Ok, he wasn’t Bulgarian, but John the Baptist’s remains may be. Archaeologists in Bulgaria has reported that they have found remains of John the Baptist in a reliquary in a 5th century monastery on the Black Sea island of Sveti Ivan. The container holds a skull, hand, and a tooth — not quite half a saint but a pretty good percentage in the relic world.
A Greek inscription on the reliquary refers to June 24, the date when Christians celebrate John the Baptist’s birth and the island has a later built monastery from the 11th century dedicated to John the Baptist. “Sveti Ivan” means “St. John” in Bulgarian and other Slavic languages.
The Bulgarians, however, are just breaking into the John the Baptist body part market. The presumed head has been displayed in Rome.
The ancient records leave various clues and claimed possessors. It was reportedly buried with the rest of him at Sebaste in Samaria. Some relics were reportedly taken to Jerusalem, then to Alexandria in 395,
Nicephorus and Symeon Metaphrastes claimed that that the head was buried in the fortress of Machaerus. Other said it was held at Herod’s palace at Jerusalem before being taken to Emesa in Phoenicia. The Coptic Christian Orthodox Church also claimed to hold the relics of St. John the Baptist. Even the town of Halifax in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom claimed to have possessed it.
Other claimants were the the Knights Templar, San Silvestro in Capite in Rome, and Amiens Cathedral in France, among others.
It appears “getting a head” in life is an expression with ancient roots.
Source: Religion Blogs.
Yissil,
Thanks for asking. The bite hurts and itches simultaneously, but the fever is finally going down. I’m hoping it’ll work out like my last one and not leave much of a scar.
From the stadium land ploy to the Univ of Tex Bd of Regents … a plundering of public assets for private gain … hey, Hicks jumps ship all the time (from Richards to Bush) … let him sink … Bush never saves anyone but himself.
frankdwag,
I was hoping, I made myself clear…..Sometime I am more clear than other times….well, let me just say, I try and find humor in most everything, except when it happens to me. Then we have a new ball game. Heck maybe I can summons to sprites that seem to posses W or Tom Hicks….They have done enough Damage, first Tom get W into something he can’t fuck up…..then he becomes Governor, all because of Tom….then…Tom finances him to run for President……then W screws up the country…..then W is termed out (TY FDR)…then Tom buys W the house right behind his, so they can put a little ole, Helipad between the two shacks…..the Tom finds out that W not only screwed the country but him too and his 525 million dollar line of credit is called in because he won’t or can’t pay the interest on a line of credit of about 75 million….then Tom… has to sell the Rangers because he needs to pay bills and creditors are munching because w (W takes a loss in importance) can’t fend em off anymore and is forced to file for Bankruptcy to keep the vendors vending….I wonder if Tom has put a fence in between the house yet….Tom reaches a deal to sell the Rangers to Nolan and Greenberg with secret deal all the way around….a main unsecured creditor wants to be made whole and smell foul balls all around gets Cuban to join in on the bid war…now Cuban has been made whole….Ryan and Greenberg (I wonder if he is Jewish) have paid a lot more than they originally were going to to the tune of 140 million, all the creditors have been paid in full and Tom has the Stars up for sale….w has done for Tom what he has done to the rest of the country……Question for Tom Hicks: Do Fences make good neighbors……?
AY – I had no doubt about your meaning – I was trying (and failing as usual) to be funny
Buddha,
You wit or Your wit are interchangeable this morning…..
frankdway,
I think I was trying to say I agree with mr. ed. I agree that he might have had dark hair, dark skin and dark eyes. He would most likely not be someone you wanted to come over for the dinner sabbath….
Texas Gramma,
I was blessed to have been born in Texas. Well, the rest, they got here as quick as they could. I have heard that we were watching the wrong border for years….Now if they had had the fence up, would the village idiot made it all the way to Austin?
Buddha,
You wit and sage advice hath been amiss, I hope you are not a recluse today….
Hopefully he was a little better lookin’ than Arafat … but then, come to think of it, Arafat had a few million followers of his own … never mind
a bunch of stuff:
The crusader that tried to take my goods would have bled to death before he reached my tent flap!
