Image of Guadalupe

[The Valkyrie]

All this talk of pious frauds reminds me of the joke about a Christian who visits the Holy Land, where a huckster sells him the skull of John the Baptist. 

On a second pilgrimage years later, (as usually happens  in jokes like this) he is approached by the same conman who again offers to sell him the skull of John the Baptist.

‘You scoundrel!’, says the aggrieved tourist. ‘You sold me John’s skull ten years ago!’

‘Ah, yes. But THIS skull is from when he was a much younger man.’

Boru

I've read awhile ago that back in the Middle Ages the Church countered the arguements against the 'multiplication of relics' by saying that God made copies of the relics so more believers were able to see them. Not sure that it was from a legit historical source though.

I would not be surprised.