After learning that it is a mortal sin to sell something given to you by the Pope, Sandra Chaffin has decided that her Catholic memento is off the market. Chaffin recently acquired a Papal blessing given to her parents by Pope Paul VI on March 25, 1966 when they renewed their wedding vows. She put her feelers out on a Facebook to see if there were any interested buyers who collect religious items. She discovered that if a Catholic sells an item given to them by the Pope they may be damned to spend an eternity in Hell. Not willing to take the risk, it appears she is deciding to hold onto the piece of paper. Frank’s! advice was to up the price. The selling of blessings falls under the category of “simony,” the selling or purchasing of spiritual things, which is forbidden by both ecclesiastical law and natural law. Ecclesiastical law states that it is strictly forbidden to sell sacred relics, which would include relics of the satins, such as fragments of their bodies or clothing, or even relics relating to Jesus, such as splinters of the True Cross. Although the sale of relics is sacrilege, it is permissible to buy them in order to save them from desecration.
Category Archives: Religious
Religious Revival
Because of the economic meltdown, people are turning more and more towards God, according to Lynn Konrad, a regular dealer at The Groves Show in Irvine. She is capitalizing on this trend by selling ceremonial items relating to the Catholic Church, many of which she finds in small shops and markets in Paris. The New Jersey native and Huntington Beach resident travels to France several times a year where she hunts for religious artifacts including 150 year old baby christening gowns, bronze ormolu, and holy water fonts. ’People want to go back to their roots,” she said. “They are feeling a lot of fear, a lot of doubt and a lot of negativity right now and I think that they are looking for a spiritual connection.” The entrepreneur is also starting her own line of jewelry crafted from vintage coins from all over the world. Konrad can be contacted at (714) 310-0702. Types of Catholic collectibles These days, some hot religious items include bibles and prayer books, crucifixes and cross, along with a number of smaller trinkets and larger religious symbols including: Last rites boxes: A box where a priest would keep oil, holy water, wine. He would carry it with him when visiting someone who required the Last Rite Ritual. Rosaries and prayer beads: The term denotes both a set of prayer beads and the devotional prayer itself. Medals/pendants of religious scenes or figures Holy water fonts: Smaller ones were for personal home use and often hung in each room of the house. Larger ones were in churches and cathedrals. These were beautiful decorative objects with small basins for holding Holy Water. Reliquary pendants: Religious pendants with a religious symbol or scene on the front and compartment in the back for holding the physical remains of saints, such as bones, a piece of clothing, a lock of hair, or most commonly, a symbolic representation of a saint. These were sold in the late 1800s as a sort of church fundraiser. These were made by the church and often marked by the cathedral or town. They are often ormolu medallions with relics tucked in the back. Triptychs: Works of art which are divided into three sections, hinged together and folded. These smaller versions were used as “Traveling Icons” by priests and others to find serenity in prayer while on short journeys or away from home. Crowns: Often from statues of saints or madonna. Usually encrusted with semi-precious stones, crafted of sterling or other metals. Christening gowns: Baptismal clothing worn by a baby during the ceremony of baptism. They are often white lace with embroidery and beadwork.
Neon Jesus
Just as evangelical conman Elmer Gantry would have used it to draw a crowd of converts in the 1960s movie by the same name, Dennis Clark used a 1930s Neon Jesus on the cross created a lot of attention in the space of Off the Wall Antiques. ”It would have been used in Baptist Revivals,” explained Clark at the Deco to Modernism Show. “They would plug in a couple of these signs, set up a tent and preach the gospel.” He hoped the glowing Jesus would tithe for $1,500 at the December Show. ”There is something wonderful, but campy about it,” said Dennis Clark. ”It elicits a lot of different emotions from people.” The showstopping sign would have helped the team of Gantry, played by Burt Lancaster, and Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) attract more suckers with the beckoning, glowing presence of God. In the film, Gantry is a hard-drinking, fast-talking traveling salesman with a charismatic personality that weasels himself into the Baptist Revival road show of Falconer. He soon cons his way into her good graces and joins the troupe as a fiery preacher. Gantry and Falconer develop what her manager calls a “good cop/bad cop” routine, with Elmer telling the audience members that they will burn in Hell for their sins, and Sharon promising them salvation if they repent. With Elmer’s support, the group makes its way out of exclusively provincial venues and into Zenith, Winnemac. The film, which delves deep into the world of vice, from prostitution to blackmail and sexual indiscretion, was based on the 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis. The movie, however, was criticized for presenting fewer than 100 pages of the novel, thus deleting many characters and fundamentally changing the character and actions of the female evangelist Sharon Falconer. The movie, which was directed by Robert Brooks and produced by Bernard Smith, cost about $3 million to make. It won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Burt Lancaster), Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones) and Best Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, and Best Picture.
