At the kind request of @Seb_Falk here is a #medievaltwitter thread about the Virgin Mary's girdle, as seen in this pic I posted yesterday:
https://twitter.com/EHopeDoherty/status/1250115863858069505
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Mary's Assumption happened a short time after Christ's death, & is the subject of much medieval interest, retellings, art, mystery plays, etc. The story goes that Mary's coffin opens and her body is taken, at one with her soul, to heaven, as Christ's was after the Resurrection 2/

Doubting Thomas is not present when this happens & is sceptical that this really happened; in response, Mary drops her girdle (or sash) from heaven to Thomas, as proof that she is materially there. The only physical bodies in heaven are thought to be Christ & Mary. 3/

In the Middle Ages, this was a popular story because Thomas also was depicted touching Christ's side-wound, in both gospel narratives & medieval art; worshippers were also encouraged to touch paintings/representations of Christ's wounds as a devotional method, like Thomas 4/

Thomas was often viewed as a saviour because he doubted so others did not have to; he was the reason the wound and the girdle relic were tangibly in the world. Girdle relics were often used medically - prayer rolls, often with arma Christi & sacred heart images 5/

painted on them, were cut to the supposed height of Mary or Jesus (as this was believed to have instantiative qualities) & they would be wrapped around the belly of women in labour to ensure a safe delivery. Most parish churches would have had a Marian girdle to lend out 6/

So Marian girdle relics as birthing equipment would probably have been shared across a wide social spectrum of medieval women. Lea Olsan has a brilliant article on the only surviving birth girdle on @WellcomeLibrary blog: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2015/10/wellcome-ms-632-heavenly-protection-during-childbirth-in-late-medieval-england/
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The girdles didn't have to be prayer rolls, they could also be made of fabric & kept in reliquaries - though not sure that these girdles were lent out for labour! Here's one I photographed from Robert Maniura's amazing talk @CVACinDURHAM @IMEMSDurham in Durham this February 8/

Here's a miniature I found during my MPhil from Alfonso X's Cantigas de Sancta Maria - this one's not associated with any particular bit of text, but could be a Marian girdle, held by priest & supplicant. From what I remember of the colour version, this girdle is also green! 9/

Wealthy women would also bequeath their best jewellery and sometimes also garments to their local Marian icons, among which were often girdles with rich tassels at the ends, that the icon would then wear. But I haven't read anything about these being made into relics. 10/

Mary's dress and her veil were also medieval relics. One of the best studies I have read on this is Annemarie Weyl Carr's chapter ‘Threads of Authority: The Virgin Mary’s Veil in the Middle Ages’, in Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of Investiture, ed. Stewart Gordon. 11/

I think I've run out of things to say now - thanks for reading & here's an image that @DEmiliopics kindly posted on the previous thread, showing the Assumption & a (blue) girdle! First one I've seen where Mary is visible with Christ in heaven as well! FIN/ https://twitter.com/DEmiliopics/status/1250463151218257920