Houston, Texas, Aug 11, 2017 / 03:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- “We are many parts, but we are all one body,” says the refrain of a popular ’80s Church hymn, based on the words of 1 Cor. 12:12.
While we are one body in Christ, if you happen to be a Catholic saint, the many parts of your own body might be spread out all over the world.
Take, for example, St. Catherine of Siena.
A young and renowned third-order Dominican during the Middle Ages, she led an intense life of prayer and penance and is said to have single-handedly ended the Avignon exile of the successors of Peter in the 14th century.
When she died in Rome, her hometown of Siena, Italy, wanted her body. Realizing they would probably get caught if they took her whole corpse, the Siena thieves decided that it would be safer if they just took her head.
When they were stopped on their way out by guards outside of Rome, they said a quick prayer, asking for St. Catherine of Siena’s intercession. The guards opened the bag and did not find the dead head of St. Catherine, but a bag full of rose petals. Once the thieves were back in Siena, Catherine’s head re-materialized, one of the many miracles attributed to the saint.
The head of St. Catherine of Siena was placed in a reliquary in the Basilica of St. Dominic in Siena, where it can still be venerated today, along with her thumb. Her body remains in Rome, her foot is venerated in Venice.
From the Shroud of Turin, or the finger of St. Thomas, to the miraculous blood of St. Januarius, or the brain of St. John Bosco, the Catholic Church keeps and venerates many curious but nevertheless holy artifacts, known as relics, from Jesus and the saints.
To the outsider, the tradition of venerating relics (particularly of the corporeal persuasion) may seem like an outlandishly morbid practice.
But the roots of the tradition pre-date Jesus, and the practice is based in Scripture and centuries of Church teaching.
While it’s one of the most fascinating traditions of the Church, it can also be one of the most misunderstood.
Father Carlos Martins, CC, is a Custos Reliquiarum, which is an ecclesiastically appointed Curate of Relics with the authority to issue relics.
He is a member of Companions of the Cross, and the head of Treasures of the Church, a ministry that aims to give people an experience of the living God through an encounter with the relics of his saints in the form of an exposition. The ministry brings expositions of various relics throughout North America by invitation.
In the following interview with CNA, Fr. Martins answers questions and dispels some common misunderstandings about the tradition of relics.
First of all, what is a relic?
Relics are physical objects that have a direct association with the saints or with Our Lord. They are usually broken down into three classes:
First class relics are the body or fragments of the body of a saint, such as pieces of bone or flesh.
Second class relics are something that a saint personally owned, such as a shirt or book (or fragments of those items).
Third class relics are those items that a saint touched or that have been touched to a first, second, or another third class relic of a saint.
The word relic means “a fragment” or “remnant of a thing that once was by now is no longer.” Thus, we find in antique shops “Civil War relics” or “Relics of the French Revolution.” Obviously, we are not talking about these kinds of relics but rather sacred relics.
Where did the Catholic tradition of venerating saints’ relics come from?
Scripture teaches that God acts through relics, especially in terms of healing. In fact, when surveying what Scripture has to say about sacred relics, one is left with the idea that healing is what relics “do.”
When the corpse of a man was touched to the bones of the prophet Elisha the man came back to life and rose to his feet (2 Kings 13:20-21).
A woman was healed of her hemorrhage simply by touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak (Matthew 9:20-22).
The signs and wonders worked by the Apostles were so great that people would line the streets with the sick so that when Peter walked by at least his shadow might ‘touch’ them (Acts 5:12-15).
When handkerchiefs or aprons that had been touched to Paul were applied to the sick, the people were healed and evil spirits were driven out of them (Acts 19:11-12).
In each of these instances God has brought about a healing using a material object. The vehicle for the healing was the touching of that object. It is very important to note, however, that the cause of the healing is God; the relics are a means through which He acts. In other words, relics are not magic. They do not contain a power that is their own; a power separate from God.
Any good that comes about through a relic is God’s doing. But the fact that God chooses to use the relics of saints to work healing and miracles tells us that He wants to draw our attention to the saints as “models and intercessors” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 828).
When did the veneration of relics begin?
