WILL WILDER S RELIC RESCUE SCAVENGER HUNT

Transcription

1 IT S TIME FOR SOME INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATION! WILL WILDER S RELIC RESCUE SCAVENGER HUNT In Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, Will not only discovers an ancient relic right in his own hometown but he also discovers that relics carry messages with them. Will is now on a new global adventure to rescue other relics around the world. Want to join him? Get together with your buddies and solve each of the following relic-related clues together. This is not a test. It s an exploration to find the world s most amazing relics. Each of them are centuries old and amazingly they are still in existence today. You won t believe what you ll find! NOTE: Each clue possesses several hints to aid your online or library research to find the correct answer. Remember, a good explorer knows that research is key! Bottom line: Trust your instincts. Verify your facts. And have faith that the answer is near. HOW TO PLAY: Answer questions 1 to 8. Then take the circled letters from your answers and rearrange them in the Solution Zone to decipher the age-old message of the relics. PRINT OUT THE FOLLOWING PAGES AND LET S PLAY! rel ic (rel ik), n. 1. an object esteemed and venerated because of association with a saint or martyr 2. an object (such as a piece of clothing or the bone of a saint) that is considered holy rel I quary (re-l -kwer-ē), n. 1. a container that is used to hold holy objects (called relics) e

2 WILL WILDER S RELIC RESCUE SCAVENGER HUNT CONTINUED Remember: You can use online and library resources to answer each question. Research is key, explorers! 1. CLUE: I was an active painter in Rome in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One of my most famous works of art is a painting called Doubting Thomas, which can be found in Sanssouci Germany. Who am I? 2. CLUE: I am on display at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy and measure approximately 14.3 x 3.7 feet. My origin is the subject of much debate among historians and scholars, but one thing for sure is that radiocarbon dating confirms that I am from the medieval period. What am I? 3. CLUE: I am one of the six patron saints of Europe. I was born in 1347 and I died in And get this! Although I was not decapitated, my mummified head is guarded closely at the Basilica of San Domenica to this day. Who am I? 4. CLUE: Herod s daughter demanded that my head be brought to her on a serving tray. What? A serving tray!?? This is how I met my demise. It is said that my head is safely saved and on display at Amiens Cathedral, one of the largest classic Gothic churches of the thirteenth century. Who am I? Turn the page for more!

3 WILL WILDER S RELIC RESCUE SCAVENGER HUNT CONTINUED 5. CLUE: I am a famous and rare garment said to be housed in Chartres Cathedral, one of the France s finest examples of Gothic architecture. I was thought to have been destroyed in a fire in 1194, but, miracle of miracles, three days later I was found unharmed in the treasury. What famous relic am I? 6. CLUE: I m a solid gold arm with two fingers extended toward the sky. I m known as a reliquary. I hold items associated with the saints, in this case, St. Peter the Apostle. And more specifically, I hold an ulna. Yep, one of the bones in the forearm. Although I m currently empty, I am on display at this famous institution in New York City. (You can use the short name. ) 7. CLUE: I am a reliquary that holds something sharp, something that inflicted pain. Actually, I hold just a small piece from a larger item. This item was worn on one man s head, though not by choice. Although I am on display at the British Museum, it is a Latin inscription that identifies my contents. What is the larger item that my small piece is from? Turn the page for more!

4 WILL WILDER S RELIC RESCUE SCAVENGER HUNT CONTINUED 8. CLUE: I am a sealed glass vial containing a dark, solid substance. Several times a year I am displayed to a packed crowd in the Naples Cathedral. While the vial is being handled during a solemn ceremony, this solid mass suddenly liquefies before everybody s eyes. What are my contents? SOLUTION ZONE Place all your letters here and then unscramble them below to reveal the message of the relics: FINAL ANSWER CLUE: Three simple but important things a successful relic explorer must have and do: S V F A.. T. See the following pages for the answer to each clue and the final solution and message from the relics.

5 ANSWERS TO WILL WILDER S RELIC RESCUE SCAVENGER HUNT 1. ANSWER: Caravaggio. My name is Caravaggio and I painted Doubting Thomas which is currently on display at Sanssouci in Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany. 2. ANSWER: Holy Shroud of Turin. This burial cloth has been shown to bear the image of the face of a man, and that man is said to be Jesus. A photographer was able to point out a clearer version of the image when he noticed it looked more detailed in the negative, or reverse. The Holy Shroud is currently held in Turin Cathedral in northern Italy. 3. ANSWER: Catherine of Siena. This may be one of the more grisly relics on display in modern days. Interestingly, although the pious Catherine was illiterate, she wrote a book called Dialogue of Divine Providence wholly by dictating it. 4. ANSWER: John the Baptist. The reliquary containing the head of John the Baptist remained in the Amiens Cathedral until the French Revolution, when inventory was made of all Church property and treasure and relics were confiscated. In 1793, representatives of the government demanded that the relic be buried in a cemetery. But instead, the mayor of the town, secretly and under fear of death, kept the relic in his house. Once the revolutionary persecutions had ended, the head of St. John the Baptist was returned to the cathedral in Amiens in 1816, where it remains to this day. 5. ANSWER: Tunic of the Blessed Virgin. It said to have been worn by the Virgin Mary during the birth of Christ.

6 ANSWERS TO WILL WILDER S RELIC RESCUE SCAVENGER HUNTCONTINUED 6. ANSWER: The Met. This is the short term for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Metropolitan Museum of Art s earliest roots date back to 1866 in Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a national institution and gallery of art to bring art and art education to the American people. Today, tens of thousands of objects are on view at any given time in the museum s two-million-square-foot building. 7. ANSWER: Crown of Thorns. This reliquary was made to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns, the wreath of thorns placed on the head of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion.the thorn is displayed behind a crystal window and is identified by a Latin inscription: Ista est una spinea corone / Domine nostri ihesu cristi (This is a thorn from the crown of Our Lord Jesus Christ). 8. ANSWER: Blood of San Gennaro. This relic is an ancient round and flattened sealed glass vial. During the ceremony, the reliquary is repeatedly picked up, moved around, and upturned to check whether the liquefaction has taken place. If it has, the dark mass is seen to flow freely into the vial. The liquefaction sometimes takes place almost immediately, or can take hours, even days. SCAVENGER HUNT ANSWERS: Place all your letters here and then unscramble them below to reveal the message of the relics: 1. r v 2. y s h t 3. t e 4. h a i 5. u i v r 6. e 7. f t 8. f a FINAL ANSWER CLUE: Three simple but important things a successful relic explorer must have and do: Trust. Verify. Have Faith.