The Crown of Thorns Reliquary and Its Halo of Light

Here stands the reliquary of the Crown of Thorns. It looks nothing like the crown we imagine; instead it has been reinterpreted as a work of art. As befits its symbolic importance, the reliquary seems deliberately hidden in the deepest part of the cathedral, so that only those who walk all the way in, like pilgrims, will find it. The artisans who made it designed the very approach to the relics as a moving pilgrimage for everyone. That is why visitors first meet an overwhelming halo of light, which is the heart of the reliquary's design. The giant halo encloses three relics that symbolize Christ's Passion: the Crown of Thorns, a nail from the Cross, and a fragment of the wood of the Cross.

The halo is made up of nearly 400 delicate pieces of glass, shaped like round glass bricks, and if you look closely, each has a cross carved inside it. Another surprising detail is that the holes in the frame that holds the glass grow gradually larger from bottom to top. The effect is a mystical, spiritual sense of light blooming from the earth toward heaven and spreading ever brighter. Try seeing it for yourself. The structure of the reliquary itself is also studded with hundreds of pointed, thorn-like ornaments, so that the crown's symbolism reads at a glance.

The Crown of Thorns inside the reliquary is not normally on view. For the faithful, however, a time of veneration is planned, when it will be taken out of the reliquary on the first Friday of every month.