The Catacomb Saints – the corpses of ancient Romans exhumed from the catacombs of Rome, given fictitious names, and sent abroad as relics of saints from the 16th to the 19th centuries. They were extravagantly adorned, as you can see below.

But why – why were they adorned so lavishly? Were they truly buried like this, or did something else happen? Well, they weren’t actually saints in the strict sense, although some of them may have been martyrs for the original Christian faith. During the 15th century, Western Europe was shaken by the Beeldenstorm – the iconoclastic fury – a term used to describe the outbreak of religious image destruction. In these iconoclastic periods, Catholic art and various forms of church decoration and accessories were destroyed in unofficial actions or mob gatherings.

As Catholic churches were systematically stripped of their icons, the Vatican came up with a rather peculiar solution. They ordered the excavation of thousands of skeletons from the underground tombs of Rome and installed them in towns across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Few, if any, of these corpses had any religious significance, but they were decorated like saints.

These skeletons became gruesome symbols of the Catholic faith in regions dominated by protesters. It’s unclear whether this move had any effect at the time, but by the 19th century, they had become a shameful symbol of past conflicts. Despite being considered replicas and banned from selling their bones or jewelry made from them, some entrepreneurial priests still made money transporting them across the country, claiming they brought blessings.

In 1803, the secular magistrate of Rottenbuch in Bavaria auctioned the town’s two saints. 174 years later, in 1977, the residents of the town raised funds to have them returned, but for the most part, the catacomb saints were mostly forgotten and cast aside.

But they returned to the spotlight in 2013 when Paul Koudounaris revived interest in them with his new book, where he attempted to photograph and document each and every one of the catacomb saints. It’s unclear if he actually did, but he certainly managed to bring them into the public eye. He explained:

“They had to be handled by people who had sworn sacred oaths to the church – those believed to be martyrs for the faith, and they couldn’t let just anyone handle them. They are symbols of triumphant belief and were canonized in cities. One of the reasons they were so important was not because of their spiritual value, which is rather dubious, but because of their social significance.”

He also added that over time, their significance changed, becoming symbols not just of religious faith but also of civic pride.

“They are seen as miraculous and really solidify people’s relationship with a town. You can’t place modern values on these skeletons.”