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  • Title: Reliquary of the Hand of Saint Marina
  • Creator:
  • Description: This small, oddly-shaped silver-gilt reliquary once held a portion of the hand of Saint Marina, a popular virgin martyr of Antioch. Saint Marina is the Orthodox analog of Saint Margaret in Western Christianity, and may also have been a later interpretation of the martyr saint Pelagia. The reliquary features a repoussé bust portrait of the saint within a roundel in its interior. Marina wears a draped maphorion mantle and holds a cross in one hand while gesturing with the other, all typical elements of representations of female saints in Byzantium. The inscription to either side of Marina identifies her by name. The scalloped edge of the reliquary indicates that the container once had a glass or rock crystal cover. Just how the portrait would have been seen inside the reliquary and beneath a cover remains unknown. A loop at the top of the reliquary suggests the possibility that it may have been worn or suspended as a votive. Cynthia Hahn, however, has recently suggested that the reliquary’s strange shape may correspond to the practice of venerating it, rather than the shape of the relic itself. The reliquary’s shape is well-suited to clasping between two hands in prayer. A long dedicatory inscription in Greek covers the sides and back of the reliquary and tells of the power of the saint. The anonymous donor used a feminine participle in the Greek inscription, suggesting the possibility that the donor was a woman. She sought out Marina’s hand for help in overcoming “evil spirits of the mind.” This request recalls the legend of Marina’s triumph over a demon, a dragon, or both depending on the Greek or Latin version of her passion and miracles. In some versions Satan took the form of a dragon and swallowed Marina, but the cross she bore forced the dragon to heave her back up. In others a demon attempted to torture Marina in light of her human tormenters’ failure to harm her, but she managed to find a hammer and beat the demon. Marina’s aggressive displays of victory over evil may have made her particularly attractive for a suffering devotee. By 1213, Marina’s relics rested in a monastery outside of Constantinople and a man named Joannes de Borea received permission to take her hand in its reliquary to Venice. The reliquary remained in Venice in the church of San Liberale, also called Santa Marina, until its dissolution in 1810.
  • Source: Flickr
  • Rights: Reproduced by permission of Shannon Steiner
  • Subject (See Also): Devotional Objects Devotional Practices Hagiography Margaret of Antioch, Martyr and Saint Marina, Martyr and Saint Relics Reliquaries Votives
  • Geographic Area: Eastern Mediterranean
  • Century: 12- 13
  • Date: Before 1213
  • Related Work: Side view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/104536813@N04/10137764373/in/photostream/; Alternate side view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/104536813@N04/10137541034/in/photostream/; Detail of relief portrait: http://www.flickr.com/photos/104536813@N04/10137764113/in/photostream/
  • Current Location: Venice, Museo Correr
  • Original Location: Turkey, E. Constantinople; Italy, N. E., Venice.
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital Images; Metalwork
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Silver; Gilding
  • Donor:
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 10/6/
  • Inscription: Sides: ZHTEICΘE AYTA TINOC H XEIP TYNXANEI/ MAPTYPOC HΔE MAPINHC THC AΓIAC/ HC TO KPATOC EΘΛACE ΔPAKONTO KAPAC/ AYTHN ME ΠPOC ZHTHCIN ωTPYNE CXICIC/ ZHTOYCA TOYN ETYXON AYTHC EK ΠOΘOY/ ΠPOC KOCMI OYN ECΠENCA TON THC KOCMIAC; Back: MIKPOC MEN OYTOC TH MEΓAΛH TYNXANEI/ OMωC Δ AΠEIPOC CYN ΠPOCAIPECEI ΠOΘOC/ TOINYN AMAPANTINON ANΘOC MAPTYPωN/ ZAΛHC ΠYON ME TωN NOHTωN ΠNEYMATωN/ NIKHN KAT AYTωN TO KPATOC TE ΠAPEXOIC ANAΛOΓON NEMOYCA TH CXECEI ΔOCIN; Translation: Sides - Do you inquire about these things, [asking] to whom the hand belongs? This is [the hand] of the holy martyr Marina, whose power crushed the head of the dragon. Its having been cut off stirred me to seek it, and seeking it I found it, in accordance with my desire, and I made an offering for the seemly adornment of the honored one; Back - While this [reliquary] is a small thing in comparison with the great [martyr], nevertheless there is unbounded devotion with my gift. Now, imperishable flower of the martyrs, save me from the storm of the evil spirits of my mind and give me victory over them, and power, dispensing a gift comparable to your nature. (trans. Jaroslav Folda)
  • Related Resources: Bagnoli, Martina, Holger A. Klein, C. Griffith Mann, and James Robinson. Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe. The Walters Art Museum, 2010. pp. ; Folda, Jaroslav, "Reliquary of Saint Marina," in The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261, ed. Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixom. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1997. pp. 496-97; Hahn, Cynthia. Strange Beauty: Issues in the Making and Meaning of Reliquaries, 400- circa 1204. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012. pp. 224; Ross, M.C. and G. Downey, "A Reliquary of Saint Marina," Byzantinoslavica 23 (1962), pp. 41-44.