87

In the first half of the thirteenth century, an extraordinary transfer of relics took place in the Kingdom of France: the item transferred was no less than Christ's crown of thorns. All possible means were deployed to enhance the magnificence of the event and advertise the grandeur of this object, which was to become a status symbol for the monarchy and for Paris. In order to properly celebrate such a holy acquisition, two liturgical offices were drafted: two ad hoc texts which can be read as the theological and political manifesto of the acquisition. Indeed they echo a campaign extolling the crown of thorns to better extol France and its monarchy. In the words of the liturgical text, the king received the crown of thorns through "divine election": from then on, the relic's symbolic and eschatological potential was to feed on the perfect correspondence between the royal nature of its new owner, Louis IX and the royal nature of the relic.