The Armour Archive

The Church of St Nicholas in Wil, Switzerland, for example, possesses the striking armoured and jewelled skeleton of the third-century martyr St Pancratius, taken from the catacombs in the 17th century.... The remains of St Pancratius – or whomsoever he may have been – were sent north to St Gallen Monastery, where they were articulated by a team of nuns, who followed the then standard practice of praying over the bones until provided with the inspiration for a design. In this case, the skeleton was dressed as a soldier, and provided with a palm frond and sword as attributes (the armour itself was re-worked in 1777 by a goldsmith from Augsburg, but the relic retains the original design).