It was present from the earliest days of Christianity, during the Apostolic age itself. The following is an account written by the Church in Smyrna (modern day Izmir, Turkey) when its bishop, St. Polycarp was burned alive:
“We adore Christ, because He is the Son of God, but the martyrs we love as disciples and imitators of the Lord. So we buried in a becoming place Polycarp’s remains, which are more precious to us than the costliest diamonds, and which we esteem more highly than gold.”
(Acts of St. Polycarp, composed approx. 156 AD)
Polycarp was a significant figure. He was converted by John the Apostle, who had baptized him and subsequently ordained him a bishop. Thus we see that from its outset the Church practiced devotion to the remains of the martyrs.
What is the spiritual significance of relics?
I think that St. Jerome puts it best when he said:
“We do not worship relics, we do not adore them, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator. But we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are.” (Ad Riparium, i, P.L., XXII, 907).
We venerate relics only for the sake of worshipping God.
When we collect relics from the body of a saint, what part of the body do we use?
Any part of the saint’s body is sacred and can be placed in a reliquary. Any and every bone may be used. In addition, flesh, hair, and sometimes blood, are also used. Sometimes everything from the tomb is dispersed from it. Sometimes a tomb is preserved.
At what point in the canonization process are items or body parts considered official relics by the Church?
Before the beatification takes place, there is a formal rite whereby the relics are identified and moved (the official word is “translated”) into a church, a chapel, or an oratory. Put simply, the grave is exhumed and the mortal remains are retrieved.
Only the Church has the juridical power to formally recognize the sanctity of an individual. When the Church does this – through beatification and canonization – their relics receive the canonical recognition as being sacred relics.
There is an importance difference between beatification and canonization. Beatification is the declaration by the Church that there is strong evidence that the person in question is among the blessed in heaven. Nevertheless, beatification permits only local devotion. That is, devotion in the country in which the individual lived and died. When Mother Teresa was beatified, for instance, only in India and in her native Albania was her devotion permitted. Her Mass could not be celebrated, for example, in the United States, nor could her relics be placed within its altars.
Whereas beatification permits local devotion, canonization, on the other hand, mandates universal devotion. It grants to the canonized individual the rights of devotion throughout the universal Church.
The Church allows saints’ body parts to be scattered for relics, but forbids the scattering of ashes of the deceased who are cremated. Why is that?
Every person has a right to a burial. This means that the community has a duty to bury the dead.
Every human society and culture throughout time has felt this duty. The dead have always been buried, and archaeology has never discovered a human community that did not practice this. One could rightly say, therefore, that burying the dead forms part of our human cultural DNA.
The theological term for this instinct natural law. Nature has imprinted a law within the human heart that manifests itself in the practice of burying the dead as a final act of love and devotion, or at least an act of respect and propriety.
It should be no surprise, then, that the Church lists as one of the corporal works of mercy burying the dead. Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.
There is flexibility in the kind of burial. Remains may be buried in the ground, in the sea, or above ground within, for example, a cave or columbarium. The point is that a burial occurs within a single place, such that it can be said that the person “occupies” the place as a final location of rest. The human heart longs for this. We see people arriving at graves and speaking to the grave as if they were speaking to the deceased. And they do so differently than they might speak to the dead at home. At the grave, they speak to the dead as if they are in a place.
For this reason, among others, the Church has always taught not only that it is completely beneath the dignity of human body to have its remains “scattered,” but also completely beneath basic human sensibilities. People need a place to encounter and meet the dead in their physicality.
Nevertheless, the saints, as members of the body of Christ, have a right to have their remains venerated. And this right, flowing from their dignity as members of the Body of Christ, supersedes their right to have their remains remain in burial.
What is the proper way to keep relics? Are lay Catholics allowed to have first class relics in their homes?
Relics are very precious. They are not something that was alive at one time and is now dead. In the case of first class relics, we are talking about flesh that is awaiting the general resurrection, where the soul of a saint will be reunited with his physical remains.
As such, the way we treat relics is of the utmost importance. Ideally, relics should be kept in a Church or chapel where they can be made available for public veneration.
The highest honor the Church can give to a relic is to place it within an altar, where the Mass may be celebrated over it. This practice dates from the earliest centuries of the Church. In fact, the sepulchers of the martyrs were the most prized altars for the liturgy.
