According to Christian tradition, Jan. 1 marks the 8th day of Jesus’ life. Among other things, it is the day on which — following Jewish custom — the Son of Man would have been circumcised. Catholics abandoned the Feast of the Circumcision a half century ago, but you do you. 
For medieval and early modern Christians, Jesus’ foreskin remained an object of veneration, with numerous reliquary nubs of flesh competing for attention and honor. Charlemagne allegedly offered one to Pope Leo III as a gesture of gratitude for being crowned emperor in 800.
Another, purchased from a vendor in Jerusalem at the end of the 11th century, was brought back to Antwerp as a souvenir from the first Crusade.
Nearly 300 years later, St. Catherine of Siena purported to wear the foreskin as a ring, while the 13th century Austrian mystic Agnes Blannbekin had an even more unusual relationship with the sacred relic.
As she related to a Franciscan scribe, she had long pondered the whereabouts of Christ’s foreskin until she experienced a revelation one year on the Feast of the Circumcision.
Like most Catholic relics, the Holy Prepuce was believed to possess extraordinary powers, including the enhancement of fertility and sexuality. In 1421, the English King Henry V retrieved a foreskin from the French village of Coulombs and presented it as a gift to his wife.
Catherine of Valois soon delivered their first son. Alas, while the relic may have helped bring the future King Henry VI into the world, it did his father little enduring good. The king died less than a year later, felled by dysentery.
The Reformation helped undermine Catholic traditions of all kinds, including its centuries of speculation on the provenance and status of Christ’s foreskin. In 1900, the Church issued an edict than any discussion of the Holy Prepuce would result in excommunication and shunning.
The last public appearance of one of Jesus’ alleged foreskins took place in the Italian village of Calcata, which had hosted the tip of the Redeemer’s penis since 1557.
Residents of Calcata continued to celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision until 1983, when thieves absconded with the foreskin and the jewel-encrusted box that contained it.
