Bishop Bartholomew and the Burgled Bones

 In the 1120s, Bishop William Warelwast and of the (secular) canons of Bodmin, Algar, refounded the community at Bodmin as an Augustinian priory.  The first prior was a canon of Merton, Guy - although he didn't last long.  On his way to see Warelwast, his horse bolted and he fell into a pit and died of internal injuries - with Algar and Geoffrey of Plympton touchingly at his bedside.

The Augustinian house at Bodmin was founded as the Priory of  St Mary and St Petroc.  Most Augustinian houses were dedicated to Mary, and since its first prior came from the Priory of St Mary, Merton, it's hardly surprising to see the BVM there.  St Petroc was a native, a sixth-century Cornish saint, and he founded a monastery at Bodmin, which eventually became a college of secular canons.  His relics had been there time out of mind.

In the 1170s, one of the canons, Martin, fell out with the prior - so much so that in 1176, he nicked the bones and absconded to Brittany, giving them to the  monks of  Saint-Meen.  These monks didn't know that the bones had been pinched (they probably didn't inquire too much) - they saw it as divin providence, especially when miracles starting happening.  The Bodmin canons were unaware of anything remiss until Robert Torigny, abbot of Mont Saint-Michel, heard about a new shrine to St Petroc, and told his friend Bartholomew, bishop  of Exeter (pictured, right).  Bartholomew assembled a committee of abbots and  priors to investigate, and the prior of Bodmin sent out a scout to locate St Petroc.

Each side then brought bigger guns in. Martin went to Roland of Dinan, regent of Brittany, and argued that since Petroc was happily residing in Brittany, he could be used as backing for Geoffrey of Brittany becoming Earl of Cornwall, to replace his recently-deceased half-brother.  Bartholomew, on the other hand, went to Geoffrey's father, Henry II - who issued letters requiring the Breton monks to give Petroc back to the Cornish canons.  These letters went out via Walter of Coutances (nb. Coutances is where Algar became bishop of), Keeper of the Great Seal.  Walter, born in Cornwall, was thrilled Henry was on the canons' side, and got the letters out pronto.  Clutching them, he bumped into an itinerant cripple, with an ivory casket for sale.  Taking this as a sign, Walter bought the casket and presented both letters and casket to Prior Roger, who duly set off to Brittany.

With regret, the monks of Saint-Meen gave up the relics, and Roger put them in the casket - miraculously, just the right size.  Roger returned to England, meeting Bartholomew at Exeter, and then progressing formally with him through Devon and Cornwall, back to Bodmin, where a new shrine was constructed to house the relics, dedicated by Bartholomew (who also granted an indulgence to help fund the shrine).

The casket is Sicilian-Arabic - and itself could tell a tale.  You can see it, and Bodmin's spectacular font from around the same time, here.

Further reading:  Pinder-Wilson, R.H. and Brooke, C.N.L., 'The Reliquary of St. Petroc and the Ivories of Norman Sicily', Archaeologia, Volume 104 (1973), pp. 261-305.