2003-06-03
The Isle of Noirmoutier

When Saint Philbert died around the year 700 he was already a legend.  The holy relics of a church are often a trace of the physical of a great spiritual leader.  Here we have a rib and a vertebra from Saint Philbert.  These bones are some 1300 years old, but the body to which they were attached is many, many kilometers away.  Around the year 800 invaders came to these lands from the far north.  Today we know them as Vikings or Norsemen.  These barbarians were so feared that Christians fled and took their treasures inland.  Saint Philbert's body was the most precious of these treasures and his body was taken, stop by stop, all he way to Burgundy.  Along the way a relic like those above was left in thanks to the Christians who helped save this saint's body from desecration.  A healthy pilgrim can now follow the path of Philbert's body from church to church across modern France.
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This page last updated on 6/3/2003 7:06:50 PM.