As an alternative to encasing them within altars, they may be installed within a devotional niche where people may venerate them. Such shrines are important as they afford people a deeper experience of intimacy with the saint.
The Church does not forbid the possession of relics by lay persons. They may even keep them in their homes. However, because of the many abuses that have been committed concerning relics, the Church will no longer issue relics to individuals – not even to clergy.
These abuses included failing to give them proper devotion (neglect), careless mistreatment of them, discarding them, and in some cases, even selling them. The abuses were not necessarily committed by the person to whom the Church had originally bequeathed the relics. But when such persons became deceased, and the relics were passed on by inheritance, they were often subject to great vulnerability. With the eclipse of the Christian culture in the western world, faith can no longer be taken for granted, even among the children of the most devout people.
Thus, to protect relics, the Church only issues them to Churches, chapels, and oratories.
How important is the authenticity of the relic? How does the Church go about determining authenticity of very old relics from the beginning of the Church?
The authenticity is critically important.
But for the ancient saints, determining identity is much easier than you might think. It was tradition to build a church over top of a saint’s grave. That is why St. Peter’s Basilica is where it is, or why St. Paul Outside the Walls is there. Both encompass the tomb for the saint, which is located directly beneath the altar.
Modern archaeology has only affirmed what the ancient tradition has believed.
[…]
It would be wise for the Bishops to avoid endorsing politicians. Politicians lie. Neither party deserves an endorsement.
“Neither party offers a platform”. Sigh. Really? If the church bent over backwards any further to avoid being critical of leftist democrats it would split in half. The most clearly dangerous ideas attacking religion and freedom for individuals in general come from the left. One need only view the history of religious suppression in other nations as they followed the path to socialism and then communism. Its true that neither party is specifically Catholic as this is a secular society, not a religious one. Yet the very reason for this article is the recent loosening of laws saying churches had no right to speak out pro or con regarding politicians whose interests conflicted with any church. Lets notice that this loosening came during a republican administration. Its CERTAIN it would not have happened in a democrat one. Ditto the revised Roe v Wade decision.
Maybe it would be smart of the church higher ups to point out to their congregations which party is the more freedom and religion friendly. But then again so many church higher ups mistake socialism for Christianity. No matter. Some of us, at least, actually CAN see reality when it is right in front of us.
@LJ, great comments!
If facts mattered, there’d be no Democrats … And many fewer clergy.
My friend, don’t forget what the far right Nazis did to religion. Let not history repeat itself.
More NDS…Nazi Derangement Syndrome.
Br. Jaques, try harder.
An ignorant statement. The Nazis were socialists. Socialism is a left wing ideology, not a right wing ideology.
they were tyrants – like building all those concrete bunkers with slave labor
Didn’t we help some of them to S America?
It’s best to stick to principles that never change, rather than to politicians and parties that will betray your trust.
Dear, dear bishops at the USCCB: The People of God have superceded your failed leadership. They’ve taken matters of politics into their own hands. They hardly pay attention to you, if you haven’t noticed.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei, eh?
No, you surely don’t mean that, because — whatever your politics — your side does not always win, and you would not want to say that it was God’s will for your side to lose.
Maybe Vox DiogenesRedux, Vox Dei was what you had in mind?
No. Vox populi, vox Dei is not what DioRe wrote. Neither did DioRe purport, suggest, insinuate, or otherwise imply that he speaks for anyone other than himself.
The ‘People of God’ is ‘defined’ in Gaudium et Spes. Highly recommended reading.
Your statement is parallel to the claim by the Beatles that they were “more popular than Jesus”. The claim was made before I was born, but I never much doubted it. So much the worse for popular opinion! Popular opinion 2000 years ago was, “Crucify Him!” It’s not much different today.
Disappointed by this, with hope that local bishops will see through the progressive perspective of the USCCB. Why wouldn’t we want priests citing defiance of Catholic social doctrine by calling out those candidates who promote abortion, euthanasia, homosexual relations and so on.
Stephen: Did Jesus, St. Peter (our first Pope) or St. Paul say one word against the evil Roman Empire that eventually brutally killed them?
“Church will not endorse candidates…”
Send that memo to Tobin and Cupich and McElroy and Stowe. I am sure that will be news for them
@jpfhayes, AMEN!
