# Pilgrim badges and ampullae

**Signacula**

**Known today as.** Small badges of lead and tin, and tiny flasks called ampullae, sold at shrines as tokens of pilgrimage.

Kind: Sacramental

## What was it used for?

Pinned to the hat or cloak as proof of the journey and as protection; the ampullae held holy water or oil from the shrine, like the “water of St. Thomas” of Canterbury, mixed with a trace of Becket’s blood.

## What does modern science say?

Shrines still sell medals and badges as tokens of pilgrimage.

## What lore surrounds it?

The scallop shell of Santiago became the pilgrim’s emblem. Thousands of badges have been recovered from the Thames and the rivers of the Low Countries, some perhaps cast in deliberately.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia records that at Compostela “the custom of those who bore back with them from Galicia scallop shells as proofs of their journey gradually extended to every form of pilgrimage,” and that the old feast of St. James “is still celebrated by the boys of London with their grottos of oyster shells.” In the article on medals it notes that a pilgrim's “insignia” were blessed, “but by this term were only meant his scrip and staff … not the leaden tokens,” and that “the gradual substitution of more artistic bronze and silver medals for the rude pilgrim's signs at such great sanctuaries as Loreto or St. Peter's, did much to help on the general acceptance of medals as objects of devotion.”

## Sources

- Spencer, B. (1998). *Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges*. London: Museum of London.
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Pilgrimages.” newadvent.org/cathen/12085a.htm
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Medals, Devotional.” newadvent.org/cathen/10111b.htm

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*Pilgrim badges and ampullae.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pilgrim-badges

Historical description, not medical advice.