In the Middle Ages, the most revered relics were those believed to have been in closest contact with Christ, especially when they related to the Passion. However, there were also other popular relics connected with Chist's infancy, such as his swaddling clothes. Although more than one church claimed to possess this relic, perhaps the most fascinating example is that of Joseph's hose which are preserved in the cathedral treasury at Aachen (or Aix-la-Chapelle), Germany; ritually displayed once every seven years, this relic will be one of the objects of pilgrimage from 9 to 18 June 2000.

The Nativity in medieval devotion

The story of Christ's Nativity has always been extremely popular; whereas the official Gospel accounts offer only scant details, further particulars were to be found in the apocryphal gospels. By the fifteenth century, Early-Netherlandish painters were especially keen to depict the Nativity in all its detail, including the story of the incredulous midwife Salome whose hand became withered when she presumed to doubt Mary's virginity. The fact that the Son of God had been born in such humble circumstances had long been regarded as part of his sacrifice on behalf of mankind, and as such the Nativity in all its particulars became a focus for popular devotion.

Some mystics were greatly inspired by the Virgin's plight in giving birth to the Saviour under such adverse conditions. In her autobiography, Margery Kempe (c. 1373 - c. 1440) from King's Lynn recalled how she envisaged herself in her meditations as a nurse first to the Virgin and then to the Christ child, promising the latter that she would swaddle him gently: 'Lord, I schal fare fayr with 3ow; I schal not byndyn 3ow soor'. Margery even saw herself begging for white clothes and kerchiefs to swaddle the Virgin's son in; proper swaddling clothes were apparently lacking for the newborn Christ.

Ever since Antiquity, medical tradition held that the newborn child might develop deformed limbs if left unswaddled; therefore, swaddling clothes were considered absolutely essential not just for ordinary infants but also for the Christ child. The Gospel of St Luke twice makes specific mention of the fact that the newborn Christ was swaddled (2:7 and 2:12), and medieval artists usually depicted the Nativity with the infant Jesus lying wrapped up in his manger like a huge cocoon and his mother resting beside him. Nonetheless, in the fourteenth century one begins to find Nativity scenes in which the Virgin gazes upon the naked little figure of her newborn son. The Middle-English author of 'The Virgin's Song' in British Library manuscript Harley 7322 (c. 1375) was not alone in voicing a concern for the well-being of the Christ child when Mary clearly had nothing in which to clothe him and protect him from the cold December temperatures:

Iesu, swete, beo noth wroþ,
Þou ich nabbe clout ne cloþ
Þe on to folde ne to wrappe,
For ich nabbe clout ne lappe
Bote ley þou þi fet to my pappe,
And wite þe from þe colde.

It was in this devotional context that relics of Christ's swaddling clothes were to prove extremely popular, albeit not so much in England as on the Continent.

Relics of Christ's swaddling clothes

As one might expect, there was at least one church claiming to possess a relic of Christ's swaddling clothes. Together with milk from the Virgin, vestimenta infancie ipsius [clothes of his infancy] were mentioned as amongst the relics in the Grande Châsse in the Sainte- Chapelle in Paris in the account of the relics' arrival in Paris, the Translatio sancte corone written by the monk Gérard of Saint-Quentin-en-l'Isle after 1241. The French king Louis IX acquired these and other relics from his cousin Baldwin II, who was the Latin emperor of Constantinople; the relics were brought over to Paris between 1239 and 1241 and the Sainte- Chapelle was specifically built to house them. The holy swaddling clothes featured in Baldwin II's Act of Cession of June 1247 as pannos infantie salvatoris, quibus fuit in cunabulis involutus [swaddling clothes from the infancy of the Saviour, with which he was wrapped in his cradle] and continued to be listed in inventories up to March 1791.

