Holy Nail

Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, Archbishop of Milan, giving blessings with the reliquary of the Nail in 1938, probably on May 3, the Feast of the Invention of the True Cross. According to the tradition, Emperor Constantine received two fragments of the Holy Nail from his mother Helena, which were placed in his helmet or crown and in his horse’s harness. It is the second fragment which is venerated in the Milanese cathedral to this day.