The Stavelot Reliquary: St. Helena tests the three crosses
Circa 1156
Champlevé and cloisonné on copper gilt
Morgan Library, New York
The medallions of the inner face of the left panel illustrate the story of the Emperor Constantine, while those on the right are based on the legend of his mother Helena's discovery of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. This is the top medallion on the right. In the medallion beneath it Helena has found three crosses buried but does not know which of them is the True Cross. Here we see her on the far left, identified by the inscription and by her crown and halo.
The man sitting up in bed is labeled mortuus suscitatus, "the dead man revived." The image combines details from two different versions of the legend. In one, a converted Jew named Judas touches the third cross to a dead man, who then comes to life. In the other it is St. Macarius, the bishop of Jerusalem at the time, who touches what proves to be the True Cross to a woman who has been sick. In the image, the man holding the cross is most likely St. Macarius. The inscription around his head starts with the abbreviation scs, for "Saint." The name itself is hard to read but it ought to be macarius, because Judas was not a saint, although he did eventually become bishop of Jerusalem himself. The rays of light descending on the cross from above would also suggest the Macarius version, because only there is the revelation preceded by a prayer: Macarius asks God to "show us clearly which of these three crosses was for the glory of the Lord" (Head, 85).
On the right, a man hauls away the other two crosses. Unlike the True Cross, they do not have a small crosspiece at the top for the inri inscription that is always included in medieval crucifixes.
View the entire reliquary.
Read more about images of St. Helena.
Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.
