The Holy Prepuce, also called the Holy Foreskin, is a relic connected to Jesus. It is the foreskin that was removed during his circumcision. At different times in history, several churches in Europe said they had the Prepuce. Some even claimed to have it at the same time. People believed it had special powers.

History and rival claims

According to Jewish religious law, all Jewish boys must be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, which many churches around the world still celebrate, is observed on January 1. In the Bible, Luke 2:21 (King James Version) states: "And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb." The first mention of the survival of Christ's cut foreskin appears in the second chapter of the apocryphal Arabic Infancy Gospel, which includes this story:

When the time for Jesus' circumcision arrived, on the eighth day, as required by the law, he was circumcised in a cave. An old Hebrew woman took the foreskin (some say she took the umbilical cord) and stored it in an alabaster box filled with old oil of spikenard. She had a son who was a druggist, and she told him, "Do not sell this alabaster box of spikenard oil, even if someone offers you three hundred pence for it." This is the same alabaster box that Mary, a woman known for her sins, later used to pour oil onto the head and feet of Jesus and wipe them with her hair.

Foreskin relics began appearing in Europe during the Middle Ages. The earliest recorded mention of such a relic was on December 25, 800, when Charlemagne gave it to Pope Leo III during his coronation as Emperor. Charlemagne claimed an angel brought the relic to him while he prayed at the Holy Sepulchre. However, some sources suggest it was a wedding gift from the Byzantine Empress Irene. Later, Saint Bridget of Sweden claimed to have seen the relic in Rome. A document called the Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae, written shortly before 1100, described a cypress chest commissioned by Pope Leo III and placed under the altar in the Chapel of St. Lawrence. This chest held three caskets, one of which contained a gold jeweled cross. The document stated that the cross held the foreskin and umbilical cord of Jesus.

In 1905, Pope Pius X authorized an inventory of the relic by Professor Hartmann Grisar of the University of Innsbruck. Grisar's findings matched the earlier Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae. The gold cross was dated to between the sixth and eighth centuries. Grisar noted that the cross was originally designed to hold a relic of the True Cross, as supported by references to a procession on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. A document about Pope Sergius I (687–701) also mentions the Feast of the Exaltation, the jeweled cross, and the veneration of the relic inside it. Grisar believed the mention of the foreskin and umbilical cord came from later Medieval traditions. The gold cross was lost in 1945.

Medieval traffic in relics

Mary Dzon explains that during the Middle Ages, many people showed devotion to the Holy Prepuce, which reflected their belief in the humanity of Jesus.

Farley states, "Depending on what you read, there were eight, twelve, fourteen, or even 18 different holy foreskins in various European towns during the Middle Ages." Other places that claimed to have the relic included the Cathedral in Le Puy-en-Velay, Santiago de Compostela, the city of Antwerp, Coulombs in the diocese of Chartres, Chartres itself, and churches in Besançon, Metz, Hildesheim, Charroux, Conques, Langres, Fécamp, and two in Auvergne.

One of the most famous holy foreskins arrived in Antwerp in Brabant in 1100 as a gift from King Baldwin I of Jerusalem. He obtained it during the First Crusade in the Holy Land. This foreskin became well-known when the bishop of Cambrai saw three drops of blood on the altar linens during a Mass. A special chapel was built, and processions were held in honor of the relic, which became a destination for pilgrimages. In 1426, a group called "of the Holy Circumcision of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ in our Beloved Lady's Church in Antwerp" was formed. Its 24 members were all abbots and important laypeople. The relic was lost in 1566, but the chapel still stands. It was decorated with stained glass windows donated by King Henry VII of England and his wife, Elizabeth of York, in 1503.

The abbey of Charroux claimed that the Holy Foreskin was given to the monks by Charlemagne. In the early 12th century, the relic was taken to Rome, where Pope Innocent III was asked to confirm its authenticity. The Pope did not decide on its legitimacy. At some point, the relic disappeared and was not found until 1856, when a worker repairing the abbey discovered a hidden reliquary inside a wall containing the missing foreskin. This was not the only way people tested the relic’s authenticity. Anthropologist Eric Silverman writes that one method involved tasting the skin. A doctor, under a priest’s supervision, would check for the flavor of "genuine holiness." Those who performed this test were called "croque-prepuce," or "foreskin crunchers," though this practice may have been influenced by 19th-century anti-Catholic views.

Farley notes that the Second Vatican Council later removed the Day of the Holy Circumcision from the Latin church calendar. However, Eastern Catholics and Traditional Roman Catholics still celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord on January 1. In fact, more than two years before the Second Vatican Council began on October 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII issued a decree on July 25, 1960, that revised the General Roman Calendar. This change renamed the January 1 feast from "Circumcision of the Lord and Octave of the Nativity" to "Octave of the Nativity," without altering the Gospel reading about the circumcision of Jesus.

Modern practices

During the Reformation and the French Revolution, many Holy Prepuces were lost or destroyed.

In the Italian village of Calcata, a container holding a piece of skin believed to be the Holy Foreskin was carried through the streets during the Feast of the Circumcision in 1983. This feast was once celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church worldwide on January 1 each year. However, the tradition stopped when thieves stole the decorated case and its contents.

David Farley wrote about a relic brought to Rome by Saint Brigida, which was said to be the Holy Foreskin. This relic was taken during the attack on Rome in 1527. A German soldier who stole it was later captured in Calcata, a village 47 kilometers (29 miles) north of Rome. From that time, the relic was kept in Calcata and honored there. The Church supported its authenticity by offering a special blessing to pilgrims who visited. Many pilgrims, monks, and nuns traveled to the village, making it a popular stop on pilgrimage routes. In 1983, a local priest reported the foreskin missing. After this theft, it is unknown if any of the claimed Holy Prepuces still exist.

In 1997, British journalist Miles Kington made a television documentary for Channel 4 and traveled to Italy to search for the Holy Foreskin but could not find any remaining examples.

In 2009, David Farley published a book titled An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town, which focused on the relic in Calcata. On December 22, 2013, the National Geographic Channel aired a documentary featuring Farley called The Quest for the Holy Foreskin.

Literary allusions

In the 14th century, Catherine of Siena wrote in one of her letters (#221) that the foreskin of a virgin could be compared to a wedding ring.

In 1763, Voltaire wrote in A Treatise of Toleration that the worship of the Holy Foreskin was one of several "superstitions" that were "much more reasonable… than to hate and persecute your brother."

In his book Baudolino, Umberto Eco wrote that a young character named Baudolino made up a story about seeing the holy foreskin and navel in Rome while traveling with Frederick Barbarossa.

In Ulysses, James Joyce wrote that Stephen Dedalus thinks about the Holy Prepuce while urinating with Leopold Bloom in the section titled "Ithaca."

In The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, José Saramago wrote that anyone wanting to honor the foreskin today can visit the parish church of Calcata near Viterbo, Italy, where it is kept in a reliquary for the spiritual benefit of believers and the amusement of curious atheists.