The Cross of Adelheid is an 11th-12th century

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

in the form of a

crux gemmata A (Latin for jewelled cross) is a form of cross typical of Early Christian and Early Medieval art, where the cross, or at least its front side, is principally decorated with jewels. In an actual cross, rather than a painted image of one, the rev ...

. It is held in

Saint Paul's Abbey, Lavanttal Saint Paul's Abbey in Lavanttal () is a Order of St. Benedict, Benedictine monastery established in 1091 near the present-day market town of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in the Austrian state of Carinthia (state), Carinthia. The premises centered on the ...

. It was commissioned by

Adelheid Adelheid is the modern Dutch and German form of the Old High German female given name Adalheid, meaning "nobility" or "noble-ness". It may refer to the following people: * Saint Adelheid or Adelaide of Italy, (931–999), Holy Roman Empress and ...

, daughter of

Rudolf of Rheinfelden Rudolf of Rheinfelden ( – 15 October 1080) was Duke of Swabia from 1057 to 1079. Initially a follower of his brother-in-law, the Salian emperor Henry IV, his election as German anti-king in 1077 marked the outbreak of the Great Saxon Revolt a ...

, passing to St. Blaise Abbey in the 19th century before coming to its present home. The Cross of Adelheid is known as the largest German reliquary to survive from the High Middle Ages (middle 11th-middle 13th century). It is made of a wooden core covered with gilded silver plate. The four arms of the cross extend from the middle square. The lower arm is the longest and the other three are the same length. Each arm of the Cross ends in a square. On the front are gems, pearls and precious stones. It is 82.9 cm high, 65.4 cm wide and 7.4 to 7.8 cm deep. There are a total of 170 gems on the cross, with only 147 remaining. The remaining gems are: 47 amethysts, 22 carnelians, 17 agates, 13 rock crystals, 7 moonstones, 6 garnets, 5 chalcedonies, 5 onyxes, 4 almandines, 4 heliotropes, 3 turquoises, 2 beryls, 2 serpentines, 1 lapis lazuli, 1 emerald, 1 milk opal and 1 smoky quartz. The Cross of Adelheid is said to contain fragments of the

True Cross According to Christian tradition, the True Cross is the real instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was Crucifixion of Jesus, crucified. It is related by numerous historical accounts and Christian mythology, legends ...

, which is said to be the cross that

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

was

crucified Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Carthaginians, ...

on.

References

External links

*http://wwwg.uni-klu.ac.at/kultdoku/kataloge/01/html/25.htm *http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.photo.index/s/st_paul_im_lavanttal/st_paul_im_lavanttal__adelheid-kreuz_aus_dem_11_jh_im.htm Reliquary crosses Crux gemmata 11th-century sculptures 12th-century sculptures Romanesque sculptures {{Christianity-stub