St. Edmund's Severed Arm
Mystic, Connecticut
Edmund Rich was the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1235, but he wasn't particularly loved by his English king. So he retired to France, died, and was made a Saint in 1246. His body was put on display -- and then someone hacked off his arm.
The Society of the Fathers and Brothers of St. Edmund took the arm with them when they emigrated to England in 1903, then to America in 1954, then to Connecticut in 2002. It's now on display in the tiny outdoor Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption, part of a peaceful retreat on tiny Enders Island, just off the mainland, connected to it by a short bridge. People come here for picnics, not realizing they're only a few feet away from a withered, bony, 800-year-old human limb, its skin black with age, jutting out of a red clerical sleeve. Visitors are welcome to look but not to touch; the arm rests on a golden pillow inside a glass tube.