ST JOSEPH RELIC: THE CINTURE / BELT

The Cinture of St Joseph

In 1254, one of the great chroniclers of medieval France, Jean de Joinville (France), brought in from Jerusalem the belt of St. Joseph, for which a chapel was built in the Church of Notre-Dame de Joinville-sur-Marne. A part of the relic was donated in 1649 to the church of the Order of the Feuillants in Paris and elsewhere, in 1662, to Bishop F. Vialart, bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, for its cathedral. The Holy Cinture is roughly one and a half meters long, greyish in color. The ends attach with an ivory clasp – yellowed by time. After St Joseph's entry to the next life, it remained with the Virgin Mary as a memorial of her husband. Today you can still see that noble and most holy belt in a reliquary in the church of Notre-Dame de Joinville. In the 13th century the belt was embroidered with Fleur de Lis emblems and verses from the Litany of St Joseph.

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