Heavenly Accessories with an Arty Twist: The Sacred Girdle (Sacra Cintola), Prato, Italy |

Every now and then fashion designers turn to religious symbols as inspiration for their collections. Unfortunately, quite often, this exercise in fashioning religion and Roman Catholicism in particular turns into a kitsch practice, mainly aimed at making money in a lazy and easy way and without incurring in copyright infringement actions (traditional images of religious icons are not protected by copyright and paintings from centuries ago have entered public domain).

Yet there are Christian relics that can be filed under the fashion and accessories category that may prove very intriguing from different points of views and avoid designers to fall into the trap of trite inspirations. One of them is the Girdle of Thomas, also know as the Virgin's Girdle, the Holy Belt, or the "Sacra Cintola" in Italian.

According to a Medieval legend, this knotted textile cord belt, an emblem of chastity that became also a symbol of protection for pregnant women, was dropped by the Virgin Mary from the sky to Saint Thomas the Apostle at or around the time of the Assumption of Mary to heaven.

Thomas was skeptical when the other apostles told him Jesus had resurrected and, according to some versions of the story of the girdle, he also missed the Assumption of Mary, because he was on his way back from India, so the Virgin Mary appeared to him and dropped the girdle she was wearing down onto him.

In other versions he was miraculously transported from India to the Mount of Olives to be present at the actual Assumption, and the Virgin dropped her girdle down to him as she was taken up to heaven.

There are different versions of the belt or sections of sacred girdles in different countries, but the most famous one was brought to Prato, Tuscany, Italy, by a merchant, Michele Dagomari, around 1141.

Dagomari received it as a dowry when he married a woman in Jerusalem and, when he died in 1172, he donated it to his parish church of Saint Stephen in Prato.

Preserved in the Cappella del Sacro Cingolo at the Prato Cathedral that features frescoes of Stories of the Virgin and the Cintola by Agnolo Gaddi (1392–1395), the Sacred Belt of the Prato Cathedral is a thin 87 cm strip of green woolen fabric with gold threads and two tassels around its ends.

Exhibited five times a year – at Christmas, Easter, May 1st, August 15th (The Assumption of the Virgin), and September 8th (Nativity of the Virgin) – the girdle has got religious and civic importance for Prato, since it symbolises Catholic devotion, but also the local textile industry while hinting at Renaissance art. Fascinated by the iconography of this legend, different artists depicted indeed scenes of the Assumption of Mary and the legend of the girdle.

In art representations Thomas is shown receiving the girdle from the Virgin in the sky while standing in front of an empty sarcophagus, catching the falling girdle, or holding the accessory, as in the Oddi Altarpiece by Raphael, in Titian's Assumption in Verona Cathedral and in the Madonna della Cintola (often called an "Assumption") by Pinturicchio in the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican Palace (1492–94).

In the altarpiece by Palma Vecchio Thomas is shown in the distance hurrying towards the other apostles, while the Virgin is taking off her girdle.

An exhibition opening on 7th September at the Palazzo Pretorio Museum in Prato will mark the civil and religious importance of the relic.

"Legati da una cintola – L'Assunta di Bernardo Daddi e l'identità di una Città" (Bound by a Girdle – Our Lady of the Assumption by Bernardo Daddi and the identity of a City) starts around the 12th century with the anonymous Master of Cabestany who sculpted a relief showing the Virgin handing the belt to Thomas.

Then the exhibition moves onto the frescoes by Agnolo Gaddi and onto Filippo Lippi's Madonna della Cintola (1455-65), even though the key piece remains Bernardo Daddi's altarpiece dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and commissioned in 1337-38.

This work was dismembered, but the exhibition will bring it back together, reuniting the part about the belt arriving in Prato (preserved in the museum), the section about the migration of St. Stephen's body from Jerusalem to Rome, the panel about St. Lawrence (preserved in the Vatican Museums) and the final section with Our Lady of the Assumption giving the girdle to St. Thomas (kept in New York's Metropolitan Museum).

The exhibition also explores the boxes made to protect and preserve the belt, like reliquaries, and the architectural link connecting the city of Prato to the belt.

The external pulpit of Prato Cathedral built by Michelozzo and decorated by Donatello between 1428 and 1438 was indeed designed to allow a large number of pilgrims to see the relic.

Positioned on the corner of the church, the structure features groups of angels supporting the highly decorated marble frames and is characterised by a fascinating dynamic movement that gives the illusion of rotating.

The reliquary by Maso di Bartolomeo (1446–47) was decorated with angels matching the ones on the relief frieze on the outside pulpit.

The girdle is therefore a small accessory with highly symbolic meanings, it is a simple strip of fabric that ties in religious devotion, textile heritage, traditions and Renaissance art and architecture.

The sacred belt shows therefore that there are various points of views from which you can study and get inspired by religion and that the various prints on T-shirts or embroidered images of the Virgin Mary, the Sacred Heart and of multiple ex-votos on dresses, jackets, shirts and shoes (think Dolce & Gabbana…) are just one lazy way to look at faith and devotion.