During his pontificate in Rome (817-824) Paschal I commissioned the production of an enamelled reliquary gold cross and two silver caskets to contain fragments of the True Cross. Based on his dissertation, Erik Thuno presents a detailed historical and art historical study of the Sancta Sanctorum objects commissioned and of their spiritual, physical, aesthetic and symbolic setting. These objects are also discussed within a wider examination of the spread of the cult of saints and the religious reform movement that saw the acquisition and veneration of relics sweeping across Carolingian Europe.

Index:
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Image and Relic
1. The Sancta Sanctorum Objects
2. The Enamelled Cross; The Cross and the Virgin; In the Service of the Mother of God; Ephesians 2: 13-17; The Sacraments of the Church and the Fons Vitae
3. The Rectangular Casket; Ecclesia Romana - Ecclesia Universalis; The Infancy of Christ and the Living Temple; The Church and the Cross
4. The Cruciform Casket; Christ as Priest and Sacrifice; The Body and the Church; The Evidence of the Resurrection
5. Pictorial Eclecticism and Programmatic Unity; The Pictorial Sources; Two Pairs of Objects, One Program
6. Mediating the Sacred and the Construction of a Papal Image Theory; The Mosaics of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo; Ninth-Century Challenges to Orthodoxy; Incarnation and Image; Paths to the Invisible
7. Paschal I and the Authorization of the Papacy as Mediator of the Sacred; The Early Medieval Lateran Palace; The Arca Cipressina; The Objects inside the Arca Cipressina; Roman Primacy and the Tradition of Orthodoxy; Pope Paschal between the Faithful and God
Bibliography
Index
Photo Credits
Illustrations.