A memo to Burk and Strickland might also be in order. Just saying! 🤔
Dormez-vous, Frere Jaques?
Retired members of the hierarchy and those who hold no governing post in a US diocese are not considered active members of the USCCB. Cdl. Burke and Bp. Strickland need no memo. You, however, do.
Good one!
While the USCCB’s reaffirmation of its stance not to endorse political candidates is consistent with canon law and Church tradition, it highlights a deeper pastoral failure: the widespread malformation of Catholic consciences. Many Catholics, influenced by a narrow reading of pro-life teaching, are not truly pro-life in the holistic sense but merely pro-birth or anti-abortion. This reductionist view neglects the Church’s full vision of a consistent ethic of life—from conception to natural death—that includes care for the poor, the marginalized, migrants, the elderly, the environment, and all victims of injustice. In failing to seriously teach and apply Catholic Social Teaching, especially in election seasons, the USCCB has left voters unequipped to exercise informed prudential judgment—the moral reasoning that weighs not only a candidate’s position on abortion, but the full range of life issues. True conscience formation demands helping Catholics discern which candidate or party best reflects the widest range of life-affirming principles, not just anti-abortion rhetoric. Without this, many Catholics vote based on a single issue, often ignoring policies that harm life after birth. If the Church refuses to endorse, it must all the more boldly educate and form—lest Catholics vote in ways that contradict the Gospel’s call to protect all human life and dignity.
Right, Deacon Dom. The Democrats’ murdering of more than a million children a year for the past fifty-two years is offset by the Republicans’ canceling of the school lunch program.
I got it.
So the experiment is complete. It’s undeniably true, there is no issue so evil or insane that it will convince Catholics not to vote for Democrats.
Murdering babies, allowing terrorists to enter across our open borders, legalizing drugs, sexualizing children, promoting sodomy, denying the existence of women — nothing on this list has impacted Catholics’ insistence on voting for Democrats.
You’re known as ‘Deacon Dom’ hereabouts. But, I have to say, you sound more like a bishop.
And — trust me — that’s not a compliment.
brineyman, well said. My guess he’s bucking for a promotion in the ranks. Who knows, maybe even Pope Francis II.
No one is really expecting the Catholic Church to endorse one political candidate or another. Why, the Church hierarchy has a difficult enough time speaking in one voice about Church Teaching let alone weighing in on the merits of political points of view.
I think the IRS ruling simply was addressing something about allowing political candidates EAQUAL ACCESS to Church membership on Church property to propose their ideas. This is something the protestant churches have been doing for a hundred years but the Catholic Church unwilling so as not to jeopardize their sacrosanct tax-exempt status. Once again, the USCCB seems quite adept at obfuscation.
An most unexpected exhibition of wisdom.
Perhaps more of a rice bowl issue that funds initiatives dear to their progressive hearts. The traditional Church enjoy few if any similar revenue streams. One would think that the Church should have a funding stream, strictly charitable donations from within the Church and reject all federal and state revenue with their terms and conditions which is politics at the grass root level.
To understand the USCCB politics, follow the money.
AFCz: You speak more common sense than most of us are acquainted with these days. Thanks.
The USCCB may have made its best decision ever. Otherwise, the divisions among them will dethrone what little credibility and authority they still retain. I’m praying for a saint to emerge from among them……waiting…waiting…waiting…
meiron: A saint among them will appear only when they show a willingness to die for the Faith. When was the last American bishop martyred?
Deacon,
I didn’t know of any off the top, so I asked AI. It replied with Oscar Romero. Discounting that as a technical error, I kept reading, and discovered this fellow named Francis Xavier Ford.
He was a Maryknoll missionary, a bishop, imprisoned and martyred in China in 1952.
meiron, yes, he was American but martyred by the ChiComs. That said, in 250 years we’ve never had an American bishop martyred in America. We did have a Bishop from NY who was imprisoned for his ProLife activities. I guess they didn’t think to kill him in prison.
This is welcome news!
(“Church will not endorse political candidates despite IRS shift.”)
Thank you bishops!
May St. Thomas More intercede for the Catholic Church – political candidates and non-candidates – Catholics one and all.
