International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Ljubomir Milanović
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Byzantine Studies, Belgrade, Serbia; 
[e-mail]
The Body of Christ as Relic Archetype
The body of the deceased saint was expected to manifest its holiness by incorruptibility (i.e., 
to show no evidence of decay) and by the flow of myro, a pleasant fragrance, which was frequently 
recorded to have emanated from the tomb. The saintly corpse would often, although not always, 
be found to have the capacity for miraculous healing. The veneration of saints’ relics and their 
frequent discovery in an uncorrupted state affirms that the physical world has the potential for 
being transfigured and resurrected, as it participates in the restoration of humanity to the beauty of 
the Divine Image and Likeness.
The incorruption of the saints was understood as a sign that some of them were blessed with 
divine power even before they died. That the power of the saints was still active even after their 
death gave them a paradoxical status of being neither fully dead nor alive. This allowed them to 
continue to be present in everyday life. Many church fathers and theologians referred to the saint’s 
dying as falling asleep, confirming their ambivalent status of being in a state of living death.
Medieval writers, as Victricus of Rouen, went so far as to apply the language of divinity to the 
saints, and particularly to their relics. He speaks of the saints as sharing immortality with God the Father.
Some theologians believe that the body of Christ was a holy relic during the three days it spent 
in the tomb and therefore presents an archetype for holy relics. Drawing upon this body of thought, 
this paper will examine the role of body relics as a type and locate its possible prototype in the body 
of Christ. The case study for this paper will be the uncorrupted relics of the fourteenth century king 
Stephan Dečanski in monastery of Dečani, Serbia. Based on the king’s biography, it is known that 
at some point after the death of king Stefan Dečanski in 1331, his body was moved to Dečani and 
buried in the southwest part of the church. The king’s body was later translated in the solemn ritual 
from his tomb to the front of the main chancel barrier. Here they were deposited in a wooden coffin, 
probably underneath the icon of Christ.

---

191