According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns (Ancient Greek: στέφανος ἐξ ἀκανθῶν, romanized: stephanos ex akanthōn or ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events before his crucifixion. It was one of the tools used during the Passion, meant to cause pain and mock Jesus’ claim of being a leader. This item is described in the Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 27:29), Mark (Mark 15:17), and John (John 19:2, 19:5). Early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, often wrote about it, as did the apocryphal Gospel of Peter.
Since around 400 AD, a relic believed to be the crown of thorns has been honored. In 1239, Louis IX of France obtained it from Emperor Baldwin II, who needed money for military costs. Louis IX built the Sainte-Chapelle to store the relic. During the 18th-century French Revolution, the crown was moved to the French National Library. It was later displayed at Notre-Dame de Paris starting in 1804. The crown is made of reeds, shaped into a circle and fastened with reed pieces. On April 15, 2019, it was saved from a fire and taken to the Louvre Museum. In December 2024, a ceremony celebrated its return to Notre Dame Cathedral, led by a procession with members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Veneration of the crown occurs every first Friday of the month from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
Many other relics are said to be from the original crown of thorns. Some Christians, including Protestant reformer John Calvin, have questioned the authenticity of these relics and the practice of honoring them.
The Crown of Thorns and the Curse in Genesis
Many theologians see the crown of thorns placed on Jesus during his crucifixion as connected in meaning to the curse mentioned in the Book of Genesis. In Genesis 3:17–18, thorns are described as part of the punishment for humanity’s disobedience.
The Gospels explain that Roman soldiers placed a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head as a way to mock him (Matthew 27:29; John 19:2). Though meant to cause shame, many Christian theologians believe this act has deep symbolic meaning—Jesus suffering the physical sign of the curse from the Fall.
Early Christian writers saw this as undoing the curse from Eden. Origen believed the thorns represented human sin carried by Jesus. Jerome connected the thorns to the curse from Genesis that Jesus took on. Theophilus of Antioch called the thorns “sins.”
Later commentators, such as Matthew Henry, R.C. Sproul, and John Calvin, also focused on the crown as a symbol of Jesus taking the curse. This idea matches Galatians 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
From this view, the crown of thorns is not only a tool of mockery but also a visible sign that Jesus took on the curse from Eden and began to undo it.
As a relic
The three Biblical gospels that mention the crown of thorns do not describe what happened to it after Jesus was crucified. The earliest known record of the crown being treated as a holy relic comes from Paulinus of Nola, who wrote about it after the year 409. He described the crown as a relic that was deeply respected by believers (Epistle Macarius in Migne, Patrologia Latina, LXI, 407). Cassiodorus, writing around 570, mentioned the crown of thorns among other holy objects in Jerusalem, calling it "the glory" of the city. He wrote, "There, we may see the thorny crown, which was placed on the head of Our Redeemer so that all the thorns of the world might be gathered and broken" (Migne, LXX, 621). Gregory of Tours, in De gloria martyri, claimed the thorns in the crown still looked green and were miraculously renewed each day. However, this does not confirm the crown’s authenticity, as he had not seen it himself. The Breviary of Jerusalem (a short text from about 530 AD) and the itinerary of Antoninus of Piacenza (6th century) both mention that the crown of thorns was displayed in the "Basilica of Mount Zion," though the exact location is unclear. Later evidence, such as the Pilgrimage of monk Bernard, which notes the relic was still at Mount Zion in 870, shows that the crown was venerated in Jerusalem during the early centuries of the common era.
Later, the crown was said to have been moved to Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire. Historian François de Mély suggested the entire crown was transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople not long before 1063. Emperor Justinian is said to have given a thorn from the crown to Germain, Bishop of Paris, which was kept for many years at Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Empress Irene, in 798 or 802, sent several thorns from the crown to Charlemagne, who placed them in Aachen. Eight of these thorns were present during the consecration of Aachen’s basilica in 877. Some of these thorns were later given to Saint-Corneille of Compiègne in 877 by Charles the Bald. In 927, Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, sent one thorn to King Athelstan of England during marriage negotiations, and it eventually reached Malmesbury Abbey. Another thorn was given to a Spanish princess around 1160, and another was taken to Andechs Abbey in Germany in 1200.
In 1238, Baldwin II, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople, offered the crown of thorns to Louis IX of France to gain support for his struggling empire. At the time, the crown was held by the Venetians as security for a large loan of 13,134 gold pieces. It was later redeemed and taken to Paris, where Louis IX built the Sainte-Chapelle in 1248 to house it. The relic remained there until the French Revolution. After being temporarily stored in the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Concordat of 1801 returned it to the Catholic Church, and it was placed in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris.
The exact plant used to make the crown is not confirmed. In the 19th century, the relic the church received was examined and found to be a twisted circlet made of rushes from Juncus balticus, a plant native to northern Britain, the Baltic region, and Scandinavia. Thorns preserved in other reliquaries appeared to be from Ziziphus spina-christi, a plant found in Africa and parts of Asia. These thorns were reportedly removed from the crown and kept separately in reliquaries after arriving in France. New reliquaries were made for the crown, including one commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte and another crafted in jeweled rock crystal by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. In 2001, the chaplet was displayed every Friday at Notre-Dame during an exhibition of Sainte-Chapelle treasures. Pope John Paul II personally moved the relic to Sainte-Chapelle during World Youth Day. The relic is now displayed only on the first Friday of each month for a special veneration Mass and during Lent (see also the Feast of the Crown of Thorns).
