This article and the one on St. Pantaleon demonstrate the importance of "rescuing" relics. They concern two reliquaries which were cast in Genoa in 1840. Their relics were placed in the reliquaries on the same day by the same man. For 181 years, they have travelled their separate journeys. After having been cherished in some of the greatest churches in Europe, they have now been reunited at The Shrine of All Saints. The alternative was for them to disappear into auction houses and, ultimately, into private hands.
St. Tatiana was a Roman deaconess who was tortured and martyred for her Christian faith during the persecution of Emperor Alexander Severus in Rome in 225.
Her reliquary was cast in Rapallo – a suburb of Genoa – in 1840. It was intended for the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. But, for unknown reasons, it was not sent to Rome, but rather remained in the workshop. In 1842, it was purchased by the rector of the Basilica of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius in Rapallo. That same year, at the request of the the abbot of the Basilica, Franco Triavic, the Carmelite Cardinal Placido Maria Tadini, Archbishop of Genoa agreed that the reliquary should be filled and remain at the same Basilica. On May 8, 1843, a portion of the wrist bone of St. Tatiana of Rome was sealed in the reliquary. In 1848, after leaving the post of Archbishop of Genoa, Tadini moved to Rome to the Carmelite church of Santa Maria Transpontina, where he died.
St. Tatiana was a Roman deaconess who was tortured and martyred for her Christian faith during the persecution of Emperor Alexander Severus in Rome in 225.
Her reliquary was cast in Rapallo – a suburb of Genoa – in 1840. It was intended for the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. But, for unknown reasons, it was not sent to Rome, but rather remained in the workshop. In 1842, it was purchased by the rector of the Basilica of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius in Rapallo. That same year, at the request of the the abbot of the Basilica, Franco Triavic, the Carmelite Cardinal Placido Maria Tadini, Archbishop of Genoa agreed that the reliquary should be filled and remain at the same Basilica. On May 8, 1843, a portion of the wrist bone of St. Tatiana of Rome was sealed in the reliquary. In 1848, after leaving the post of Archbishop of Genoa, Tadini moved to Rome to the Carmelite church of Santa Maria Transpontina, where he died.
In 1854, after the death of the rector of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius and Abbot Triavic, the new Archbishop of Genoa, Andre’ Charvaz, directed that the reliquary be transferred to the church of Santa Margherita in Ligure (adjacent to Rapallo). In 1919. After the end of World War I, with the consent of the Dominican Cardinal Tomasso Pio Bojani, Archbishop of Genoa, the reliquary was finally transported to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. It remained there until 1993, when it was passed into the hands of one of the most influential people in Rome. The name of the person is not indicated, but the rector of the Basilica at the time was Cardinal Bernard Law. In 2007, the reliquary was transported to Lyon. In 2018, It was put up for sale at a closed auction in Paris and bought by a collector, who transported it privately back to Italy. In 2021, it was obtained by an entrepreneur in Russia, who sold it, and its document of certification, to the Shrine of All Saints, where it arrived in March of 2021.
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