How rood! Crucifixion nails for sale?

Three of the nails used to crucify Christ are for sale on the French eBay site for 10,000 euros.

If genuine, these suckers have done a lot of traveling.

Tradition says the Holy Nails were discovered by Constantine’s mother, the Empress Helena, about 300 years after the Crucifixion. ( See Skippy at the Kimbell: Where's the Cross?).

According to legend, one nail was tossed into the Adriatic to calm a storm. The other two were used by the Empress to protect her son. One was placed in his crown and another formed into a bridle for his horse, bringing to pass what had been written by Zecharias the Prophet: "In that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord" (Zechariah 14:20).

But that's just one of several traditions about the nails.

The French seem to have been the busiest collectors of the nails over the centuries, so it makes sense that they would be on sale at the French eBay site.

A Holy Nail was embedded in the celebrated Lance of Longinus, also known as the the Spear of Destiny, which by tradition pierced the side of Christ. Its tip was said to contain a nail or nails from the crucified Christ's hands and feet. Charlemagne kept the tip of the lance in the hilt of his famous sword, Joyeuse, according to The Song of Roland. The lance was an object of political and religious authority in Europe for more than a thousand years. It has also inspired several mediocre novels and even a video game.

Hitler put so much stock in the spear's occult powers that he made special arrangements to take possession of it when he gained control of the Schatzkammer imperial treasury in Vienna. At the end of the war, it was recovered and returned there by Gen. Patton. You can see the lance on display there today.

So now, apparently, the Holy Nails are all for sale... on eBay?

I'll start the bidding off with a used foil gum wrapper, but my "buyer rating" isn't very high. I'm sure Pope Benedict has a guy with an unlimited Visa card whose only job is to scan eBay all day long looking for bargain relics just like these.

He's probably already snapped 'em up.

(via Boing Boing)

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