Editing Mary, mother of Jesus (section)

==== Bodily relics ====
As Mary's body is believed by most Christians to have been [[Assumption of Mary|taken up into the glory of heaven]], her bodily relics have been limited to hair, nails and [[Nursing Madonna|breast milk]].

According to [[John Calvin]]'s 1543 ''[[Treatise on Relics]]'', her hair was exposed for veneration in several churches, including in [[Rome]], [[Saint-Flour]], [[Cluny]] and [[Nevers]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Calvin|first= John |author-link= John Calvin|date=1543|title= A Treatise on Relics |url= https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32136/32136-pdf.pdf|publisher=Project Gutenberg EBook|pages=184–187}}</ref>

In this book, Calvin criticized the veneration of the Holy Milk due to the lack of biblical references to it and the doubts about the veracity of such relics:
{{blockquote|With regard to the milk, there is not perhaps a town, a convent, or nunnery, where it is not shown in large or small quantities. Indeed, had the Virgin been a wet-nurse her whole life, or a dairy, she could not have produced more than is shown as hers in various parts. How they obtained all this milk they do not say, and it is superfluous here to remark that there is no foundation in the Gospels for these foolish and blasphemous extravagances.}}

Although the veneration of Marian bodily relics is no longer a common practice today, there are some remaining traces of it, such as the [[Chapel of the Milk Grotto]] in [[Bethlehem]], named after Mary's milk.