Editing Reliquary (section)

{{Short description|Container for religious relics}}
{{About|containers for relics|the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child novel|Reliquary (novel)}}
[[File:Reliquary Shrine Jean de Touyl.jpg|thumb|300px|''[[Reliquary Shrine (de Touyl)| Reliquary Shrine]]'', French, {{circa|1325}}–50, [[The Cloisters]], New York]]
[[Image:Reliekschrijnbinnen.jpg|thumb|Inside the shrine of St. [[Saint Boniface| Boniface of Dokkum]] in the [[Hermitage (religious retreat)| hermit-church]] of [[Warfhuizen]] in the [[Netherlands]]. The little folded paper on the left contains a bone fragment of Saint [[Benedict of Nursia]], the folded paper on the right a piece of the [[religious habit| habit]] of St. [[Bernard of Clairvaux]]. The large bone in the middle (about 5 cm in length) is the actual relic of St. Boniface.]]

A '''reliquary''' (also referred to as a ''[[shrine]]'', ''[[Chasse (casket)|chasse]]'', or ''phylactery'')<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farmer |first=Sharon |year= 2007 |editor1= Rachel Fulton Brown |editor2= Bruce W. Holsinger |title= History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person |chapter=17: Low Country Ascetics and Oriental Luxury: Jacques de Vitry, Marie of Oignies, and the Treasures of Oignies |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZE2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA209 |location= New York City |publisher= Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231508476 |oclc= 8182124165 |page=209}}</ref> is a container for [[relic]]s. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''.<ref>
{{oed | feretory}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of FERETORY |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feretory |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref>

[[Relics]] may be the purported or actual physical remains of [[saint]]s, and may comprise bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or with other religious figures. The authenticity of any given relic is often a matter of debate; for that reason, some churches require documentation of a relic's provenance.

Relics have long been important to [[Buddhism| Buddhists]], [[Christianity |Christians]], [[Hinduism |Hindus]], and to followers of many other religions.<ref>"Two Gandhāran Reliquaries". K. Walton Dobbins. ''East and West'', 18 (1968), pp. 151–162.</ref><ref>''The Stūpa and Vihāra of Kanishka I''. K. Walton Dobbins. (1971). The Asiatic Society of Bengal Monograph Series, Vol. XVIII. Calcutta.</ref><ref>"Is the Kaniṣka Reliquary a work from Mathurā?" Mirella Levi d’Ancona. ''Art Bulletin'', Vol. 31, No. 4 (Dec. 1949), pp. 321–323.</ref> These cultures often display reliquaries in shrines, churches, or temples to which the faithful make [[pilgrimage]]s to gain blessings.

The term is sometimes used in a looser sense to mean a container for the remains of any important figure, even non-religious ones. In particular, the [[kings of France]] often specified that their hearts and sometimes other organs be buried in a different location from their body.