According to theNew Testament, a wovencrown of thorns (Ancient Greek:στέφανοςἐξἀκανθῶν,romanized: stephanos ex akanthōn orἀκάνθινος στέφανος,akanthinos stephanos) was placed on the head ofJesus during theevents leading up to hiscrucifixion. It was one of theinstruments of the Passion, employed by Jesus' captors both to cause him pain and tomock hisclaim of authority. It is mentioned in thegospels ofMatthew (Matthew 27:29),[1]Mark (Mark 15:17)[2] andJohn (John 19:2, 19:5),[3] and is often alluded to by the earlyChurch Fathers, such asClement of Alexandria,Origen and others, along with being referenced in theapocryphalGospel of Peter.[4]
Since around 400 AD, arelic has beenvenerated as the crown of thorns. Louis IX acquired it in 1239 from the emperorBaldwin Il, who was financially in debt due to heavy military expenses. Louis IX built theSainte-Chapelle as a monumental reliquary to house the relic. Transferred to the French National Library during the Revolution of the 18th century, the crown of thorns has been displayed at Notre-Dame de Paris since 1804. The crown is made of reeds, formed into a circle and attached with reed fasteners. On 15 April 2019, it was rescued from afire and moved to theLouvre Museum.[6] In December of 2024, a ceremony marking the relic's return to Notre Dame Cathedral was led by a procession attended by members of theEquestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.[7] Veneration of the crown of thorns takes place every first Friday of the month from 3 pm to 5 pm.[8]
Numerous other relics are purported to be from the original crown of thorns.[9] Both the authenticity of the relics and the practice of venerating them have been criticized by some Christians, including by Protestant reformerJohn Calvin.[10]
Many theologians interpret thecrown of thorns placed on Jesus during his crucifixion as symbolically linked to thecurse pronounced in the Book of Genesis. InGenesis 3:17–18, thorns are introduced as part of the punishment for humanity's disobedience:
The Gospels describe Roman soldiers placing a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head as a form of mockery (Matthew 27:29;John 19:2). While intended as humiliation, many Christian theologians interpret this act as rich in symbolic meaning—Christ bearing the physical sign of the Fall’s curse.
Early Christian writers saw this as a reversal of the Edenic curse. Origen interpreted the thorns as representing human sin borne by Christ.[12] Jerome identified the thorns with the Genesis curse Christ assumed.[13] Theophilus of Antioch called the thorns “sins.”[14]
Later commentators such as Matthew Henry, R.C. Sproul, and John Calvin also emphasized the crown as a symbol of Christ bearing the curse.[15][16][17] This view aligns with Galatians 3:13:"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us."[18]
From this perspective, the crown of thorns serves not only as a tool of mockery but as a visible sign of Christ taking on the curse introduced in Eden and initiating its reversal.
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The threeBiblical gospels that mention the crown of thorns do not say what happened to it after the crucifixion. The oldest known mention of the crown already being venerated as a relic was made byPaulinus of Nola, writing after 409,[19] who refers to the crown as a relic that was adored by the faithful (Epistle Macarius inMigne,Patrologia Latina, LXI, 407).Cassiodorus (c. 570) speaks of the crown of thorns among other relics which were "the glory" of the city of Jerusalem. "There", he says, "we may behold the thorny crown, which was only set upon the head of Our Redeemer in order that all the thorns of the world might be gathered together and broken" (Migne, LXX, 621). WhenGregory of Tours inDe gloria martyri[20] avers that the thorns in the crown still looked green, a freshness which was miraculously renewed each day, he does not much strengthen the historical authenticity of a relic he had not seen, but theBreviary of Jerusalem[21]: 16 (a short text dated to about 530 AD),[21]: iv and theitinerary ofAntoninus of Piacenza (6th century)[22]: 18 clearly state that the crown of thorns was then shown in the "Basilica ofMount Zion," although there is uncertainty about the actual site to which the authors refer.[22]: 42 et seq. From these fragments of evidence and others of later date (the "Pilgrimage" of the monk Bernard shows that the relic was still at Mount Zion in 870), it is shown that a purported crown of thorns was venerated at Jerusalem in the early centuries of the common era.
