2025 CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN
Help Aleteia continue its mission by making a tax-deductible donation.
In this way, Aleteia's future will be yours as well.
For the first time in more than 12 centuries, the relic of the Most Precious Blood of Christ has left the Basilica di Sant’Andrea in Mantua, Italy, and traveled to Rome. Through November 25, 2025, the Sanctuary of San Salvatore in Lauro will open its doors to welcome this extraordinary relic. The visit highlights a week of prayer designed for everyone — pilgrims, history enthusiasts, and curious visitors — offering a chance to encounter one of Christianity’s most intriguing treasures.
According to tradition, the relic traces back to the centurion Longinus, the name traditionally held to belong to the soldier who pierced Jesus’ side while on the cross in the Gospels.
These accounts describe him gathering earth soaked with Christ’s blood and bringing it to Mantua.
Whether one approaches this tradition through faith, the study of Christian heritage, or a desire to understand the roots of Western culture, the relic carries a profound resonance.
Rome is hosting a full program of celebrations, all free and open to the public. The relic was welcomed on November 17 with a solemn celebration.
The week will conclude on November 25 at 6:00 p.m. with a pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Mario Grech.
For Rome — a city steeped in the memory of saints, martyrs, and centuries of Christian art and thought — hosting this relic offers an intimate way to revisit the story of Christ’s Passion during the Jubilee Year.
Relics of the Passion
Across Europe, several churches safeguard objects believed to contain, or be connected to, Christ’s blood. Over the centuries these relics have drawn pilgrims, shaped local traditions, and left a deep mark on art and architecture.
Among the best known are the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges, Fécamp Abbey, Reichenau Abbey’s tradition of the Translatio sanguinis Domini, Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, St. James’s Church in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Weingarten Abbey.
Other revered objects — such as the Sudarium of Oviedo, Spain, the Shroud of Turin, and relics once kept at Westminster — also form part of this wide and varied devotional landscape.
Even when historical verification is complex or uncertain, these places testify to a centuries-long desire to draw closer to Christ’s Passion.
The Mantua relic
The Mantua relic itself has a long and vivid history. The Basilica of St. Andrew was expanded specifically to welcome the crowds of pilgrims who arrived during Ascension for a striking ritual: a vial believed to contain the Blood of Christ was lifted from the crypt through a small opening beneath the dome. Known as the Preziosissima Sangue di Cristo, the relic is preserved in sacred vessels said to contain the earth Longinus carried from Calvary.
In 804, Charlemagne received authentication from Pope Leo III, an act that helped establish the Diocese of Mantua and guide the cathedral’s earliest construction. Around 1049, the relic was rediscovered in the presence of Matilda of Tuscany, and in 1053 Pope Leo IX confirmed its authenticity.
During the Renaissance, it became one of northern Italy’s most treasured devotional objects, displayed each Good Friday and carried with solemnity through the streets. Over time, portions of the relic traveled to places such as Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, Weingarten Abbey, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, and the Church of the Holy Cross in Guastalla.
Now, after more than a millennium, it has made another journey — this time to Rome — offering a rare opportunity to encounter a piece of Christian history that has shaped faith, culture, and pilgrimage for generations.
