The Saint Benedict Cross or the Saint Benedict Medal Based on a Find from Archaeological Research in Gniew (Pomerania Province)

In 2015, during archaeological research conducted around the church in Gniew (Pomerania Province), a small fragment of a metal plate was found. After it was cleaned as part of restoration it turned out to be a cross. The excavation was located outside, near the chancel wall. Research conducted there confirmed the conclusions drawn in previous years, i.e. that the church grounds had been used as a graveyard. The fact that the graveyard had been used for a long time was proved by numerous burials, overlapping grave pits and ossuaries, meaning places where human remains were gathered after earlier burials in the graveyard and the church had been emptied. Devotional items, including medals, crucifixes, scapulars, and prayer ropes, have been long connected with the Christian tradition. The fact that they are found during excavations in churches and graveyards may indicate that they were popular in Late Middle Ages and in the Modern Era. Unfortunately, the cross has not been preserved whole. It is difficult to determine whether the missing loop and two fragments of the horizontal bar were damaged when it was used by its owner or as a result of corrosion taking place after it had been deposited in the ground. The first written sources concerning the medal itself come from an information leaflet dated to 1664. It depicts Saint Benedict in a gesture of benediction and a medal with a characteristic cross and letters. One of the most important works on the Saint Benedict Medal is the work by Prosper Guèranger from 1862. Saint Benedict medals and crucifixes are also known from many inventories of artefacts compiled during research conducted in graveyards, mostly from the Modern Era. Saint Benedict crosses in a form resembling a knight’s cross were found in, among others, Maniowy in Podhale, Gliwice, Lubiń near Kościan, Wrocław, and Częstochowa. Despite the three and a half centuries that have passed since the first information about the medal appeared, and the six centuries since the first mention of its symbolism, it is still very popular among Christians. Most probably, information about the miracles happening thanks to it are no longer the main reason why it is worn but it can be a kind of an amulet protecting against evil. Despite rather scarce literature on Saint Benedict devotional items found at archaeological sites, one should expect that as research progresses, doubts about the manufacturing places or more detailed relationships between the appearance of crosses and medals will be dispelled.