Some time afterwards, the crown was purportedly moved toConstantinople, the then capital of theRoman Empire. Historian François de Mély supposed that the whole crown was transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople not much earlier than 1063. In any case, EmperorJustinian is stated to have given a thorn toGermain,Bishop of Paris, which was long preserved atSaint-Germain-des-Prés, while theEmpress Irene, in 798 or 802, sentCharlemagne several thorns which were deposited by him atAachen. Eight of these are said to have been there at the consecration of the basilica of Aachen; the subsequent history of several of them can be traced without difficulty: four were given to Saint-Corneille ofCompiègne in 877 byCharles the Bald; Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, sent one to the Anglo-Saxon KingAthelstan in 927, on the occasion of certain marriage negotiations, and it eventually found its way toMalmesbury Abbey; another was presented to a Spanish princess about 1160; and again another was taken toAndechs Abbey in Germany in the year 1200.[23]
In 1238,Baldwin II, theLatin Emperor ofConstantinople, anxious to obtain support for his tottering empire, offered the crown of thorns toLouis IX of France. It was then in the hands of theVenetians as security for a great loan of 13,134 gold pieces, yet it was redeemed and conveyed to Paris where Louis IX built theSainte-Chapelle, completed in 1248, to receive it. The relic stayed there until theFrench Revolution, when, after finding a home for a while in theBibliothèque Nationale, theConcordat of 1801[verification needed] restored it to theCatholic Church, and it was deposited in theCathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris.[24]
The exact plant species used to make the crown is not confirmed. The relic that the church received was examined in the nineteenth century, and it appeared to be a twisted circlet ofrushes ofJuncus balticus,[25] a plant native to maritime areas of northernBritain, theBaltic region, andScandinavia.[26][27] The thorns preserved in various other reliquaries appeared to beZiziphus spina-christi,[25] a plant native toAfrica andSouthern andWestern Asia, and had allegedly been removed from the crown and kept in separate reliquaries since soon after they arrived in France.[25] New reliquaries were provided for the relic, one commissioned byNapoleon Bonaparte, another, in jeweledrock crystal and more suitablyGothic, was made to the designs ofEugène Viollet-le-Duc. In 2001, when the surviving treasures from the Sainte-Chapelle were exhibited at theLouvre, the chaplet was solemnly presented every Friday at Notre-Dame.Pope John Paul IItranslated it personally to Sainte-Chapelle duringWorld Youth Day. The relic can be seen only on the first Friday of every month, when it is exhibited for a special veneration Mass, as well as each Friday ofLent[28] (see alsoFeast of the Crown of Thorns).
Members of the Paris Fire Brigade saved the relic during theNotre-Dame de Paris fire of April 15, 2019.[29] It returned to the cathedral in December of 2024.[7]
TheCatholic Encyclopedia states:
Authorities are agreed that a sort of helmet of thorns must have been plaited by the Roman soldiers, this band of rushes being employed to hold the thorns together. It seems likely according to M. De Mély, that already at the time when the circlet was brought to Paris the sixty or seventy thorns, which seem to have been afterwards distributed by St. Louis and his successors, had been separated from the band of rushes and were kept in a different reliquary. None of these now remain at Paris. Some small fragments of rush are also preserved ... at Arras and at Lyons. With regard to the origin and character of the thorns, both tradition and existing remains suggest that they must have come from the bush botanically known asZiziphus spina-christi, more popularly, the jujube tree. This reaches the height of fifteen or twenty feet and is found growing in abundance by the wayside around Jerusalem. The crooked branches of this shrub are armed with thorns growing in pairs, a straight spine and a curved one commonly occurring together at each point. The relic preserved in the Capella della Spina at Pisa, as well as that at Trier, which though their early history is doubtful and obscure, are among the largest in size, afford a good illustration of this peculiarity.[9]
Not all of the reputed holy thorns are considered to be "first-class" relics (relics held to be of the original crown). In Roman Catholic tradition, a relic of the first class is a part of the body of a saint or, in this case, any of the objects used in the Crucifixion that carried the blood of Christ; a relic of the second class is anything known to have been touched or used by a saint; a relic of the third class is a devotional object touched to a first-class relic and, usually, formally blessed as a sacramental.[citation needed]
M. de Mély was able to enumerate more than 700 holy thorns relics.[30] The statement in one medieval obituary thatPeter de Aveiro gave to thecathedral of Angers,"unam de spinis quae fuit apposita coronae spinae nostri Redemptoris" ("one of the spines which were attached to the thorny crown of our Redeemer")[30] indicates that many of the thorns wererelics of the third class—objects touched to a relic of the first class, in this case some part of the crown itself. Again, even in comparatively modern times, it is not always easy to trace the history of these objects of devotion, as first-class relics were often divided and any number of authentic third-class relics may exist.
