The Co-cathedral of SS. Marziale and Alberto in Colle Val d'Elsa

The Holy Nail

In the right transept, protected by a wrought iron grille made by the master craftsman Drea di Lavaccio of Colle in the seventeenth century, is the chapel of the Holy Nail, built at the behest of the first Bishop of Colle, Usimbardo Usimbardi, at the same time as the cathedral in 1592. Inside the chapel, the marble tabernacle attributed to Domenico Rosselli holds the precious relic that, according to legend, served to pierce Jesus’ left foot.
On the chapel ceiling, the angels carry into glory the chalice, symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, Veronica’s veil, and the instruments of the Passion such as the crown of thorns, the cane with the sponge soaked in vinegar, the lance, and the cross. An unusual element is the presence of the pliers used to pull the nails out of the cross. This decoration, paid for by Count Sabolini in 1823 and painted by Antonio Marini, picks up again the subjects already present in the three fragments of a large altarpiece by the baroque painter Mazzuoli that once stood on the altar of the Holy Nail and is now in the Diocesan Museum.
The Holy Nail has always been for the inhabitants of Colle an object of devotion and veneration. It is an iron nail about 22 cm long, with a head at one end and a nicked and bent point at the other. An ancient tradition holds that the relic was found, together with the True Cross, by Saint Helena, Constantine’s mother, in AD 326, when she went to Golgotha, where the crosses of the Savior and the two thieves had been found. It seems that Saint Helena was able to distinguish the Holy Nails from the others because these were still shiny while the others were by that point covered with rust. It is said that relics were then the protagonists of miraculous events; for example, during the return trip home, Saint Helena calmed a violent storm at sea by lowering one of the nails into the waves.
Besides the one in Colle, the other three nails that according to tradition belonged to the cross of Jesus are: one in the Basilica della Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome together with other relics connected with the Crucifixion, one in Milan Cathedral, and the last in Monza in the Iron Crown, a golden diadem adorned with gems that according to legend was forged with one of the nails.