Wax ex-votos
Ex voto; boti
- Known today as
- Offerings of wax shaped as eyes, limbs, hearts, children, or whole bodies, hung at a shrine in petition or in thanks for a cure.
- Kind
- Sacramental, in 1 older authority
- Earliest authority here
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914)
Revised October 1, 2026: An authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 28, 2026.
Wax ex-votos: what was it used for?
Placed before the image of the saint who was asked, or who had answered, the part healed.
Wax ex-votos: what does modern science say?
Wax, tin, and silver ex-votos are still left at shrines across southern Europe and Latin America.
What Medicine Makes of It
- The Cures at LourdesSeven thousand claims, seventy miracles, and the criteria of Benedict XIV.
Wax ex-votos: what lore surrounds it?
The custom continues the anatomical offerings of the ancient healing sanctuaries of Asclepius. At the Santissima Annunziata in Florence, wax effigies of donors, some life-size and clothed, crowded the church until they had to be hung from the roof.
Wax ex-votos: what did the older authorities say?
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Catholic Encyclopedia divides votive offerings into “things vowed to God or the saints in some trouble or crisis of life” and “things presented in gratitude for a recovery or deliverance.” The commonest “represent the person to whom the favour has been accorded, or the thing that has benefited under the miracle”: a full-length figure of Duke Alessandro de' Medici “was moulded in wax for the Church of the Annunziata at Florence by Benvenuto Cellini,” Edward I offered “a falcon in wax at the shrine of St. Wulstan” when his bird was cured, and “sometimes a wax taper of the height of the sufferer, or even of his dimensions was brought or sent to be burnt where the cure or favour was implored.” It recalls “the parallel of the golden boils and blains placed by Divine command within the Ark.”
Sources
- Duffy, E. (1992). The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400–c. 1580. Yale University Press. Verified against its record · doi:10.2307/j.ctv2jn91ts
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1907–1914), “Votive Offerings.” newadvent.org/cathen/15509a.htm Standard reference work
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Sources
- 2 cited: 1 verified against its record, 1 standard reference work.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 28, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Wax ex-votos.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/wax-ex-votos.
- MLA
“Wax ex-votos.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/wax-ex-votos. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Wax ex-votos. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/wax-ex-votos
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See Also
Also in The Catholic Encyclopedia
Witch ball in The Catholic Encyclopedia · The vernicle in The Catholic Encyclopedia · Witch bottle in The Catholic Encyclopedia · The thurible in The Catholic Encyclopedia · everything The Catholic Encyclopedia names →
Drawing on the same sources: Duffy
Nearby in the alphabet
Weapon-salve · Wax (Beeswax) · White arsenic (Arsenic trioxide) · Water germander · White hellebore · Walnut, middle bark of (The inner bark of Juglans regia) · White lead (Basic lead carbonate) · Vitriol (blue vitriol (copper sulfate), and white vitriol (zinc sulfate))
Historical description, not medical advice.