I would never have demanded money but either begged for aid for my ailing mother or hinted that the Sultan was offering a huge reward to destroy it as he feared it power.
The Romans had permanent scaffolding set up for crucifixions is at least some of their territories. It is entirely possible that they did this in Jerusalem. They looked sort of like what you see at construction sites & the condemned were tied to a cross bar & lifted into place.
Nails? who knows? after the uprising now famous for Spartacus the Romans built miles and miles of those scaffolds to line all the roads leading to Rome. They left the rebels hanging at regular intervals. So cost was not an object when it came to displaying the force of the empire.
As for what Jesus looked like; what? You think he looked like a Jew? Heaven forfend!
The most famous *Buddhist* relic is one of the Buddhas teeth, kept at the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy in Sri Lanka. It is the only extant tooth attributed to the Buddha.
Mostly corpses are burned down there which is why you only get teeth and other non-flammable relics.
How is the old spider bite Buddha?
I’m sorry about that, but I have been waiting FOREVER to use that gag.
Swarthmore mom,
Yes … there is hope and Fisher is a careful man so I don’t expect any mistakes from him.
As to your comment concerning the not so good ones … it was hell for years here. They literally stole the state blind in every way possible. The racism was overt (something Cincinnati is known for) and the Karl Rove school of thought was everywhere. There were many times I despaired that things would ever change. In the fall of 2004 when we would go on weekend driving trips through the southern part of the state we would see nothing but Bush/Cheney signs all over the place. It was unbelievably depressing.
” John the Bulgarian?” …. Reminds me of my favorite movie, “Conan the Bavarian” starring Arnold Schwartzenegger.
Those numbers are pretty good since Rasmussen has a republican bias.
Swarthmore mom
“Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rob Portman’s numbers dropped every so slightly in a Rasmussen Reports poll released Wednesday, but it was enough to have to campaign of Democrat Lee Fisher crowing that Portman’s recent statewide TV ad campaign has been a waste of money.
Last month, Rasmussen released a poll showing Portman with a six percentage point lead. In the poll released Wednesday, Portman is still ahead, but by only four percentage points – 44 percent to 40 percent.
It wasn’t much of a drop, but it was enough for Rasmussen to drop the Ohio Senate race from its “leans Republican” category to “toss-up” in its “Balance of Power” survey of races around the country.”(Cincinnati Enquirer)
We have a teabagger problem and our fair share of bible belt idiots but hopefully Fisher will win. He’s a career politician and did a lot of good work in this area and his ties to Strickland are helpful but the southern portion of this state is full of “vote against our own best interests because our preacher tells us to” dunces.
Swarthmore mom,
Like the Grandson of President Taft. Then whoever stole and hid the ballot boxes, those are the people that were not so good? Heck, LBJ perfected election rigging in Texas, I do think he did get help with a company or a syndicate or something like that, from Chicago or was it New York. Sometimes the facts get a little blurry…..
However, unlike Fox News I don’t generally make it up as I go along….I don’t make the facts fit my picture…
Bloiuse You have some good people now but your state had some not so good ones for a long time. I hear that Bush guy, Portman, is leading in the race to replace Voinivich
can = cane
Anonymously Yours
1, August 4, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Blouise,
He is a good dog….I have know of his presence in the Texas Democratic Party since the mid 80′s.
So what did you all do to Taft? The precursor to Wilson which was the succor to Hoover…well not much has really changed has it….
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You have no room to talk given your state’s more recent contributions to the presidency
I like Strickland (gov) and really like Sherrod Brown (u s senator) … Matt Lundy as state rep … Voinivich (other us senator) is leaving, thank god and hopefully we can get another like Brown elected. My favorite is Dennis Kucinich. The orange guy is from further west … Toledo area and I take no responsibility for what those crazy voters do.
Austin is a great city. It’s only downside is that it is in Texas. You don’t run into that many teabaggers down there. You are more likely to see a random leftist protest march. I guess Marfa is a good place too. Buddah, my son turned down a job in Kansas City. He said it was even worse than Dallas. He ended up in Boulder.