Members of the Paris Fire Brigade rescued the relic during the Notre-Dame de Paris fire on April 15, 2019. It was returned to the cathedral in December 2024.
The Catholic Encyclopedia states:
Experts agree that the soldiers likely made a helmet of thorns using a band of rushes to hold the thorns together. According to M. De Mély, it is likely that by the time the circlet was brought to Paris, the 60 to 70 thorns that were later given away by Louis IX and his successors had already been separated from the band of rushes and placed in different reliquaries. None of these thorns remain in Paris today. Small fragments of rush are preserved in places like Arras and Lyons. The thorns are believed to have come from the Ziziphus spina-christi plant, also known as the jujube tree, which grows in areas near Jerusalem. This plant has crooked branches with pairs of thorns—each pair includes a straight spine and a curved one. The thorns preserved in the Capella della Spina in Pisa and in Trier, though their early history is unclear, are large and show this characteristic.
Third-class relics
Not all holy thorns are considered first-class relics. First-class relics are parts of a saint's body or objects from the Crucifixion that had Christ's blood. Second-class relics are items known to have been touched or used by a saint. Third-class relics are devotional objects that were touched to a first-class relic and usually blessed.
M. de Mély counted more than 700 holy thorn relics. A medieval record mentions Peter de Aveiro gave a thorn to the cathedral of Angers, stating it was "one of the spines attached to the thorny crown of our Redeemer." This suggests many thorns were third-class relics—objects touched to a first-class relic, such as a piece of the crown itself. Even today, it can be difficult to trace the history of these items because first-class relics were often divided, leading to many third-class relics being created.
Purported remnants
Before the Seventh Crusade, Louis IX of France purchased from Baldwin II of Constantinople what was believed to be Jesus' crown of thorns. This item is still kept in Paris today, in the Notre Dame Cathedral. Some individual thorns from the crown were given by the French king to other European royalty. For example, the Holy Thorn Reliquary in the British Museum, which holds a single thorn, was made in the 1390s for the French prince Jean, duc de Berry. Records show that Jean received more than one thorn from Charles V and VI, his brother and nephew.
Two "holy thorns" were believed to be holy. One was kept at St. Michael's church in Ghent, and the other at Stonyhurst College. Both claimed to be thorns given by Mary, Queen of Scots to Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland.
The "Gazetteer of Relics and Miraculous Images" includes these details, as reported by Cruz in 1984:
Iconography
The crown of thorns appears in art, especially on the head of Christ in images of the Crucifixion or the scene called "Ecce Homo," after the time of King Louis IX and the building of the Sainte-Chapelle. The Catholic Encyclopedia noted that some archaeologists claimed to find a symbol resembling the crown of thorns in the circle surrounding the chi-rho emblem on early Christian sarcophagi. However, the encyclopedia's writers thought it was more likely that this symbol represented a laurel wreath instead.
The image of the crown of thorns is often used in art to show a contrast between earthly crowns worn by kings and the crown of thorns worn by Christ. In the symbolism connected to King Charles the Martyr, the English king Charles I is shown removing his royal crown and taking up the crown of thorns, as seen in William Marshall's print Eikon Basilike. This idea of contrast also appears in other artworks, such as Frank Dicksee's painting The Two Crowns.
Catholic missionaries compared parts of the Passiflora plant to events in the Passion of Christ. The flower's many thin, spreading filaments, which can number over 100 and vary between flowers, are said to represent the crown of thorns. Carnations are also linked to the Passion, as they symbolize the crown of thorns.
Criticism of the veneration of the crown of thorns
In 1543, John Calvin presented a critique of the worship of the crown of thorns in his work Treatise on Relics. He described many pieces of the crown that were known to him, located in various cities. Calvin wrote:
Regarding the Crown of Thorns, it appears that its twigs may have been planted so they could grow again. Otherwise, it is unclear how the crown could have grown to such a large size. A third of the crown is at Paris, in the Holy Chapel. In Rome, three thorns are in Santa Croce, and some parts are also in St. Eustathius. At Sienna, there are many thorns, and at Vincennes, one thorn is present. In Bourges, five thorns are found, and in Besançon, three are in the church of St. John. Koenigsberg also has three thorns. In Spain, at the church of St. Salvator, several thorns are present, though the exact number is unknown. In Compostella, two thorns are in the church of St. Jago. In Vivarais, three thorns are found. In Toulouse, Mascon, Charrox in Poictou, St. Clair, Sanflor, San Maximin in Provence, the monastery of Selles, and the church of St. Martin at Noyon, each location has one thorn. However, if a thorough search were conducted, the number of thorns might increase fourfold. It is clear that there is likely deception involved. How can the truth be determined? It is also important to note that in the ancient Church, no one knew what had happened to the crown. Therefore, it is easy to conclude that the first twig of the crown now displayed was not present for many years after the death of Jesus.