The history of Catholic religious jewelry stretches back to the beginning of the church. All told, hundreds of types of Catholic religious medals exist. Most of these medals are oval in design and feature saints or famous religious sites. Some Catholic religious medals are designed to commemorate important events in the Catholic lifestyle, such as communion, baptism, and ordination. Other medals are intended as consecrated indulgences.During the Middle Ages, plagues often swept through parts of Catholic Europe. As a result, locals created special medals to ward off the plague. These pieces of Catholic religious jewelry featured a vast array of saints, including St. Sebastian and St. Benedict. Around this time, so-called ‘Miracle of The Eucharist' medals also were struck. One of the most famous of these depicts the Miracle at Seefeld in which a greedy nobleman gets punished for demanding to be treated like a priest.
Members of the Catholic upper class often commissioned private medals to celebrate baptisms, deaths, communions and marriages. This private Catholic religious jewelry is very difficult to come by. Given the sheer diversity of Catholic jewelry, it can be difficult to authenticate origin and pedigree. That said, you can choose from a rich array of trusted pieces, including rosary beads, crucifixes, pins, medallions, bracelets, angel pins, and so forth.
One of the most famous pieces of Catholic jewelry is the so-called Miraculous Medal, which was designed based on the vision of a relatively anonymous Catholic nun by the name of Sister Catherine. The first minting of the Miraculous Medal in 1832 produced 1,500 pieces. Collectors around the world highly prize these Catholic medals, particularly pieces struck in the first half of the 19th century.
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