The Glorious Dead

[Jackie]

Not furry related, but I was doing a little bit of research into various catacombs, ossuaries, and crypts, and I stumbled across this little gem of a project by a man named Paul Koudounaris. A project based around him seeking out the extremely ornate skeletons of alleged Saints and Martyrs, and I must say they're filled with a strange form of sad and sobering beauty.

The skeletons were first discovered in the Roman catacombs. The catacombs were very old so they decided if they come from the Roman catacombs they must be from early Christian days, they must be martyrs. They’d ship them as naked bone up north, as presumably the skeletons of early martyrs. They decorated them the way they did because these people had died for God. It’s unlikely that any of them were early Christian martyrs but people believed that at the time and they decorated them that way because they died for the glory of God. Decorating them was a way to cover them in the glory which they had earned. People would donate money to buy the decorations, but noble families would also offer their own clothing to the skeleton and then the clothing would be specially tailored to reveal the bones.

Here are some ^_^:

(Ossuary) A Chapel of eternal rest;



Sleeping in his seat;



Eyes of Emerald;



Reclining;



A Bejeweled Hand;



A drinking toast;



The face of a saint;



I just thought somebody might find this interesting in some form or another, ^_^.

[Amducious]

It is very interesting, and think it's beautiful what they have done

[Wildhead_the_fox]

I agree!  Tis gorgeous!

[HazardJackal]

 

Whelp, it took me about three seconds to find a way to make a nightmare out of this... 

But still, pretty cool. 

[Old Rabbit]

Shows how people offered respect to saints, and other religious figures even after death.

Most were immortalized with fine artistic work such as these.