Holy Sponge

The Holy Sponge is one of the Instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ. It was dipped in vinegar (or in some translations sour wine), most likely posca, a favorite beverage of Roman soldiers, and offered to Christ to drink during the Crucifixion, according to Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:36; and John 19:29. An object that was identified as the Holy Sponge was later identified and venerated in Palestine, in the Upper Room of the Constantinian Basilica, where St. Sophronius spoke of it, c. 600 AD:

Though a piece of the Holy Sponge, brown with blood, is preserved in Rome in the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, and held in great veneration, this should not be confused with the sponge of Saint Praxedis, which is not the Holy Sponge. When 23 Christians were discovered in the home of St. Praxedis, they were martyred before her very eyes. She had the presence of mind to collect their blood with a sponge and placed it in a well, where she herself was later buried, marked by the disk in the Basilica's floor. The Holy Sponge itself is in the Chapel of the Relics at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.