions also would have aided the monks and other worshippers as they addressed prayers of intercession to their patron saint and the archangels.
The didactic hagiographic scenes from the life of Aemilian on the reliquary also played a role in facilitating worship at San Millán (Figure 16.7). Many of the plaques depicting scenes from Aemilian’s life on the long sides were divided into two scenes, which could be read either from top to bottom or from bottom to top, apparently following no particular type of order, either chronologically or by subject matter. In attempting to explain the logic behind the organisation of the ivory plaques, scholars typically argue that the plaques’ arrangement was random and that order in the modern sense of the word was not of concern at the time the Aemilian reliquary was created.18 However, while the original positioning of the hagiographic scenes seems illogical to the modern viewer, evidence suggests that it served to echo and complement the celebration of the saint’s Office.
The confusing ordering of hagiographical events relates both to how multiple scenes appear within individual plaques as well as to how the plaques themselves were arranged on the reliquary. Usually the top and bottom sections within a plaque are continuations of one scene or successive scenes chronologically, comprising what is referred to as a hinge composition where the action in one area continues into the next, and the saint acts as the ‘hinge’, or instigator, of the action.19 One extant plaque featuring such a composition illustrates when thieves steal Aemilian’s horse in the top section and then return it in the bottom one after God causes them to lose their sight for their actions (Figure 16.8). However, in other instances, scenes within the same plaque are grouped together because they carry a similar subject matter, but they are not related chronologically. For example, in the top section of one plaque, Aemilian cured a noble woman named Columba, daughter of the curial Maximus, who was possessed by the devil and experienced ‘instability of her limbs’: the plaque’s bottom section showed Aemilian healing a different lame woman. The two scenes in this plaque – now missing but known through Sandoval’s description – are based on Braulio’s account of the Columba story in chapter 16 and the healing of a lame woman in chapter 10. It appears the designer of the reliquary grouped these scenes together as they both represent a similar type of miraculous healing – the curing of limbs.
In addition to placing two scenes along a common theme together within a plaque, the designer of the Aemilian reliquary appears purposefully to have situated plaques with similar themes near to one another. One plaque features Aemilian wrestling the devil in the wilderness as well as the devil chastising Aemilian for living with nuns, events grouped together in order to allow the worshipper to focus on Aemilian’s triumphs over the devil (Figure 16.9). This plaque was located on the first long side while two additional scenes involving Aemilian’s struggles with the devil were below this plaque in the bottom register (Figure 16.7). The middle ivory from this bottom row depicts Aemilian exorcising the devil from Honorius’s house in a rare singular scene that occupies an entire plaque. The ivory from the right end of this bottom row shows demons attempting to burn Aemilian’s bed as he sleeps. In addition, the now missing fourth plaque on the roof of the first long side of the reliquary, originally located next to the wrestling scene, displayed the previously mentioned event of Aemilian exorcising Columba. The monks could have easily focussed on this concentration of plaques showing Aemilian’s struggles with the devil or demons during their worship.
