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This paper deals with the story of Lucilla of Carthage, described by Optatus of Milevis in his Contra Parmenianum 1.16.1, written between 364 and 367. According to Optatus, before the outbreak of the Diocletianic persecution Lucilla used to kiss a martyr's bone before receiving the Eucharist. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that this episode cannot be considered a description of any actual late third-century custom, but rather as an exaggerated and grotesque presentation of certain practices contemporary to Optatus himself.
In scholarly discussions about the beginnings of the cult of relics, the name Lucilla of Carthage invariably appears. Lucilla was a devout and wealthy lady who in the second decade of the fourth century played a significant role in the emergence of the Donatist Schism. Supposedly using her money and influence, she induced a group of African bishops to reject the election of Caecilian as bishop of Carthage, and to entrust this office to a certain Majorinus, a member of her own household. Optatus of Milevis, when describing these events, explained the influential lady's aversion to Caecilian thus:
No one is unaware that this took place in Carthage after the ordination of Caecilian, and indeed through some factious woman or other called Lucilla, who, while the church was still tranquil and the peace had not yet been shattered by the whirlwinds of persecution, was unable to bear the rebuke of the archdeacon Caecilian. She was said to kiss (libare) the bone of some martyr or other-if, that is, he was a martyr-before the spiritual food and drink, and, since she preferred to the saving cup the bone of some dead man, who if he was a martyr had not yet been confirmed as one, she was rebuked, and went away in angry humiliation.1
Scholars who deal with the history of the cult of relics usually consider this passage a testimonium to a real practice, although they admit that the practice was controversial and deviated from the accepted norm of the church.2 The only problem seriously discussed was the meaning of the essential verb libare in this context and, thus, the question of how Lucilla expressed her veneration for the martyr's bone-by kissing or simply touching it.3
This testimony is all...