Prior to Michael Morrisey’s visit to Fort Dorchester Elementary School, many of the school’s second-graders did not know what a reliquary was, let alone how to pronounce the word.
By the time Morrisey left, however, the students were not only familiar with the word and its relevance to various cultures, but they had also learned how to make and decorate the object, which is used worldwide to preserve and hold relics.
“For many years, people all over the world have made reliquaries to hold relics,” Morrisey, an artist-in-residence from North Charleston, told the children. “Each culture’s reliquaries are unique to the people of that culture.”
After a PowerPoint presentation in which he showed the students various types of relics and reliquaries spanning from North America to West Africa to Australia, Morrisey sliced and distributed thin blocks of gray clay, which served as reliquaries, and small plastic toys, which the students used as relics.
To add a touch of personality to their reliquaries, the 21 students used pencils as tools to carve designs, words and pictures into the clay, which was roughly one-half inch thick.
Once finished, the children took their artwork home with them for the very same reason that the object they created is used – to preserve a piece of history and remember a moment in time.

Contact Michael Tannebaum at 873-9424 ext. 215 or mtannebaum@journalscene.com