Many of the hagiographic plaques feature the miracles that Aemilian worked, and interestingly all of the healing miracles appear in plaques that were located on the upper registers of the reliquary’s roof. Furthermore, several plaques featuring curative acts are paired with a scene in which the healed person thanks Aemilian. It appears that these events were located in the upper registers in order to facilitate the public’s access to them; at the upper levels the viewer could easily spot them. As has been pointed out, the monastery attracted pilgrims through the promotion of Aemilian’s miraculous acts of healing; through the modelling of thanks shown in these reliquary plaques, it hoped to encourage its pilgrims to make donations to the monastery.20
Many other types of groupings on the reliquary exist, and associating them with different liturgical contexts at San Millán further indicates how monks and pilgrims may have used them. As Julie Harris points out, scenes portraying Aemilian’s posthumous miracles are arranged on the second long side of the reliquary (Figure 16.7).21 In addition, a series of scenes show Aemilian holding a tau-shaped walking stick, the crosier of a bishop and a symbol of ecclesiastical power, and are grouped together on both sides of the reliquary. This stick was famous as Braulio specifically cites it as the tool Aemilian used to heal the lame woman in chapter 10. Despite the fact that the plaque representing this scene – originally located on the reliquary’s first long side – is now missing, one can assume that it at least depicted Aemilian with his walking stick given that the passage upon which it was based is the sole mention of this object in all of Braulio’s Vita. Next to the plaque featuring this event was the one depicting the devil confronting Aemilian about living with women, in which Aemilian is again depicted with his staff. Furthermore, the plaque featuring the horse theft, which was located below both of these scenes in the bottom register, also includes the staff (Figure 16.8). The concentration of these depictions in two top register scenes and one bottom register scene is repeated on the second long side as well.22 The staff also appears in the back pinion’s plaque of Aemilian’s death (Figure 16.5).23
Liturgically, Aemilian’s staff was significant, suggesting that it was depicted on the Aemilian reliquary because it was a cult object. In the Officium in Diem Sancti Aemiliani (London, British Museum, MS Add. 30.845), the Inlatio – the equivalent to the preface of the Mozarabic liturgy – celebrates the ability of the saint’s walking stick to bring good health and to resolve divisions or open up avenues: ‘Tu nunc per Emiliani tui baculum gressum quem orbi valitudo ligaverat, ut viam expedite carperet resolvisti’.24 This reference, occurring in the build-up to the Communion, serves to celebrate the miraculous acts and instruments of Aemilian during the saint’s Office.
In addition to mentioning Aemilian’s miracle with his walking stick, the Inlatio in the Office for the saint’s feast refers to three other miraculous acts, all of which were also represented on the reliquary: Aemilian caused a pint of wine to serve a multitude,25 he grew a wooden beam cut too short for the construction of the granary (now missing)26 and he enabled food to appear for his guests when none existed.27 As discussed, the Inlatio of the Office mentions the miracle scene of the healing of the lame woman, the ivory for which was located on the upper register of the reliquary’s first long side (Figure 16.7). After this reference, the Office describes the miracle of the wine, which was located at the end of the bottom register on the second long side of the reliquary. It then cites the third miracle – the growth of the wooden beam; the ivory for this scene was originally located on the bottom register of the first long side. Finally, the Office refers to the miracle of the food, which the reliquary displayed on the bottom register of the second long side. This alternation among the miraculous scenes located on either of the reliquary’s long sides indicates that the designer of this object intended the worshippers – primarily the monks during the celebration of Aemilian’s Office – to be present on both sides of the reliquary. Regardless of the side on which one stood, one still had the ability to focus on two of the four miracle scenes cited in this prayer leading up to the Communion.
This evidence indicates not only that thematic groupings lie behind the ordering of scenes on the reliquary, but it also points to the fact that the monks did not refer to these scenes in a chronological manner. They used them to meditate on Aemilian’s deeds, especially during the celebration of the saint’s Office. Their ability to do so appears to have been facilitated by their extensive familiarity with Braulio’s Vita.28
With this information, one can reconstruct the order in which the monks viewed the different sides and scenes on the reliquary during the Office of Aemilian. The monks first started with the Christ in Majesty plaque of the main pinion – for example, during the opening Missa for the Office of Aemilian, as already cited. Then they progressed to one of the two long sides where they meditated on groupings of thematically related plaques while the Office made references to them at various points during the service. After worshipping before one of the two long sides, the monks could finish with the death of Aemilian plaque on the back pinion. In this scenario, a worshipper did not necessarily ‘miss out’ by having access only to one of the two long sides since similar themes or aspects of Aemilian’s life were represented on each long side.
