[Sca-cooks] Theft of reliquaries and wars

[Elaine Koogler]

ysabeau wrote:
> My daughter has recently been fascinated with history. She has 
> been studying Texas history and has several stories about how 
> Austin was "saved" as the capitol of Texas when people sought to 
> steal objects that they thought would give them claim to the 
> title. The same happened in county seats...
>
> hmmm...come to think of it, a similar theft occured in Austin a 
> few years ago with redistricting...
>
> so the saga continues even into modern day, just the items being 
> stolen to maintain power and to propagate into the future have 
> changed. 
>
> Sorry...but you got me to thinking and I had to think out loud...
>
> Ysabeau
>   
Oddly enough, I'm reading a book about a similar kind of thing..."The 
Holy Thief"...it's one of the Cadfael mysteries...a reliquary containing 
the bones of St. Winifred is stolen from the Abbey church during a 
flood.  turns out it was stolen by a monk from a neighboring abbey.  
That abbey had been ravaged by outlaws and thieves and the brothers 
turned out.  When the head thief died, the brothers were able to reclaim 
their monastery, but found it in very bad shape.  They needed lots of 
money to rebuild/refurbish, and the young man appears to have thought 
that the presence of the reliquary would bring greater prestige to the 
monastery, and therefore more money! 

Kiri