Jewelry Industry Blog

The writer of the following article would like to see the presentation of a passion play. The writer has been to a cathedral where there would definitely be an audience of such plays. Located in Los Angeles, that modern cathedral has a store that sells jewelry, jewelry with the beauty of the antique crucifixes. Maybe some aspiring filmmaker will encourage the performance of a passion play at the Los Angeles Cathedral. Then the same fledgling filmmaker could focus a lens on actors wearing antique crucifixes. Who knows, maybe Mel Gibson once dreamed about filming a passion play.

During the Middle Ages, Passion Plays provided the public with one of the few forms of entertainment. In each such play, the action was on some aspect of the crucifixion.

The teachings of the Church encouraged the creation of such plays, because they served to remind people about the manner that Christ suffered while on the cross.

The teachings of the Catholic Church also encouraged creation of the antique crucifixes. The wearer of such a crucifix could not easily forget the most fundamental Christian teaching: Christ died for our sins.
As jewelers of the Middle Ages designed the antique crucifixes, the Catholic Church emphasized the importance of Easter Sunday. It also taught that without the crucifixion of Christ there would be no Easter Sunday.

The teachings of the Catholic Church had arisen largely from the letters of Saint Paul. In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul had suggested the need for Christians to “proclaim Christ crucified.” He did not mention antique crucifixes, but he gave present-day jewelers a reason to write this: “Wearing a crucifix pendant not only identifies us as Christians, but as Catholics.”

While reminding online shoppers about the words of Saint Paul, the operators of online jewelry stores have not lost sight of the present-day focus on “bling.” They have thus filled their websites with all manner of pictures. An examination of those pictures reveals the variety that can be found among the modern replicas of the antique crucifixes.

Some of those modern replicas copy the intricacies of the Celtic cross. Some of those replicas have been fashioned from gold. A jeweler might work with either white or yellow gold when making an antique crucifix. Some crucifixes display one jeweler’s ability to create designs from silver or pewter. An online shopper can even find white crucifixes that copy at least a few of the designs found on an antique crucifix.

Today, a jeweler with a website does not expect to be contacted by an online shopper who plans to have actors wear antique crucifixes in a passion play. Such a jeweler might, however, be contacted by someone going to a Mardi gras celebration. Someone marching in a Mardi gras parade might well want to wear a crucifix.