Does Jesus' Foreskin Still Exist?

Kate Lister (0:00)

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Hello, my lovely Betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. Welcome back once again to yet another episode of Betwixt The Sheets. Hello, hello. I'll put the kettle on. How fab to see you. But before you can sit down and get yourself too comfortable, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast, book about adults to other adults, about adult things in an adult way, covering original subjects, news being adult too. Right. Okay. I'll get the cups out.

Ciao bella salve. Welcome to Italy. I won't try and do the accent. I won't offend our Italian friends like that.

It's 1983 and we are in the mountaintop town of Calcata, 30 miles north of Rome. I say mountaintop, it's really more like a mountain edge, a tumble of medieval stone buildings perched high on a cliff edge, merging into the rock face below. New Year's Day everywhere else, but here is usually chocolate pajamas and a long nap on the sofa. But here, January the 1st is another day for celebrating. It's time to parade the Holy Pupus, Jesus' foreskin all about town.

What do you mean you prefer a nap? How dare you? But there's been a crime, a calamity. The Holy Artifact is gone. It has been stolen from its very, very secure location in a shoebox underneath the parish priest's bed. Or was it at the back of his wardrobe? Nobody's entirely sure. But are there any leads to go on? Who's pinched it? Was it taken by an opportunist, misplaced by the priest? Or could it have been stolen by masked Vatican agents sent on a mission to silence the embarrassing tittle-tattle about this particular holy relic? Well, I think I am about ready to find out.

Hello and welcome back to Betwixt The Sheets, The History of Sex, Scandal & Society with me, Kate Lister. In recent episodes, we have been on a hunt for famous penises all throughout history. We have been on the search for Tutankhamun's eternal erection. We have undercoverd Napoleon's bonaparte. Hey! And now we are on the hunt for Jesus' foreskin. But why would it have been kept? Who supposedly had it all these years? And why does anybody care about it as much as they clearly did? Today, I'm joined by Dr. James White from the University of Alberta to find out more. Is everybody ready?

James White (3:18)

I know I am.

Kate Lister (3:19)

Let's do it. Well, hello and welcome to Betwixt The Sheets. It's only James White. How are you doing?

James White (3:33)

I am good. How are you, Kate?

Kate Lister (3:35)

Well, I'm insanely excited to be talking to you because when we were thinking of subjects we could do episodes on, we were discussing the possibility of Christ's foreskin.

I thought maybe there's not enough there, if you'll pardon the pun, for an entire episode. But you did your whole PhD on this. James, how did you come to this subject?

James White (3:57)

I did. I came to it through accident. I came to it through Catherine of Siena, 14th century saint. But with Catherine, we have the letters that she dictated, and we have her extremely long holy biography written by her confessor.

And the holy biography usually goes into all of the stuff with her devotion to Jesus and fasting and all sorts of body-oriented things. And it says that she had a mystical marriage to Jesus, and in it she received a wedding ring. I mean, it was a really nice wedding ring, but it was a standard wedding ring with diamonds and pearls, maybe not standard, but understandable.

Kate Lister (4:54)

Yeah, it'll do the job.

James White (4:55)

Exactly. And then in her own letters, she writes to all of these other women saying that they have Jesus' foreskin as a wedding ring.

Kate Lister (5:08)

I beg your pardon.

James White (5:10)

So in Catherine's own letters, she doesn't really claim the foreskin for herself. She claims it for other women and tells them that they have it. And I thought, there is something weird going on here.

Kate Lister (5:24)

I should say so. That sounds intensely weird.

James White (5:27)