Finally, the mirroring of elements between the different parts of the reliquary also applies to the use of inscriptions. Sandoval describes the following one, ‘de letras de oro esmaltado de negro y marfil’, going all the way around the reliquary:
Per Moysem legem Domini mandata tenentem,/Actibus his sanctum cognoscimus Aemilianum,/Non iacet infirmus, pro quo petit Aemilianus./Ex Moysi fertur populus quo iure rogatur,/Aegri stant sani virtutibus Aemiliani/Tristes accedunt, sed laeti quique recedunt.29
The Moses passage was in two sentences, and, since Sandoval’s description indicates that this inscription went around the reliquary, the first sentence was probably on one long side while the second one was on the other. Both Moses sentences seem to echo each other in sentiment and construction. Sandoval also transcribes two additional inscriptions, one on each side: ‘Hiberum [sic] lumen proceres sparsere per orbem,/Facentis monstratur qualis fuit Aemilianus,/Certa salus aegris, spes et tutella misellis’30 and ‘Sanctorum conventus discipulorum/Vernant his signis virtutes Aemiliani/Aegris certa salus, quando vult Aemilianus’.31 Perhaps each side featured a Moses inscription below the five bottom register scenes, as well as the other inscriptions about Aemilian’s healing powers beneath the top register scenes.
An analysis of the inscriptions further helps in determining the Aemilian reliquary’s liturgical use. The linking of Aemilian to Moses in the inscriptions recalls once again the Inlatio in the Officium in Diem Sancti Aemiliani (BM, MS Add. 30.845), which also compares the saint to Moses.32 Perhaps Aemilian was in part compared to Moses because both men were shepherds before becoming religious men. As Harris points out, the linking of Aemilian to Moses is echoed in the ivory plaque of the saint’s climb up Mount Dircetius, which ‘is based on a composition used to illustrate Moses receiving the Law’.33 Also, perhaps the creators of the reliquary meant to link Aemilian to Moses through his staff. As Durand describes, ‘Moses carried his staff; with us, the king follows the procession, sceptre in hand, and the bishop, supported by his crozier’.34 Most importantly, all four sentences of the inscriptions emphasise how Aemilian cures the sick and would have echoed the miraculous healing scenes in the ivory plaques nearby.
As discussed, the Aemilian reliquary is the earliest extant example of a monastic casket reliquary with a decorative programme organised to have iconic commemorative imagery on its pinions and didactic hagiographic imagery on its long sides. However, by the 12th century, this organisational scheme became commonplace across Europe, as exemplified by the Hadelin casket reliquary (mid-11th to mid-12th century) from Saint Martin in Visé, Belgium, and the Heribert casket reliquary (c. 1160–70) from Saint Heribert in Cologne-Deutz, Germany (Figure 16.10). Evidence indicates that such casket reliquaries were often positioned on or near the high altar with the pinion facing out towards the nave, allowing processing clergy to focus on iconic imagery at the start of their liturgical practices.35 Clergy familiar with the details of a saint’s life could easily contemplate the detailed hagiographic imagery of the long sides while occupying the choir of the church. Clearly such a design supported the specific liturgical needs of monastic communities. This arrangement also would have allowed the laity to concentrate on an iconic image during their worship, much as they would come to use altarpieces in later periods.
In conclusion, the Aemilian casket reliquary – through its iconic commemorative imagery and didactic hagiographical scenes – represents the first extant example of a type of shrine-shaped reliquary that became a standard liturgical aid at medieval monasteries across Europe. The development of such a format appears to reflect the increasing number of worshippers at the time – monastic and otherwise – wanting access to casket reliquary imagery. The overall design of the Aemilian reliquary meant diverse audiences with varying amounts of knowledge about the saint and the liturgy could access the object for worship in different ways. With many aspects mirrored on different sides of the reliquary – from the Moses inscriptions and intercessory images to scenes of Aemilian’s early life and of miracles with laity, religious figures and noblemen – worshippers could draw upon comparable features during their devotions regardless of which parts of the reliquary they could see.
