Crusader Reliquary Cross

Reliquaries are the containers that store and display relics. Since the relics themselves were considered “more valuable than precious stones and more to be esteemed than gold,” they were enshrined in vessels, or reliquaries, crafted of or covered by gold, silver, ivory, gems, and enamel. These precious objects were a major form of artistic production across Europe and Byzantium throughout the Middle Ages.
The Cloisters Collection, New York
Metropolitan Museum- Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity