http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/f ... eaven.aspx
London - A thorn that is claimed to be a relic from Jesus's execution crown will soon go on display at the British Museum in London.
The crown of thorns is believed to have been taken from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, around 1200 AD,and was later sold to King Louis IX of France while he was in Venice. The King was known to have broken thorns from the crown to give them to those who married into the family.
There is little evidence of the thorn's authenticity says the Daily Mail.
The Catholic Encyclopedia claims there would have been approximately 60 or 70 thorns on the crown originally, however there are about 700 such relics in existance today. It states, "two holy thorns are at present venerated, the one at St. Michael's church in Ghent, the other at Stonyhurst College, both professing, upon what seems quite satisfactory evidence, to be the thorn given by Mary Queen of Scots to Thomas Percy Earl of Northumberland."
According to the Daily Mail, the thorn which has been kept for 200 years at Stonyhurst College, a 400-year-old Jesuit boarding school in Lancashire, was said to have been given to Mary Queen of Scots who took it with her to Edinburgh after marriage. The thorn has Mary Queen of Scots's pearls twined around it.
After her execution in 1587, it was given to her servant, Thomas Percy, who then passed it to his daughter, Elizabeth Woodruff, who then gave it to her priest in the year 1600. It was then taken by the Jesuits to the college and has been kept there safely ever since.
The crown of thorns was woven of thorn branches and placed on Jesus Christ before his execution. It is mentioned in the Canonical gospels of Matthew (27:29), Mark (15:17), and John (19:2, 5).
The crown was described in chapter 19 of the Book of John in the King James Version of the Bible this way,
"Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said,"Hail, King of the Jews!" and they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!"
The exhibition will open on June 23 and run till October 9.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/3 ... z1Hp6RRbKK
There is little evidence of the thorn's authenticity says the Daily Mail.
