Pectoral Crosses and Episcopal Rings...

... from Hungary, 18th and 19th century:

Pontifical Rings...

... and pectoral crosses from 19th-century Vienna.

Mighty Mitres

From Montecassino:

The mitre on the right belonged to Leo X and it has more pearls than the ocean has drops.


Here's a close-up. Sorry for the flash, but without it you wouldn't see a thing.



Nnnnnniiiiiice!


Beautiful!

Pectoral crosses from Portugal

Thanks to reader Jose, who sent in these photos of pectoral crosses and episcopal rings from Portugal:

One more ring

For all you bling-afficionados, here is the episcopal ring of Elia Cardinal dalla Costa, Archbishop of Florence from 1931 to 1961.

Another favorite...

... of some readers are episcopal rings, pectoral crosses and croziers or "Catholic bling". This stuff really isn't easy to find. I came across a little collection of episcopal jewelry when gathering information of bishop Stangl, who you've seen in the previous posts. The stuff he himself wore was more like "Uhm... thanks, but NO!"

However: his predecessors on the episcopal throne of Würzburg did have the occasional moment of taste. So here are some pictures.

Crozier, 1400s


Crozier, 1750s


Crozier, 1790


Pectoral Cross, 1700s


Pectoral Cross, 1725


Episcopal Ring, 1250. This is one of the oldes ones I've ever seen.


Episcopal ring, 1700s. Bit too baroque almost and you have to know that this really means something, coming from me.


Episcopal ring, 1800s


Episcopal Ring, 1865. This one was given to the then bishop of Würzburg, Georg Anton Stahl, for his silver bishop's jubilee.


Episcopal Ring, 1879. The quality is bad, but the ring has to be in here because it has an amethyst, which is my favorite stone.


Episcopal Ring, 1900s


Episcopal Ring, 1924. This one belonged to bishop Matthias Ehrenfried of whose installation you've seen a series of photos two weeks ago.


Episcopal Ring, 1957. This one belonged to bishop Stangl and it is by far the least offensive thing he wore when it comes to bling.

Rings and pectoral crosses

There have been some reader's requests to post more pectoral crosses and bishops' rings. I found a few, so here you go:

First two re-posts from the short-lived but intense "Bling-Wars" between Carolina and me:


Two pectoral crosses from the treasure of San Gennaro in Napoli


Then two gems that belonged to bishop Irigoyen of Pamplona (1768 to 1778):

His pectoral cross...

... and his ring.


Then some episcopal rings from the middle ages, which are kept in the Cluny Museum:




Finally three rings that I couldn't dentify:



This one with the amethyst has got to be my favorite one!





You also might want to go to this page, which has a whole lot of pics of pectoral crosses and episcopal rings, albeit very small ones...

From the treasury of San Gennaro in Naples

San Gennaro is the cathedral of Naples, named after the martyr-bishop of the same city who died around 305 during the persecution under Diocletian. In the English-speaking world he is known as Januarius, I believe.

The saint is very famous in Italy because of the miracle of the liquefaction of his blood, first reported in 1389. The dried blood is safely stored in small capsules in a reliquary. When these capsules are brought into the vicinity of his body, the dried blood liquefies.

Thousands of people assemble to witness this event in the cathedral of Naples. The archbishop, at the high altar amid prayers and invocations, holds up a glass phial that is said to contain the dried blood of the city’s patron saint. When the liquefaction has taken place, the archbishop holds up the phial again and demonstrates that liquefaction has taken place. The announcement of the liquefaction is greeted with a 21-gun salute at the 13th-century Castel Nuovo.

Anyways, here are some nice exhibition pieces from the treasury of the cathedral: