A remarkable thirteenth-century reliquary shrine of Saint Odilia kept in the Church of Saint Odulphus in Borgloon (Belgium) – notably the oldest dated example of panel paintings in the Low Countries – has been the topic of several art historical studies. These studies attempt to unravel the iconography of the painted panels, indicating how they should be interpreted, and in which order. The difficulty of this, however, lies in the fact that the reliquary shrine has been fully overpainted but also dramatically modified in the seventeenth century to fit into a smaller location. In the process, the original roof panels were modified, with sawn-off elements lost to time. The reliquary shrine, commissioned by the Order of the Holy Cross in Huy (Belgium) in 1292, depicts multiple scenes, on all sides, that illustrate the life of Saint Odilia.

Scholars have regularly drawn on published legends of Odilia from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but no consensus on the source of the images has ever been reached. The current article, however, draws attention to a much earlier, fifteenth-century manuscript of the legend of Saint Odilia that is kept in the library of the University of Liège. The manuscript, written by Wolterus of Nijmegen in 1467 with references to an even older version from 1291, has rarely been associated with the reliquary shrine, but it is of vital importance for the analysis and interpretation of the paintings. In bringing this version of the legend of Saint Odilia together with recent material-technical research carried out at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Brussels, a new iconographic analysis and reconstruction of the reliquary shrine is presented here.

It can now be verified that each panel had to be read from left to right, with the first roof scene with the arrival of the virgins in Rome originally positioned above the murder scene in Cologne. The second scene on the roof, where Saint Ursula receives the Pope’s blessing, was placed above the excavation and translation of Odilia’s relics. Additionally, the depiction of Saint Ursula with a banner can be seen as a highly unusual example of panel painting in the Low Countries, and it probably even shows the oldest depiction of the Pope in relation to the Saint Ursula cult. Finally, this study shows how the shrine was used: each pilgrim was given the opportunity to experience the legendary life of Saint Odilia in chronological order by walking around the reliquary shrine not once, but twice.

博尔赫隆（比利时）的圣奥杜弗斯教堂中保存着一座引人注目的十三世纪圣奥迪利亚圣物神龛，尤其是低地国家最古老的板画样本，一直是多项艺术史研究的主题。这些研究试图解开彩绘面板的图像，表明应如何解释它们以及按什么顺序解释它们。然而，这样做的困难在于，圣物圣殿已被完全粉刷过，但在 17 世纪也进行了巨大的修改，以适应较小的位置。在此过程中，原来的屋顶板被修改，锯掉的元素随着时间的流逝而消失。这座圣物圣殿是由圣十字勋章于 1292 年在比利时休伊 (Huy) 委托建造的，从各个侧面描绘了多个场景，展示了圣奥迪利亚的生活。

学者们经常引用十七、十八世纪出版的奥迪莉亚传说，但对于这些图像的来源尚未达成共识。然而，当前的文章引起了人们对保存在列日大学图书馆的一份更早的十五世纪圣奥迪利亚传说手稿的关注。这份手稿由奈梅亨的沃尔特鲁斯 (​​Wolterus of Nijmegen) 于 1467 年撰写，参考了 1291 年的更旧版本，很少与圣物圣殿联系在一起，但它对于分析和解释绘画至关重要。通过将这个版本的圣奥迪利亚传说与布鲁塞尔皇家文化遗产研究所 (KIK-IRPA) 最近进行的材料技术研究结合起来，这里提出了对圣物圣地的新的图像分析和重建。

现在可以证实，每个面板都必须从左到右阅读，处女到达罗马的第一个屋顶场景最初位于科隆谋杀现场的上方。屋顶上的第二个场景是圣乌尔苏拉接受教皇的祝福，位于奥迪莉亚遗物的挖掘和翻译上方。此外，圣乌苏拉举着旗帜的描绘可以被视为低地国家面板绘画的一个非常不寻常的例子，它甚至可能显示了与圣乌苏拉崇拜有关的最古老的教皇描绘。最后，这项研究展示了圣殿的使用方式：每位朝圣者都有机会按照时间顺序绕着圣物圣殿走两圈，体验圣奥迪利亚的传奇一生。