Altars, swords, and mendicant knights

[s_taillebois]

Have a historical question relating to possible surviving examples of period swords. Several sources state that when a knight (or other armed person) believed they had to do penance, or felt they had to leave behind their status, it was a accepted practice to hang the sword at the altar of a church. After the battle of Pamplona (1521), Loyola apparently did just that at the pilgrimage church at Monserrat. In some of the legends about Jeannette Pouselle, she supposedly found some of her first weapons in a box behind the altar of a church. (I know that records state an armourer actually provided some of these for her)
The question is, in the older pilgrimage and such churches, do they still possess these weapons? And if these were disposed of, what happened to them?
I assume that some were given to less affluent knights for various reasons, or destroyed?
Couldn't have been a common practice, but over several hundred years the churches probably acquired quite a few weapons in this manner.

[Mike Cartier]

Thats interesting I would do some research throuigh church records for any mention of disposals

[s_taillebois]

Might be interesting, albeit some very specialized research.
Likely something which would require some onsite work. Although it's very likely that our European associates could likely list some Cathedrals/Pilgrimage churches which would have these records/extant swords.
Another weirder potential is the burials in the vaults...a bit too ghoulish and disrespectful for me...but some were laid to rest with their swords. IE Henry 4th seems to have had his somewhere near his effigy.
Could be a way to balance out the research however...likely the altars and crypts might contain a higher percentage of weapons which were actually used.