Reliquary

Gypsum is a typical material in Syria. The reliquary has a funnel-shaped opening into which oil or water could be poured on the rear slope of its lid. It was believed that the liquid would be sanctified through contact with the relics in the interior. It would then seep through a small hole into the basin in front. There it could be collected and used by the faithful as a contact relic with curative powers. Late Antique literature attests to the use of such oil. In his late fourth-century sermon on the martyrs, for example, John Chrysostom, the Constantinople patriarch originally from Antioch in Syria, recommended anointing oneself with this oil as a cure for alcoholism. And in the early fifth century Theodoret, the bishop of Cyrrhus, who was also born in Antioch, reported in his Church History a case in which the oil had been used as protection against the nocturnal visits of demons.