The Sainte-Chapelle relics were the subject of the sequences De sanctis reliquiis of c. 1250-60, which survive in a volume in the Biblioteca Capitolare of San Nicola in Bari. The author of these sequences associated the swaddling clothes or panni with Christ's humanity, love and the newness of life; the relic of the 'lac virginis' was said to signify sweetness and purity. Although Christ's swaddling clothes were an interesting relic, in Paris they were clearly considered less important than relics associated with the Passion; the Sainte-Chapelle's most prized relic was the Crown of Thorns but it also possessed a large fragment of the True Cross and a sample of Christ's blood. Unfortunately, the Grande Châsse was destroyed in the Revolution, and with it most of its sacred contents.

Another church that claimed to possess a relic of Christ's swaddling clothes was Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome; in this church are also preserved relics of the Holy Innocents and parts of the original manger from Bethlehem, brought to Rome in 646 - the latter being the reason why the church is also known as Santa Maria ad praesepe [at the manger]. There is a Roman tradition that Christ's swaddling clothes were made from a piece of Joseph's mantle for lack of proper swaddling material - a solution to the problem indicated in 'The Virgin's Song' and Margery Kempe's vision.

The relics at Aachen

Whereas both the Roman and the Parisian relics of Christ's swaddling clothes would appear to have a quite credible provenance, by the fourteenth century hordes of pilgrims were drawn instead to Aachen because of a competing relic: Joseph's hose. This relic was apparently created from dire necessity when the Virgin, according to one variation of the Nativity story, found herself without swaddling clothes for her newborn son; Joseph then offered his own hose to swaddle the Christ child in. The story is referred to in a number of Middle-German and Middle- Dutch lyrics on the Nativity, e.g. in a Christmas carol Ons naket eenen soeten tijt printed in Antwerp in 1508:

At first, however, the Aachen relic was simply described as Christ's swaddling clothes; the story of their being Joseph's converted hose developed much later. Tradition has it that this relic (known as the Fasciae Domini) originally came from Jerusalem, where bishop Juvenal is reputed to have plied quite a profitable trade in holy relics in the first half of the fifth century; while on pilgrimage there like St Helen before her, the empress Eudocia (wife of Theodosius II) obtained these and other relics from the bishop and took them back with her to Constantinople. Here a number of churches were founded to house the various relics. A few centuries later, the holy swaddling clothes (or part of them?) were brought to Aachen, having been acquired together with other holy relics by Charlemagne who entertained diplomatic relations with the Byzantine imperial court. Also included were the Virgin's shift as worn in the Nativity, the cloth in which the head of St John the Baptist had been wrapped after his decapitation, and the loincloth worn by Christ on the cross. All these holy objects were ritually displayed for the first time on 13 June 809 and this should have remained an annual event, were it not for disruptions caused by the Viking invasions after Charlemagne's death. The relics were hidden elsewhere for safety and only in the eleventh century, when they were returned to Aachen, did ritual processions start to take place again. These celebrations attracted increasing numbers of pilgrims to Aachen, especially after the relics had miraculously survived the disastrous 1236 fire in the city; in 1239 the relics were ritually translated to the Marienschrein, a splendid example of medieval goldsmith's work. An early mention of the swaddling clothes in Aachen occurs in the rhymed chronicle by the Tournai author Philippe Mousket (died c. 1260), who included a description of the various relics acquired by Charlemagne for his church in Aachen:

Fig 1:The medieval relic of Joseph’s hose as preserved in the Domschatzkammer in Aachen, from Johann Hubert Kessel’s Festschrift of the 1874 pilgrimage

From the first half of the fourteenth century on, the relics - including the swaddling clothes, made of woollen cloth of a brownish colour (Fig. 1) - were shown to pilgrims from the high gallery of the cathedral in Aachen once every seven years.

