Ivory Reliquary Box, Venice
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A Rare Ivory Box in Italy and Women at the Altar: What Ancient Art Reveals

My 2025 started extraordinarily with a two-week pilgrimage across Italy. A maiden trip hosted by the Visual Museum of Women in Christianity, our group began in Rome, ended in Venice, and in between visited Pompeii, Orvieto, Assisi, Siena, Civita di Bagnoregio, Vicenza, Florence, Milan, Padua, Ravenna and Torcello. As we toured ancient churches, baptistries, basilicas, cathedrals, catacombs, crypts, mausoleums, a prison, and art and archaeological museums, we considered this question, “What does the visual record of ancient art show us about women’s leadership in early Christianity?”1

Although we caught glimpses of alterations to ancient art depictions of women—censorship meant to misrepresent, obscure, or erase the evidence of women’s leadership functions—historians, art curators, and archaeologists continue to make discoveries that bring fresh insight into ancient Christian practices regarding women, including women at the altar.

IVORY RELIQUARY BOX

In 1906, archaeologists excavated an ivory reliquary box, a priceless art piece found in fragments under the altar of a Roman-era church, the Church of St. Hermagoras, near Pola, Croatia (Figure 1).2 The reliquary is dated to the fifth century. It’s possible that Pope St. Sixtus III commissioned it as a gift for Empress Galla Placidia and her son Valentinian III. Described as “the most traveled box in the world,” the miniature ivory reliquary at its home, the Correr Museum in Venice, was the subject of our pilgrimage group’s private viewing of the replica. 

Scenes are carved on the lid of the reliquary box and on each side. The one with the veiled woman at the altar in Old St. Peter’s Basilica, one of three of the most important churches in Christendom, is the one most discussed and debated (Figure 2).3 Historian Ally Katseutz writes, “When discovered, it was the oldest surviving scene of people depicted in a liturgy around the altar in the sanctuary of a real church, and it remains one of the two oldest.”4 

A LITURGICAL SCENE

In the liturgical scene, the ivory sculptor depicts a veiled woman and a man facing each other at an altar table under a ciborium (a type of canopy over an altar). Both hold up an object—perhaps the elements of the Eucharist. 

Flanking the ciborium, two women stand on the right and two men stand on the left with their arms raised and mouths open as if singing. The ciborium is supported by intricately carved and uniquely twisted columns identical to the spiral columns originally built for the Old St. Peter’s altar, and since repurposed in St. Peter’s Basilica.5 

Ivory Reliquary Box, Correr Museum, Venice
Figure 1. Ivory Reliquary, Correr Museum, Venice.
Liturgical scene, Ivory reliquary, Venice
Figure 2. Close-up of the ivory reliquary altar scene.

Historian Anton Gnirs, the first to publish an article about the ivory box, describes its uniqueness and extraordinary historical contribution “to understanding the liturgy of the primitive Christian church.”6

GENDER PARITY AT THE ALTAR

The ivory reliquary is one of three archaeological artifacts depicting gender parity at a church altar.

The second is a massive sarcophagus front displaying a liturgical scene from the early fifth century (Figure 3). Discovered in Istanbul in 1988, it shows a woman and man flanking an altar with an early Christian cross above it. The altar is centered between tall columns and a curtained ciborium. The two figures stand with their arms raised in the orans pose, wearing similarly cloaked robes and pointed right feet.7 Beside the woman stands a young boy, perhaps depicting Princess Pulcheria, an Empress and Regent for her young brother, Theodosius II. From the style of the columns’ capitals, it’s believed that the carving depicts the altar at the Second Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom), a Christian basilica consecrated in 415.8

Stone carving with liturgical scene, Arachaeological Museum, Istanbul
Figure 3. Stone carving with a liturgical scene. Second Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.

Third, the sixth-century mosaics in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy also display gender parity at the altar (Figures 4 and 5). Kateutz writes, “These mosaics are often thought to model a liturgical procession in the last Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the basilica which Justinian and Theodora built.”9 The stunning mosaics sit directly above the altar, Empress Theodora holds up a jeweled chalice, and facing her, Justinian holds up a jeweled paten (a vessel for bread).

