The Saint Calminius Reliquary (French - châsse de saint Calmin) is the 12th century chasse

Chasse (casket)

A chasse or box reliquary is a shape commonly used in medieval metalwork for reliquaries and other containers. To the modern eye the form resembles a house, though a tomb or church was more the intention, with an oblong base, straight sides and two sloping top faces meeting at a central ridge,...

-form reliquary

Reliquary

A reliquary is a container for relics. These may be the physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures...

 which was the main object in the treasury of Mozac Abbey

Mozac Abbey

Mozac Abbey is a former Cluniac monastery in the commune of Mozac near Riom in Auvergne, France.-History:A monastery was founded here in either 533 or 680 by Saint Calminius and his wife, Saint Namadia...

. It contains the bones of Saint Calminius

Saint Calminius

Saint Calminius, also known as Saint Calmin, founded three French abbeys in the 6th or 7th centuries AD: Mozac Abbey, in Puy-de-Dôme; Laguenne Abbey and the abbey of Monastier-Saint-Chaffre. His Saint's day is August 19....

 and his wife Saint Namadie

Saint Namadie

Sainte Namadie was the wife of Saint Calminius. On her husband's death in the 6th or 7th century she retired to end her days in the monastic convent at Marsat, which later became a dependent house of Mozac Abbey 2 kilometres away....

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The structure is of wood and measures 81 cm x 24 cm x 45 cm. Fourteen copper plaques have been attached, which are enameled using the champlevé

Champlevé

Champlevé is an enamelling technique in the decorative arts, or an object made by that process, in which troughs or cells are carved or cast into the surface of a metal object, and filled with vitreous enamel. The piece is then fired until the enamel melts, and when cooled the surface of the object...

technique (gaps are carved in the metal, into which molten enamel is poured before firing). The box is in the shape of a church without a transept

Transept

For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

 or choir

Quire (architecture)

Architecturally, the choir is the area of a church or cathedral, usually in the western part of the chancel between the nave and the sanctuary . The choir is occasionally located in the eastern part of the nave...

. It is decorated with Limoges

Limoges enamel

Limoges enamel was produced at Limoges, France, already the most famous, but not the most high quality, European center of vitreous enamel production by the 12th century; its works were known as Opus de Limogia or Labor Limogiae...

 champlevé enamel, depicting scenes from the life of the saint and his wife, in particular the foundation of the three institutions and his funeral.

It was permanently exhibited on the south arm of the transept of the abbey church. It was hidden and saved in 1789 during the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 by a villager and municipal councillor Jean Ozenne (1756- † 1832). It is now housed in the Musée Dobrée

Musée Dobrée

The Musée Dobrée is a museum in Nantes, in the quartier Graslin in the immediate outskirts of the city centre and very close to the city's Natural History Museum. It was given to the city by Thomas Dobrée and now belongs to the Conseil général de la Loire-Atlantique...

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