Ten years ago, in a museum in Siena, Italy, I began photographing relics. A guard reprimanded me, disgusted that I would photograph the sacred bones of saints. I smiled, apologized, put my camera away and inched closer to one of the glass enclosed relics. Astonished, I realized they were chicken bones and recalled a section from a book I had read on Italian relics. A Sienese monk, Paulo, had a pet chicken named Virgil. The chicken was actually a medium for Virgil, who spoke through the chicken, informing the monk about the depths of hell, purgatory and the amazing paradise in heaven. Poor Virgil, born before Christ, was confined to purgatory and not hell because he agreed to be a guide for enlightened mortals like Dante. Bored to the point of madness, Virgil decided to speak through various humans and animals in his spare time in an attempt to help others avoid hell and purgatory. Paulo relayed these messages to his fellow monks, Christians and non-Christians. People pilgrimaged from everywhere to see Paulo translate the enlightened chirps of the chicken.