Digital X-Rays Give Look Inside Containers for Holy Reliquaries in Mexico The Associated Press
go to original July 10, 2016

A molded wax and cloth figure of Saint Felicitas of Rome, with a glass window embedded in the chest to reveal bone fragments, lies inside a display case at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City. (Associated Press)

High-definition digital X-ray technology is giving researchers in Mexico their first glimpse inside centuries-old reliquaries in the capital's Metropolitan Cathedral.

The reliquaries — containers for holy relics — are life-size, wax body representations of Roman Catholic saints. According to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, investigators using a portable X-ray machine discovered a cranium, ribs, as well as bones from hands, feet and legs inside the sculpted containers.

"It was almost like they held a secret that only the artist who created the wax figure knew" about, Gabriela Sanchez Reyes of the institute's historic monuments department said on Friday.

Investigators also saw that while the extremities of the reliquaries were made of wax, the torsos were constructed from cloth. The bones contained within them are from saints as well, though not necessarily the same saint that is represented by the sculpture.

Sanchez said the information will allow conservationists to develop preservation and restauration strategies for the reliquaries located in the Mexico City cathedral.

Read the rest at ABC News

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