The reliquary (coffin) of St. Martin is shown in the background resting on trestles and a crown is suspended from one of the carrying posts.
A table is set up on which are placed two cruets and three bundles of candles.
These are being sold for offerring at St. Martin's shrine.
Candles ranked with gold and silver as gifts to the Church of St. Martin.
Since candles were kept burning in perpetuity around the tomb.
Pilgrims sometimes held lighted candles all night while praying for cures.
Gregory of Tours tells of several miracles wrought by candles that were brought home as relics from the tomb.
They appeased tempests, stopped raging fires, and healed the sick.
Oil offered at the shrine often miraculously multiples, and oil from the tomb had marvelous healing powers.
The crown was promised to the king of Galicia if he would contribute to the building of the church after one of the raids by the northmen.
Since the king merely sent good wishes he never received his crown.
The artist who created this artwork for St. Martin's signed it BAMorano.
Click on the image at right for an image of greater detail. Note that the image with greater detail
was scanned at 300 dots per inch of resolution which is much greater than the 75 dots per inch resolution
of the pictured image.
The pictured image is approximately 85-100KB in size, whereas the image with greater detail is approximately 2-3MB
in size (as a compressed file).
