Holy Grail, Holy Prepuce, and What the...???

I was surprised to read on the News for Medievalists blog that there is a new claim about the Holy Grail. A Glasgow historian named Mark Oxbrow believes that he has discovered the artifact on display at the Louvre.

It is the same plate that I described in my last post which described my morning at the Louvre.

Here is it again:



It is pretty, but I am predisposed without even hearing his arguments to not believe this scholar's opinion. I have a hard time believing that something made out of serpentine, which can contain high amounts of asbestos, would be one of the most sought after holy artifacts of all time.

However, since we have a digital picture frame gracing our mantel, I will from now on say, "oooh look, the Holy Grail!" whenever this photo cycles through the rotation.

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Last year at this time I wished everyone a Happy Feast of the Holy Circumcision noting that the Julian calendar was designed to have the beginning of the calendar year coincide with the naming ceremony of Jesus Christ as well as celebrating the day of his bris. I had not touched on the idea that his severed foreskin became a holy relic.

Today I discovered that last year Slate magazine covered the disappearance of the Holy Prepuce in Calcata, Italy. In a sidebar Slate claims that during the Middle Ages that there were up to eighteen different purported Holy Foreskins.

However, the one from Calcata was "according to legend" given by Charlemagne to Pope Leo III on Christmas Day in the year 800, the same day he was crowned emperor.

Legend has it that Charlemagne had received the artifact from angels as he was praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

I do not think Charlemagne ever traveled to Palestine. At least, I have not seen that in any of the biographies and histories I have read about him.

So once again, I am skeptical.

There's also the bizarre belief propounded in the seventeenth century by Leo Allatius that when Jesus ascended into the heavens that his foreskin likewise went skyward. Only it then expanded and became the rings of Saturn.

Sure, that is likely.

Or possibly that instead of being in any of the various reliquaries, that the foreskin of Christ was actually the bridal ring wore by Catherine of Siena.

In order to believe that possibility, one has to forgo all logic and depend heavily on mysticism.

And now to the What The...part of my post. As I was websurfing today to find these various links and anecdotes, I came across something I had been blissfully unaware. It is disturbing.

It involves a religious practice after the bris.

I had not given the subject much thought and then when I put in the search term for bris in Wikipedia I was shocked when in that article it mentioned metzitzah b'peh. It is how a mohel treats the surgical site.

"To promote healing" oral suction is applied to cleanse the area of blood.

Eww.

Ewwwwwwwwww.

That is wrong on so many levels. The question becomes, how many levels can I identify?

Before I begin, I must admit that my day job is as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist so bear with me as I don my cyber lab coat and try to walk non-scientists through my reasoning.

First off, saliva does not include any blood clotting agents. Salivary amylase helps to begin the digestion process, but it will not promote coagulation.

Second, mouths and saliva are not sterile.

Some people harbor small amounts of pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus or Haemophilus influenzae as part of their normal flora, and since newborns are without a developed immune system they are especially vulnerable to infection.

Any bacteria can become pathogenic if given the opportunity.

I do not care if modern day mohels use mouthwash before they apply their mouths to a boy's genitals. It is not a sterile procedure.

Lest you think that I am making this up or think that I am being exceedingly gullible in relying upon Wikipedia as my source of information, I did some further digging. Here is an article from the New York Times about a mohel who had performed a circumcision on a boy who later died from herpes he had contracted due to the oral suctioning. It is dated August 2005.

Oy vey.

And then if you want further confirmation, here is an article from the journal Pediatrics about the dangers of transmitting herpes from that cultural practice.

I honestly do not have the heart to read that PDF article, but I offer it as evidence that this is not an Urban Legend. It is real and it is wrong.

There are many religious practices that at the time they were first introduced had rationales that might not have been readily apparent at the time. Such as the prohibition of eating pork. We know it was due to the parasite Trichinella spiralis which causes Trichinosis.

I cannot come up with any justification for applying one's mouth to a bleeding sexual member.

It is just sick and wrong. I do not care about its lengthy and historical tradition. It is abuse.

If I were to witness a physician perform a circumcision in my hospital and then orally suction the surgical site, I would - as a mandated reporter - be required by law to report them to legal authorities for committing sexual abuse.

For anyone who does not consider this practice on neonates as being abusive, you must also consider that circumcisions are also performed on boys and men who convert to Judaism. Imagine a mohel performing that ritual practice on an adolescent or adult male. Would there be any question of it being sexual abuse in your mind?

