RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Holsten Holy Family
HOLTZMANN, OSKAR KARL ADOLF: German Protestant; b. at Stuttgart Oct. 20, 1859. He was educated at the universities of Strasburg, Gottingen, and Giessen and at the theological seminary at Friedberg from 1877 to 1883, and after a year as pastor at Bickenbach was provisional teacher at the seminary of Algau in 1884-86 and director of the high school at Gross-Gerau in 1886-88 and a teacher at the grand-ducal gymnasium at Giessen in 1888-89. In the latter year he became privatdocent at the University of Giessen, and in 1890 was appointed to his present position of associate professor of New Testament exegesis in the same institution. He has written Das Johannes-Evangelium untersucht und erkldrt (Darmstadt, 1887); Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte (Freiburg, 1895); Lebenjesu (Tubingen, 1901; Eng. transl., Life of Jesus, Edinburgh, 1904); Religionsgeschichtliche Vortrage (Giessen, 1902) ; and War Jesus Ekstatiker ? Eine Untersuchung zum Leben Jesu (Tubingen, 1903).
HOLY COAT: An ancient garment preserved at Treves, and held to be the " coat without seam " of John xix. 23. This coat was regarded by the Church Fathers after Tertullian as a symbol of the indivisible Church, but was believed by them to be no longer in existence. The earliest trace of the belief that the Holy Coat was at least partially preserved, occurs in an Arabic life of the Egyptian monk Shnudi of Athribe (d. 451); but the real development of the tradition is medieval. The legend assumes two chief forms, according to whether the Holy Coat is regarded as gray or brown. The former is the older. According to it, Christ wore at his crucifixion a gray " coat without seam," which his mother had woven for him in his infancy, and which had increased with his stature. After the crucifixion Herod gave it to a Jew who, unable to remove the blood stains, threw it into the sea, where it was swallowed by a whale. Meanwhile Orendel, or Arendel, son of the Christian king Eygel of Treves, had been shipwrecked near Palestine and had been forced to enter the service of a fisherman. The two took the whale, and for thirty gold guldens, the sum for which Judas had betrayed Christ, and which the Virgin had sent Orendel, the prince purchased the Holy Coat, which rendered him invulnerable and invincible. Orendel became king of Jerusalem. In obedience to an angelic revelation, he returned to Treves and rescued his father from his enemies, but was soon obliged to seek the Holy Land to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. At the command of an angel, he left the Holy Coat at Treves. Another version of this type of the legend makes the Emperor Constantine take the place of Orendel, while the Jew is represented by Pilate until Veronica reveals to the emperor the means of gaining the Holy Coat.
In the second recension of the legend of the Holy Coat, which gradually became the one officially held at Treves, the knightly element is replaced by clerical figures. To this cycle, which is probably of later origin than the one described above and apparently developed after the eleventh or twelfth century, belongs the tradition that the Holy Coat was brought to Treves by a Christian maiden who had received it from a Jew in payment for a year's
wages. In another recension the Empress Helena sends or gives the Coat to Treves, and a bishop, Agricius, receives or transmits it. Yet as late as the beginning of the twelfth century Abbot Theofried of Echternach, when writing to Archbishop Bruno of Treves, though mentioning a Holy Coat, describes it as having been brought from Safed, in Palestine, to Jerusalem, where it had remained. After 1132, however, the Holy Coat of Treves was frequently mentioned as a genuine relic.
Besides Treves and Safed, other places are said to contain the Holy Coat, as Galathea, near Constantinople, San Iago de Compostella, St. John Lateran at Rome, and a Franciscan monastery in Friuli. There are, indeed, no less than twenty rivals to the Holy Coat of Treves, the most formidable being that at Argenteuil, near Paris, which can boast in its favor a brief of Gregory XVI. (Aug. 22, 1843). The Holy Coat of Treves is described as five feet one and one-half inches long, and reddish-brown in color, consisting, according to some, of fine linen, and according to others, of fine muslin. It was first made an object of public veneration and pilgrimage in 1512. It was then exhibited frequently, especially in 1515 (when Leo X. issued a bull defending its authenticity), 1531, 1545, etc., evoking the anger of Luther. It was again exhibited in the seventeenth century, particularly in 1653, but the French invasions of the eighteenth century forced it to be taken for a considerable time to Ehrenbreitstein and in 1792 to Augsburg, where it remained until 1810, when it was brought back to Treves and venerated by more than 200,000 pilgrims. In 1844 it was exhibited by Bishop Arnoldi and venerated by 1,100,000, many miraculous cures being reported. Opposition to this led to the German Catholic movement of Ronge and Czerski (see German Catholicism). Despite attacks on the authenticity of the relic, including more or less skepticism from Roman Catholics, Bishop Korum, with the sanction of Leo XIII., exhibited the Holy Coat in 1891, when it was venerated by nearly 2,000,000 pilgrims.
(O. ZOCKLERf.) Bibliography: The two works in English are: E. A. Plater, The Holy Coat of Treves, London, 1891; and R. F. Clarke, Pilgrimage to the Holy Coat of Treves, ib. 1892. In German, from the Catholic standpoint are: J. Marx, Geschichte des heiligen Bocks, Treves, 1844; F. J. Clemens, Der heilige Rock und die protestantische Kritik, Coblenz, 1845; A. J. Binterim, Zeugnisse fur die Echtheit des heiligen Rocks, Diisseldorf, 1845; J. N. von Wilmovsky, Der heilige Rock, eine archaologische Priifung, Treves, 1876; C. Willems, Der heilige Rock zu Trier, ib. 1891; idem, Der heilige Rock . und seine Gegner, ib. 1892; F. Korum, W under und gottliche Gnadenerweise bei der Ausstellung des heiligen Rocks, ib. 1891; J. Hulley, Kurze Geschichte der Wallfahrt zum heiligen Rock, ib. 1891. From the Protestant standpoint: J. Gildemeister and H. von Sybel, Der heilige Rock zu Trier und die 20 anderen heiligen ungenahten Rocke, Diisseldorf, 1844; F. Jaskowski, Der heilige Rock von Trier gerichtet von seinen eigenen Freunden, Saarbriicken, 1891; J. Fueks, Der Trierer Rock, Hadersleben, 1891; T. Forster, Der heilige Rock von Trier im . 1844 und 1891, Halle, 1891; H. Benecke, Der heilige Rock zu Trier im . 1891, Berlin, 1891; M. Lindner, Der heilige Rock zu Trier und die Wunderheilungen, Leipsic, 1891; G. Kaufmann, Die Legende vom heiligen ungenahten Rock und das Verbot der 4. Lateransynode, Berlin, 1892; H. Kurtz, Trier und der heilige Rock, Zurich, 1892.
HOLY FAMILY, SISTERS or DAUGHTERS OF THE. See Genevieve, Saint, Orders op, 2.
Holy Fire
Holy Roman Empire