There is a great mystery about gold: It is actually a completely useless metal, too soft to make tools out of, too heavy to use. Nevertheless, this yellowish substance exerts such a great attraction on people that they have literally killed for it in all centuries. Even the Incas and Aztecs knew gold as part of religious worship – and it also plays a very central role in Christianity. Sculptures, reliquary vessels, monstrances, shrines and, last but not least, chalices and host bowls are made of the element Au with the atomic number 79, which theories have shown to be a by-product of a supernova.
The Christian valuation of gold is related to its aesthetics, among other things: The reflection of the light creates a shine and shimmer that reminded early cultures of the glow of the sun. Hence the name. The bishop and encyclopedist Isidor of Seville (560-636) explains the Latin name “aurum” by referring to “aura”, which means light or glow. Together with its rarity, durability – gold does not rust – and the great weight of gold – it is about three times as heavy as rock – the material can be charged theologically and spiritually.
In the Middle Ages the material was seen as a gift from heaven. Since it is purified in fire, it is also considered a symbol of the purification process of the human soul. Therefore it becomes a material for the sacred – for example in the form of reliquary shrines and vessels. “The relics should only come into contact with the most precious materials,” explains art historian Petra Marx, who has dealt with the subject in the exhibition “Golden Splendor. Medieval Treasure Art in Westphalia” 2012 in the Landesmuseum in Münster. The same applies to “vasa sacra”, liturgical devices such as the chalice and the host bowl, which, through faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharistic celebration, come into direct contact with His body and blood and are therefore often made of gold. “This was a sign of veneration – and thus also of worship in the very proverbial sense.”
Gold as a religious barter commodity
This “divine service” is connected with a form of piety of the Middle Ages that has become alien to Christians of the present day: “Material gifts to churches and monasteries, for example, could be transformed into prayers and sacrifices of the Mass, which in turn wiped out sins and shortened the stay in purgatory after death,” Marx said. In the sense of an exchange of gifts, well-heeled believers could thus approach their place in the Kingdom of Heaven by paying religious or priests to pray for their own family – for example, in the form of gifts in the form of golden “vasa sacra”. Another aspect of this piety was to ask the saints to intercede with God. Precious reliquaries were donated and churches were richly endowed, because – according to the belief at the time – in churches with their relics, the corresponding saints were more receptive to requests from the faithful. In addition, the presentation of their bones in golden vessels encouraged them to put in a good word with God for their benefactors. This led to a great deal of pilgrimage tourism and the cutting up of the bones because as many churches as possible wanted to own relics – because a lot helps a lot.
So in exchange for the golden bust-reliquary the donating person expected something. If this demand was not met, it was quite possible that the bones of the respective saint were dishonored or insulted: They had not kept their part of the deal. So it was quite solid. Likewise, the rich patrician families of a city engaged in a bidding contest: whoever financed the most precious and richly decorated pieces increased their value in heaven and on earth.
It is important to mention that gold always has a serving function in connection with liturgical equipment and reliquaries: It is not the gold itself that represents the central value, but rather it refers to the even more valuable bones or bread and wine. In the form of the often closed shrines it even has a transporting effect: Through the shine of the gold as a reflection of the saint inside, this “holy light” is supposed to spread to the believers – although the inside cannot be seen.
Goldsmiths are more respected than painters
This is why the processing of gold plays a major role: goldsmiths are sometimes far superior to painters and sculptors in terms of social standing, because they are allowed to work the precious commodity. In doing so, they performed a service that was not possible for the vast majority of society. In the end product of this processing, the pure material value is less important than the outward appearance. For even richly decorated figures or gospels are usually not made of pure gold, but rather gold plated, sometimes it is even only gilded silver. Contemporaries, however, do not care about this: What is important is the visibility of the gold and that the corresponding object takes on its properties.
But it is precisely these properties that make gold a controversial material. Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis (1081-1151), for example, finds that holy bones give rise to a shell of “shining gold, in an abundance of rubies, emeralds and other precious stones. This, however, was opposed by the church reform movement from the 12th century onwards. Abbot Bernhard von Claivaux (1090-1153), for example, did not like the whole pomp and circumstance in the church at all: “The mere sight of pompous but astonishing vanities makes people give rather than pray. So he doubted the mediating effect of gold. There are other voices with reservations at this time: Don’t golden figures seem too human because of the reflection of light? Do they not rather resemble idolatrous statues of paganism than the golden finger pointing to heaven? And what about the poverty commandment of the Bible? “Blessed are the poor before God, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 5:3) That does not sound like a sea of gold.
The criticism of gold certainly has to do with the fact that many a donor has tended more to present his own power than to contribute to the veneration of saints. For centuries, however, this has not prevented the clergy and nobility from literally flooding some churches with gold. At the same time, the admonishers have never fallen silent, who wish for a form of religious life reduced to the essentials. The controversy will certainly continue to accompany the Church – and it has gained momentum once again with Pope Francis as the advocate of a “poor church”. Most recently, at the Amazon Synod, the missionary Dario Bossi demanded that the Church renounce gold because the search for and extraction of the material in the Amazon region leads to serious damage to the environment and health, especially among indigenous people. The Cologne liturgy scientist Alexander Saberschinsky countered this: Behind the gold no swank, but ” a completely natural impulse that one arranges things, which are valuable for one felt, also purely outwardly valuable “. Many an argument has hardly changed over the centuries.
From Christoph Paul Hartmann (https://www.katholisch.de/artikel/26280-gold-ein-streit-um-pracht-und-reduktion-in-der-kirche)