An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town

"Until one mysterious day in 1983, the foreskin of Jesus — once one of the Catholic Church's holiest of relics — lay nestled in a box in a small church in Calcata, a village in the hills of northern Italy. On that fateful day in December, however, priest Don Dario announced to his tiny congregation that the foreskin had disappeared. What happened to this holy relic? Who could have taken this piece of the divine that medieval saint Catherine of Siena was purported to have worn as a ring around her finger and about which writers as diverse as Joyce, Stendhal and Jos Saramago have written? In this humorous narrative, journalist Farley sets off to solve the mystery of the missing foreskin. Part travelogue, part mystery story and part religious history, Farley's tale involves local winemakers, actors and priests, many of whom are tight-lipped about the relic's disappearance. In 1900, the Vatican decreed that anyone who talked about the holy foreskin would face excommunication, and thereby cut off its status as a holy relic. Farley discovers that no one really knows whether this piece of holy skin ever existed in the first place, and that no one knows its whereabouts now. Although Farley's often repetitious tale might have been sufficient as a magazine article, his fast-paced storytelling and winning humor raise thoughtful questions about the nature of faith. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Farley offers a tour through a bizarre Italian town in search of an unbelievable relic: the foreskin of Jesus Christ. Blending history, travel, and perhaps the oddest story in Christian lore, "An Irreverent Curiosity" is a weird and wonderful tale of conspiracy and misadventure.

DAVID FARLEY's travel writing has appeared in The New York Times (including a feature on Calcata), The Washington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, Slate, and many other publications. He teaches writing at New York University.