It is not clear when the story of Joseph's hose developed but they and the other Aachen relics proved hugely popular, attracting pilgrims and processions from as far away as Hungary and Bohemia but also from Lorraine, Holland and the Burgundian territories. Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy himself attended the celebration in 1440; however, this occasion was marred by the collapse of some roofs near the cathedral, causing death and injury to about sixty pilgrims who had climbed up there in large numbers to obtain a better view of the relics. References to Joseph's hose and their ritual display are found in several medieval lyrics, such as a Middle- Dutch carol Van vrouden ons die kinder singhen dating from the fifteenth century:

Such a popular pilgrimage inevitably attracted commercial interest and a wide variety of souvenirs was offered to medieval pilgrims, showing the sacred hose amongst the holy relics in Aachen. Some of these souvenirs survive, ranging from woodcut prints to medals, badges and flasks and dating from the fifteenth century onwards. Joseph's hose are depicted, for example, in a woodcut commemorating the 1468 or 1475 pilgrimage, which illustrates the relics of Maastricht, Aachen and Kornelimünster (Fig. 2).

Fig 2: The great relics of Maastricht, Aachen and Kornelimünster, including (in the centre) the Virgin’s shift (top) and Joseph’s hose (bottom): print dating from the 1648 or 1475 pilgrimage

The text above the image of the two hose at the bottom of the middle column explains the nature of the relic: Item Iosephs hosen do ihesus in gewonden wart und in die krippen geleit wart [Also Joseph's hose in which Jesus was wrapped and laid in the manger].

Fig 3: Joseph’s hose displayed by two angels; woodcut of c. 1517

A small blockbook, printed around 1517 and describing in French the relics at six pilgrimage sites, included a woodcut illustration of two angels holding two hose of distinctly different colour (Fig. 3); the accompanying text tells us that these are Les Chausse de Sainct Joseph . esquelx nostre seigenur fut enuelopez en la creche deuant le Beuf et Lasne [The hose of St Joseph in which Our Lord was wrapped in the cradle before the ox and the ass].

Joseph's hose in art and literature

The relic of Joseph's epitomizes the keen medieval interest in details of Christ's Nativity in the humblest of circumstances, but also illustrates Joseph's involvement in his new role of family provider; thus, one may see Joseph occasionally lending a hand with cooking and other chores in late-medieval depictions of the Nativity.

The story of Joseph and his hose is illustrated in a variety of works produced by German, Dutch and Flemish artists, one of the earliest being the Nativity panel by an unknown artist (sometimes ascribed to Jean Malouel) in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp (Fig. 4); usually dated somewhere between 1390 and 1410, it originally formed part of a polyptych together with five other panels which are now divided between Antwerp and the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.

Fig 4: Nativity panel, showing Joseph turning his hose into swadddling clothes for the newborn Christ child, from a polyptych by an unknown Netherlandish artist (Jean Malouel?). c. 1390-1400 (Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh)

Joseph's hose were sufficiently well-known to feature in the Nativity play from Hesse of c. 1450-60; when the Virgin laments the fact that she has neither wundeln nach wundelsbant [swaddling clothes nor bands] with which to protect her son from the cold, Joseph promptly offers to wrap the child in his zwo alt hoßen [two old hose]. An early reference to Joseph's hose can also be found in the visions of the Blessed Margareta Ebner (c. 1291-1351), a Dominican nun at Maria-Medingen, who began to have visions of the Christ child after receiving in 1344 a statuette of the infant Jesus in a so-called jésueau, a miniature Christmas cradle popular as a devotional object on the Continent. In one of her visions, Margareta interrogated the Christ child about the poor circumstances of his birth and early infancy, and more specifically about the story of the transformation of Joseph's own hose: 'Kint mins, ist daz auch war, daz dich Joseph want in sin hosen, wan daz was mir ie wider gewesen' [My child, is it also true that Joseph swaddled you in his hose, for this has always been distasteful to me]. The child's reply proved self-explanatory: 'er want mich in waz er gehaben moht, er het nit daz mir zem' [he swaddled me in what he happened to have; he had nothing that befitted me].

The curious story of Joseph and his hose illustrates the medieval need to explain the details of the Virgin's reported confinement far away from the comfort of a regular nursery with midwives in attendance and everything in readiness, thus further emphasizing Christ's humility. Instead, it is Joseph in his role of the family provider, rather than that of a natural father, who finds the solution for the lack of swaddling clothes by donating his own hose to cover the newborn Christ with in the cold winter night.

