Holy Ampulla

The Holy Ampulla or Holy Ampoule (Sainte Ampoule in French) was a glass vial which, from its first recorded use by Pope Innocent II for the anointing of Louis VII in 1131 to the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, held the chrism or anointing oil for the coronation of the kings of France.

The role played by the Sainte Ampoule in the sacre of the kings of France is specified in a document of ca 1260, recently republished and examined in detail.

[2] Hincmar adroitly combined the discovery of these two vials with their unique, unearthly fragrance, the Legend of the Baptism of the Moribund Pagan and the historical memory that St Remigius had baptized Clovis into a new legend identifying one of these vials as the actual vial of Chrism used at the baptism of Clovis to create the new Legend of the Holy Ampulla, (i.e., that the Chrism used by Remigius when he baptized Clovis was miraculously supplied by heaven itself) which Hincmar then used to strengthen his claim that his own archepiscopal see of Reims-—as the possessor of this heaven-sent Chrism—-should therefore be recognized as the divinely chosen site for all subsequent anointings of French kings.

[2] The ampoule, a vial of Roman glass about 1½ inches tall, came to light at Reims in time for the coronation of Louis VII in 1131.

Furthermore, Louis Champagne Prévoteau (a witness of the destruction by Rühl) ensured the preservation of two pieces of the glass vial with some remaining balm on them.

The original Holy Ampulla in its relic receptacle
Late Carolingian ivory relief, c. 870, showing both the two different legends of the origins of the Sainte Ampoule . In the middle two vials are filled by the Hand of God , as the "moribund pagan" waits to the right. At bottom the dove of the Holy Spirit delivers the filled ampoule for the baptism of Clovis I .
The dove of the Holy Spirit brings the Ampoule to Saint Remigius , in a manuscript of Jacob van Maerlant , Spieghel Historiael , West Flanders , ca 1335-55
The reliquary of the ampoule.