Mosaics, San Vitale, Ravenna
Figure 4. Theodora holds a chalice, Apse mosaic in San Vitale Basilica, Ravenna.
Justinian, Mosaics in San Vitale, Ravenna
Figure 5. Justinian holds paten for the bread. Apse Mosaic, San Vitale Basilica, Ravenna.

IVORY RELIQUARY SCENES

Returning to the ivory reliquary, unique scenes are carved on each side and the lid.

On the lid, Christ stands with Paul on his right and Peter on his left. Christ passes a scroll to Peter. Peter, who was crucified upside down, holds a cross. In ancient art, saints were often depicted holding the instrument of their death. This scene is known as the “Traditio Legis” and the scroll represents “the new law of the Christian faith.”10

On the front of the ivory box is an empty throne which symbolizes God’s presence. Below are the four rivers of Paradise and the Lamb of God standing on a mountain surrounded by his apostles.

The left side depicts Emperor Constantine and his mother St. Helena standing near Peter’s tomb in the fourth-century Basilica of Old St. Peter in Rome. 

On the right side, Valentinian III, Eudoxia, his wife, and Eudocia, his daughter, stand in a small niche (called an epicure) within the Roman Basilica of the Holy Cross—designed after the one in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

LITURGICAL SCENE

Returning to the liturgical scene, scholars have alternately hypothesized that it depicts a wedding ceremony, however, a presiding priest is missing, or perhaps it portrays the pair “venerating a relic of the True Cross,” but no such relic has ever been found at Old St. Peter’s.

Kateutz surmises, “Just as the ivory sculptor portrayed both a man and a woman at the altar, Philo described a male leader and a female leader, who represented Moses and Miriam, as well as a meal ritual that recreated the Temple from afar, complete with altar table, bread, libation, and priests.” She continues, “the most famous ritual in Old St. Peter’s was the annual all-night memorial mass to Peter. Given the parallel of the liturgy on the ivory to the all-night ritual that Philo described, the ivory artist may have captured the very moment when the sun rose and the two choirs raised their hands.”11

Another view of the pair in the ivory reliquary altar scene is that they are Empress Galla Placidia and her son Valentinian III, and it depicts the Church of the Holy Cross, not Old St. Peter’s Basilica.*12 However, in 1939, two esteemed Christian art historians published a report on this liturgical scene confirming the design as that of the altar at Old St. Peter’s Basilica. Katseutz explains, “With this publication, the word began to spread—a fifth-century ivory sculptor had depicted a woman at the altar in Old St. Peter’s.”13

VATICAN EXCAVATIONS

The following year, the Vatican spent two days excavating behind and beneath St. Peter’s altar in search of St. Peter’s tomb. Determined Vatican excavators hoped to “prove the ivory scene was fantasy. Instead, they proved it was accurate.”14

Excavators found that the embedded lower stone “mensa,” which means altar table, lined up with the location of the altar table directly above—exactly as depicted on the ivory reliquary box.

Further, “an arched niche in the shrine wall behind the mensa lined up with the arched niche seen behind the altar on the ivory.”15 And, they discovered what they believe was Peter’s tomb behind doors below the altar table, a controlled-access location previously described by both Jerome and Gregory of Tours. Doors are similarly carved and seen below the altar on the ivory box.

In early Christianity, saints or their relics were often buried under an altar. John writes in Revelation 6:9, “Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.”

VATICAN INTERPRETATION: “A PORTABLE ALTAR”

Ten years passed before the Vatican excavators published their findings. In their report, they provided two drawings of the altar canopy. However, their drawings presented a square ciborium rather than a half-hexagon ciborium. In short, by reshaping the altar canopy into a square, it moved the lamp (which shone directly down on the altar) forward by ten feet (Figure 6).

Vatican drawings of ciborium
Figure 6. Vatican drawings. Ivory half-hexagon ciborium. Square ciborium.