Christ, then, suffered the indignity of having not just a makeshift cradle but also of re-used hose for swaddling clothes. Of course, to medieval people every detail of Christ's life was of the greatest interest, especially if it could provide them with relics. All the same, the great reverence shown to the various relics of Christ's swaddling clothes in Rome, Paris and Aachen - the latter being undoubtedly the most unusual - shows that these humblest of human garments had a particular appeal; infancy, and swaddling, were something that every medieval adult would once have had in common with the Saviour, and swaddling clothes clearly marked both Christ's humanity and his humility.

The Aachen pilgrimage

Amazingly, the tradition of ritual display of the relics in Aachen once every seven years still survives. This year is a special jubilee for Aachen as its cathedral celebrates its completion 1200 year ago. Joseph's hose are still revered as a holy relic, although they are now described again simply as Christ's swaddling clothes. They will be officially taken out of the thirteenth-century reliquary and ritually displayed between 9 and 18 June 2000, together with the cathedral's other ancient relics: Christ's loincloth, the Virgin's shift, and St John the Baptist's 'decapitation cloth'.

As in earlier times, modern pilgrims also have the opportunity to extend their tour of the Aachen relics by visiting nearby Kornelimünster, where Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious founded an abbey to which he donated some of the relics acquired by his father. The Kornelimünster relics consist of the Linteum Domini believed to have been used by Christ as an apron when washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper, the Sindon munda on which Christ's body was laid after the Deposition, and the Sudarium Domini which reputedly covered Christ's face in the tomb.

Whatever the authenticity of these relics, they have for centuries been a source of inspiration for artists and writers alike, as well as an object of veneration for pilgrims who are again expected to visit Aachen for that purpose this summer. Thus, a tradition dating back to the early Middle Ages is still proving itself very much alive in the new millennium.

Bibliography:

Brosch, Hermann J, Wenn ich nur sein Gewand berühre. Theologische Besinnung zur Aachener Heiligtumsfahrt (Aachen, 1951).

Châtelet, Albert, Early Dutch Painting: Painting in the Northern Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century (1980, transl. Amsterdam, 1981) esp. pp. 21-24 and cat. 5.

Coo, Joz. de, 'De unieke voorstelling van de "Jozefs-kousen" in het veelluik Antwerpen- Baltimore van ca. 1400', Oud-Holland 73:4 (1958) pp. 186-98.

'De voorstelling met de "Jozefskousen" in het veelluik Antwerpen-Baltimore toch niet uniek', Oud-Holland 75:3/4 (1960) pp. 222-28.

'"In Josephs Hosen Jhesus ghewonden wert": Ein Weihnachtsmotiv in Literatur und Kunst', Aachener Kunstblätter 30 (1965) pp. 144-84.

'En Maria wikkelde het kind in Jozefs kousen', Antiek 5:5 (1970) pp. 297-310.

Gibson, Gail McMurray, The Theater of Devotion: East Anglian Drama and Society in the Late Middle Ages (Chicago/London, 1989, repr. 1994) esp. pp. 57-59 and notes.

Gould, Karen, 'The Sequences De sanctis reliquiis as Sainte-Chapelle Inventories', Mediaeval Studies 43 (1981) pp. 315-41.

Kessel, Johann Hubert, Geschichtliche Mitteilungen über die Heiligthümer der Stiftskirche zu Aachen nebst Abbildung und Beschreibung der sie bergenden Behälter und Einfassungen. Festschrift zur Heiligthumsfahrt von 1874 (Cologne/Neuss, 1874) esp. pp. 18-22.

Meech, Sanford Brown (ed.), The Book of Margery Kempe, EETS, o.s. 212 (Oxford, 1940).

Os, Henk van, The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe 1300-1500 (transl., Amsterdam/ London, 1994) pp. 136-50.

Sisam, Cecilia and Kenneth Sisam (eds), The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse (Oxford, 1970) nr. 87.

Sophie Oosterwijk successfully defended her PhD thesis on the medieval image of the infans at the University of Leicester in February 2000; she currently works as a free- lance lecturer and researcher.

© Copyright Sophie Oosterwijk 2000

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