This paper proposes a socio-semiotic analysis of the question of contamination of the sacred on the basis of contact with relics, which runs through numerous anthropological studies. While anthropological texts describe the idea of transferring the sacred from relics as a chemical operation with clearly defined consequences, they say nothing about the question of meaning. How is meaning being created when belief has it that the sacred is spread about, projected from the relic onto other objects? How can the contamination of the sacred be translated into the contamination of sacred meaning?