If you wanted to feel special in the 14th c., you might have tried to get ahold of objects like these: reliquaries were sacred containers of the holy bodily remains of Europe’s medieval superheroes, the Christian saints. This shoe (suggesting that inside was part of a foot) depicts Saint Margaret just having busted her way out of a demonic dragon. Her survival through this macabre “anti-birth” made Medieval women going through the dangers of labor especially interested in praying to her for safety in childbirth. (Swiss or French. From the Medieval Cloisters at the New York Met)
