Vatican Museums

The Capsella Africana, a silver case-reliquary donated to Pope Leo XIII in 1888 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, archbishop of Carthage, was found in 1884 in Numidia, Algeria, at Henchir Zirara (or Aïn Zirara) near Constantina, in an early Christian basilica possibly dating from the sixth century A.D., inside a structure identifiable as a “Tomb for relics”.
It is decorated with embossed scenes of a Christian character, with highly symbolic content: on one side of the case, eight sheep move from buildings in the form of a basilica towards the Lamb, in the centre, topped with a jewelled cross; on the other side, between two palm trees, a deer and a doe drink from the quadriflus amnis that flows from the heavenly mountain, topped with a jewelled Christogram. On the lid, between two lighted candles, there is a depiction of the martyr whose relics the capsella was intended to preserve; he has a crown in his hands and is positioned on a mountain from which four rivers spring. The divine hand emerging from the clouds suspends another jewelled crown of plants.