This “redesign” by the Vatican excavators facilitated their assertion that a woman was not at the actual altar in Old St. Peter’s. Instead, they argue there was a temporary altar. Kirschbaum, one of the excavators, explained, “We assume the spot beneath the lamp with its golden crown to have been that of the altar… We have to suppose a portable altar table.” Kateusz writes, “They could not move the woman carved on the ivory. So, they moved the lamp—the lamp that would have hung over the altar.”16

In 1954, a Vatican scholar emphatically debunked the portable altar idea. Three years later, two books were published defending the portable altar theory. Eventually, opposition to the portable altar faded away.

CONCLUSION

Is it conceivable that men and women led worship and prayer at the altar in early Christianity? Artistic depictions from the fifth and sixth centuries of women at the altar in three of the most important churches in Christendom say yes.17

Discoveries like the ivory reliquary remind me that God sees women, he values women, and he welcomes women’s presence, worship, and proclamations to his altar. Amen and amen.

*A previous version of this article referred to a Vatican source here. Further investigation showed that the reference is a credible but “unofficial” source. Updated Jan 19, 2026.


  1. This article was adapted from my January 10, 2025 lecture on the Pola reliquary at the Correr Museum in Venice. ↩︎
  2. A reliquary is a container used to preserve relics or other holy objects. ↩︎
  3. Ally Kateusz and Luca Badini Confalonieri, “Women Church Leaders In and Around Fifth-Century Rome,” in Patterns of Women’s Leadership in Early Christianity. Joan E. Taylor and Ilaria L.E. Ramelli, eds, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 228–260. See also Ally Kateusz, Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership, Palgrave MacMillian, 2019; Rediscovering the Marys: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam, Mary Ann Beavis and Ally Kateusz, eds., T & T Clark, 2021. ↩︎
  4. Kateusz and Confalonieri, “Women Church Leaders,” 234. ↩︎
  5. Kateusz, “Women Church Leaders,” 237. ↩︎
  6. Ibid, 234. ↩︎
  7. Orans [the ancient Latin word for prayer] pose is an early Christian prayer posture—arms are raised with palms open. ↩︎
  8. Ibid, 243. ↩︎
  9. Ibid, 243. ↩︎
  10. “This scene and the one on the front panel were both inspired by the apsidal mosaic of the Constantinian basilica of St. Peter; the mosaic… is now lost, but the motif is known from drawings of the Renaissance period.” Gregory Dipippo, “A Papal Reliquary of the 5th Century,” New Liturgical Movement: Sacred Liturgy & Liturgical Arts, January 8, 2020. Https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/01/a-papal-reliquary-of-5th-century.html?m=1  ↩︎
  11. Kateusz, “Women Church Leaders,” 236. ↩︎
  12. Gregory Dipippo, “A Papal Reliquary of the 5th Century,” New Liturgical Movement: Sacred Liturgy & Liturgical Arts, January 8, 2020. Https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/01/a-papal-reliquary-of-5th-century.html?m=1 ↩︎
  13. Kateusz, “Women Church Leaders,” 237. ↩︎
  14. Ibid, 237. ↩︎
  15. Ibid, 238. ↩︎
  16. Ibid, 240. ↩︎
  17. Sarah MacDonald, “Artifacts show that early women served as clergy,” National Catholic Reporter, July 30, 2019. ↩︎

PS Dear readers, I’m writing a series about my ancient art pilgrimage to Italy in my newsletter, Querying Questions: Exploring Questions About Women and the Church.


Dr. Cynthia Hester teaches, writes, and speaks on topics of faith and women, both women in the Bible and church history. A graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry (DMin, 2022), Cynthia writes at cynthiahester.com and is a contributing author to the book 40 Questions About Women in Ministry (Kregel, 2023). She has also written articles published at Fathommag.org, Parker County Today, heartstrongfaith.com, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In 2021, Cynthia founded Theology of Women Academy.® In this online academy, she teaches Christ-followers, including ministry leaders, the spectrum of orthodox views on women and the church to equip them to develop their beliefs—their theology of women. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

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