I am just seriously creeped out by this practice - and well - I had to share.

And on that strange note, Happy New Year everyone!

Anyone want to chime in with their thoughts on holy relics and/or the post-surgical practices of mohels?


Linda

It is time for Champagne

I shall be celebrating this weekend properly with a bottle of champagne.

It is not my own good news, but that of a friend.

The late great Molly Ivins said during a commencement address:

"(M)y second piece of advice....you must have fun. You must work at having fun. Let me tell you, you can't put it off. You've gotta have fun while you're fighting to fix the world, because first of all, we don't always win, so it might get to be all the fun you'll ever have, and second of all, it's a better way to live. If you don't have fun while you're fighting to make a better world, what's gonna happen is you're gonna get tired and bitter and cynical and burnt out and just wind up a complete waste to everybody. So just put fun on your list."

I did not attend that particular commencement, but I had the good fortune to see Molly Ivins speak in person on more than one occasion. She mentioned that advice often because she felt it was important.

I agree.

We all need to make it a point to celebrate positive events in our lives.

I will also use positive events in my friends' lives as an excuse to celebrate as well.

Why not?

Life is filled with disappointments, we should revel when things go right.

A dear friend of mine, who I have known for nearly fifteen years, had told me that she wanted to write her memoirs. I know enough about the genre to know that it has its own particular rules and that I did not know enough to be of much help in the writing of the book.

I gave her links and suggestions regarding the genre and thought that she would benefit from a ghost writer.

I helped match her with a fabulous and experienced ghost writer who had worked on many high profile biographies. Unfortunately, the timing did not work out for their partnership.

The ghost writer is a new mother and she tried to step back into the writing life too early, and the demands of motherhood overwhelmed her.

So my friend decided that rather than try to find another ghost writer that she would write her life story herself.

And what a powerful story it is. I helped her with the book proposal, mostly by changing formatting. I also suggested shuffling a few things around, condensing, and some minor editing.

I knew that ultimately, even if it was not rock solid, letter-perfect that it would be the strength of her platform that would make agents (and I am sure publishers in the very near future) work quickly to sign her.

In fact, she had five agents vying to sign her as a client.

Then again, she has been the recipient of the Humanitarian Award from the United Nations Human Rights Commission for her leadership on an issue of global significance.

That leadership is what had also led her to befriend Alice Walker, be a guest on Oprah Winfrey's show, and the distinction of writing and performing her own piece in the Vagina Monologues.

Soraya Miré is a survivor of Pharaonic circumcision, the most severe form of female genital mutilation and she has dedicated her life to opposing the practice.

She made the critically acclaimed documentary film Fire Eyes that was featured at the Sundance Film Festival, the International Women's Conference in Beijing and given the award for Best Documentary at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo.

Like I said, Soraya has a platform that would make just about any agent jump.

She interviewed five agents over the phone, and chose the one she felt most comfortable.

I wish her all the best in the world.

I know in my bones that her book The Girl with Three Legs is destined for the best sellers list.

Once she signs with a publisher, I shall celebrate with champagne again.

In case anyone wondered, I try to always have a couple bottles on hand for when Life is Good.

Linda

Happy Feast of the Holy Circumcision!

Over the years I have come across all kinds of fascinating information that I can sometimes recall at will. This has led some of my friends to refer to me as The Encyclopedia or The Library.

One of those bits of arcane trivia lodged in my brain is the significance of January 1^st in relation to its close proximity to Christmas Day. According to ancient Hebraic law, a child was not named until eight days after its birth. This allowed for children who might not survive to pass away without being named. There were not neo-natal intensive care units at that time, and many children simply succumbed shortly after birth.

Naming on the eighth day was a cause for celebration, and along with those festivities came the bris for the male children.

So, once again, I wish you a Happy Feast of the Holy Circumcision!

I heard that detail a few years ago on National Public Radio and at the time, I must have slapped my head in not realizing that relationship before. I knew that this religious ceremony took place a week after the birth of a child, but I never made the connection between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Ever since that time, I try and extend my hearty wish to people to celebrate the anniversary of Jesus’s bris instead of the generic Happy New Year wish. It livens things up a bit.

Here is a link to the entry on this Catholic holy day of obligation in Wikipedia to verify my claim.

Oh and I also came across an entry about the reputed relic(s) of the Holy Prepuce. I want to warn against reading the entry while drinking, lest your computer monitor be put at risk for being obscured with said beverage.

Enjoy! I wish everyone a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. And may peace start to break out all over.

Linda