Prior to theSeventh Crusade,Louis IX of France bought fromBaldwin II of Constantinople what was venerated as Jesus' crown of thorns. It is kept in Paris to this day, in the Notre Dame Cathedral. Individual thorns were given by the French monarch to other European royals: theHoly Thorn Reliquary in theBritish Museum, for example, containing a single thorn, was made in the 1390s for the French princeJean, duc de Berry, who is documented as receiving more than one thorn from Charles V and VI, his brother and nephew.[31]
Two "holy thorns" were venerated, one at St. Michael's church in Ghent, the other atStonyhurst College, both professing to be thorns given byMary, Queen of Scots toThomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland.[32][9]
The "Gazetteer of Relics and Miraculous Images" lists the following, following Cruz 1984:
The appearance of the crown of thorns in art, notably upon the head of Christ in representations of the Crucifixion or the subjectEcce Homo, arises after the time of St. Louis and the building of the Sainte-Chapelle. TheCatholic Encyclopedia reported that some archaeologists had professed to discover a figure of the crown of thorns in the circle which sometimes surrounds thechi-rho emblem on early Christiansarcophagi, but the compilers considered that it seemed to be quite as probable that this was only meant for alaurel wreath.[citation needed]
The image of the crown of thorns is often used symbolically to contrast with earthly monarchical crowns. In the symbolism ofKing Charles the Martyr, the executed English King Charles I is depicted putting aside his earthly crown to take up the crown of thorns, as inWilliam Marshall's printEikon Basilike. This contrast appears elsewhere in art, for example in Frank Dicksee's paintingThe Two Crowns.[36]
Catholic missionaries likened several parts of thePassiflora plant to elements of the Passion: the flower'sradial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the crown of thorns.[37]Carnations symbolize thepassion as they represent the crown of thorns.
A critique of the adoration of the crown of thorns was set forth in 1543 by John Calvin in the workTreatise on Relics. He described numerous parts of the crown of thorns known to him, located in different cities.[38] Based on a large number of parts of the crown of thorns, Calvin wrote:
In regard to the Crown of thorns, it would seem that its twigs had been planted that they might grow again. Otherwise I know not how it could have attained to such a size. First, a third part of it is at Paris, in the Holy Chapel, and then at Rome there are three thorns inSanta Croce, and some portion also inSt. Eustathius. At Sienna, I know not how many thorns, atVincennes one, atBourges five, atBesançon, in thechurch of St. John, three, and as many at Koenigsberg. At thechurch of St. Salvator, in Spain, are several, but how many I know not; atCompostella, in thechurch of St. Jago, two; inVivarais, three; also atToulouse,Mascon,Charrox inPoictou, St. Clair,Sanflor,San Maximin inProvence, in the monastery ofSelles, and also in the church of St. Martin atNoyon, each place having a single thorn. But if diligent search were made, the number might be increased fourfold. It is most evident that there must here be falsehood and imposition. How will the truth be ascertained? It ought, moreover, to be observed, that in the ancient Church it was never known what had become of that crown. Hence it is easy to conclude, that the first twig of that now shown grew many years after our Saviour's death.[39]
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Reproductions of the crown are available to tourists from shops in Jerusalem.[40]
Al salir del Santo Sepulcro, la iglesia de referencia del cristianismo, el 'president' ha fotografiado a Carod-Rovira con una corona de espinas de una tienda para turistas.[After leaving theHoly Sepulchre, the church of reference for Christianity,the president has photographedCarod-Rovira with a crown of thorns from a tourist shop.]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Thurston, Herbert (1908). "Crown of Thorns".Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4.
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