Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-08-21
Some Claim it Was Sum From Lambs
Wool by the Mother of Our
Lord.
The Clergy Now Propose to Exhibit
This Relic and Test its Magic
Power.

arm
1t is a very old, threadbare, hand-woven
piece OF cloth, repeatedly patched, and
supported by lining. The color is hard
| ly discernible, but seems to have been
originally gray. II has short sleeves, re-
sembling somewhat the tunic worn by
priests, and has only small round open
ing for the head. In other surroundings
one would hardly glance at it and it would
soon find its way to junk shop.
But it is the Holy Coat of Treves, the
most famous of relics, and all the sacred
nails and spears fragments OF the cross,
wells, and girdles of the Blessed Virgin
and bones of the martyrs could not out
weigh the value of this treasure 1t is
said to have been spun from lambs wool
by the mother OF God, and woven into a
coat by Mary Magdalen on the Mount of
Olives. 1t is seamless, just as the scrip
ture describes it to be with the words:
the coat was without seam, woven from
the top throughout.
The present bishop, De KOrum, with the
permission or even by special order of the
Pope, will cause it to be exhibited during
the summer for six weeks, beginning the
t20th of August, and besides numerous
visitors from all parts of Europe, about
1000 Americans are expected to witness
the ceremonies and solemn professions
attending such exhibitions.
But it will hardly create the great pill
grimages of 1874, when eleven bishops
and 100000 faithful Catholics visited
Treyes and the chmch put forth all
her pomp and splendor from Aug. Is to
Oct. 6.
The holy coat boasts of long history,
interminged with pious legends and old,
testimony is in the "Gesta Trevir-
rarum"| church chronicles - written in
the first part of the eleventh century
where it is mentioned as the tunica incon-
sutiiis.
Saint Helena, wife of Constantius
Chorus and mother of Cons tantine the
There she founded the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher. She also discovered the true
cross, concerning which very beautiful
legend is told, and on her return she
brought with her fragments of the
presented to the Bishop Agrotius, of
Treves, to whom she owed debt of graft
tude.
hHOlHtl ltSCld, Oui1 TltStiNtNi III bLt
hand-written manuscript of a monk, and
in a few very rare copies OF a print of a
later date. speaks of Orendel, son of the
the finder of the holy coat. After under
going all sorts of strange adventures, he
made a present of it to his native
town, where it was kept hen 2eforth in
stoue cript.
nyl,h,4ol L..
time, so far as can be traced. At the same
time it was transferred to a shrine ON the
high altar, Very likely it was there ex.
hibited to the faithful of the Middle Ages
in intervals of twenty five years.
In 1912 1t aroused Luthers ire. He
called it shameful, hypocrltical tom
foolery." Leo X, however, decided that
it should be exhibited every seven years,
because his children were III need of in
centive to piety and faith to remind them
of the life of Christ.
During the manifold religious wars of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
it was deposited for safety at the castle of
Ehrenbreitenstein, known to att students
who have visited the Rhine. Later on it
was sent to Augsburg, After that very
little was heard of it, Not before 1910
were the faithful Treves allowed to see the
"holy coat in their midst again. In that
year the Bishop Mannay, with the permits
sion of Napoleon l. lett Treves for Auos.
burg, secured the coat, brought it triumph
antIy back to its original shrine, and
preparations were at once set on foot for a
great church festival; 227 900 pilgrims
paid homage to the relic.
But the greatest glory had yet to GOMEZ
The summer of 1874, under the reign OF
Bishop Andoldi, made IreyeS the scene of
one of the greatest pilgrimages of the
Catholic world. The exhibition aroused
The most bitter controversy among the
leaders of the r man Catholics and the
more liberal minded. Some of the best
writer's of the day took part in the argu,
meuts On the 18th of October, 1874,
Chaplain Rouge, who had boon excommu-
nicated from the church for his liberalism,
an eloquent agitator, published an open
letter to the Pope, denouncing the worship
Of the holy coat rs idolatry, and signed 1T
Ronge, Catholic priest. With Father
Czerski he originated the German Catholic
church, which in the beginning was strong
and prosp arous, but soon split into differ
ent sects exceeding two hundred, and died
out early in the ffties through political
influence. II may be interesting to know
that the exhibition Of lS44 was quite ac-
cidentdl.
While the church was being repaired in
I the spring of the same year an ancient
| piece of ivory was recovered which had
/ been lost for centuries. On it was carved
the figure of st. Helena sitting at the
cathedral entrance of Treves, awaiting the
arrival of a procession, in which a chariot
with two ecclesiashcs guarding chest is
! visible. Above the chariot floats the
face of Christ, by which some relation be-
tween our Lord and the contents Of the
chest is il dicated This piece of ivory has
been examined by the Archaeological So.
ciety Of Frankfort, which fixed its date
about 326. the year Of Empress Helena's
death, This was, as yet, the most I'M
portant piece of evidence for the genuine
ness Of the coat, which, naturally, had
to be made use of.
Some persons have considered 1t curious
that about twenty different churches and
converts. among which Argenteull and San
Iaeo di Campostella are the most promin-
emit, boasts Of possessing the original
"holy coat But if it is possible that