I am saddened and ashamed to read some of the ultra-snarky, uncharitable and judgmental comments from some of my fellow Catholics who apparently think their “version” of Catholicism is the one and only true version of the faith. Those who take offense at the statement, “Today in the United States, neither political party offers a platform that would serve as a foundation for a true home for faithful Catholics,” show their reluctance to discern the truth about current USA politics. Certainly there were and are Democratic policies that bear much criticism, but to deny that the current MAGA administration is undertaking a variety of cruel and unjust programs that cause much pain and suffering is to look away from the truth. As I see it, the collective wisdom of our US Bishops far supersedes the holier-than-thou musings of some of those snarky commentators on this site.
per Catholic.org: (this priest spoke against tyrants) …….Parishioners offered to escort Father Jerzy by car back to Warsaw, but he was used to being followed and it was late. He and his bodyguard would go alone. The secret police overtook them on a deserted road about a half hour from the town. They held the bodyguard at gunpoint. The captain dragged Father by the cassock to the Fiat. “What are you doing, Gentleman? How can you treat someone like this?”
In a cold fury, the kidnappers beat him with fists and clubs, smashing his skull and face. Unconscious, he was bound, gagged and thrown into the trunk. As they headed for a lonely stretch of woods, the bodyguard hurled himself from the Fiat in a desperate attempt to escape. He made it to a nearby workers hostel and quickly raised the alarm. When they reached the hospital emergency ward, another squad of secret police and a state prosecutor were waiting to take him away. But for the authorities it was too late. The bodyguard had already alerted the Church.
The secret police Fiat sped on with Father Jerzy in the trunk The captain’s men were arguing now, and downing quick shots of vodka. The kidnappers were so terrified that they would be identified that they wanted to leave the priest in the woods. “No,” said another angrily, “the priest must die.”
With the bodyguard’s escape, news of the abduction had swept across Poland. Shock and outrage were nationwide. The parish church overflowed with thousands of people. Every night, larger crowds came to the Masses, praying for Father’s deliverance. Massive security forces surrounded the Warsaw steelworks, where the men were praying at work. Throughout Poland, there were mass meetings in factories and spontaneous prayers in schools. The national crisis mounted. Other churchmen denounced the kidnapping, but Cardinal Glemp refused to comment. The Holy Father declared himself “deeply shaken,” condemning the shameful act and demanding Father Jerzy’s immediate release.
After ten days of waiting, the nation’s patience ran raw. Authorities dispatched large security forces and imposed emergency measures in cities and towns. The last Sunday of October, a record 50,000 people engulfed the parish church at a cold, outdoor Mass for the Homeland. They listened to a tape of Father Jerzy’s last sermon. They hoped and prayed to see him again.
When smiling security officers pulled the battered corpse of Father Jerzy from a reservoir on the river Vistula, about eighty miles from Warsaw, it was tortured beyond recognition. A sack of rocks hung from his legs. His body had been trussed from neck to feet with a nylon rope so that if he resisted he would strangle himself. Several gags had worked free and lay across his clerical collar and cassock, soaked with the priest’s vomit and blood.
Officially, Father spent less than two hours with his kidnappers, but his torture was much too extensive and systematic to have in inflicted in that brief time. Family members present at the autopsy described a body covered head to foot with deep, bloody wounds and marks of torture. His face was deformed. His eyes and forehead had been beated until black. His jaws, nose, mouth were smashed. His face was deformed, and both hands were broken and cut, as if the priest had been shielding it from blows. His fingers and toes dark red and brown from the repeated clubbing. Part of his scalp and large strips of skin on his legs had been torn off.
The autopsy showed a brain concussion and damaged spinal cord. His muscles had been pounded again and again until limp. Internal injuries from the beatings had left blood in his lungs. One of the doctors that performed the post-mortem reported that in all his medical practice he had never seen anyone mutilated internally. The kidneys and intestines were reduced to pulp, as in others cases of prolonged police torture in Poland. When his mouth was opened, the teeth were found completely smashed. In place of his tongue, there was only mush.
A group of priests tried to identify the body, but could not recognize their friend. Identification was finally made by Father’s brother from a birthmark on the side of his chest. Making the full autopsy report public was deemed too explosive by regime and Church officials, who continue to suppress it. Church and independent sources familiar with the report have said it details an even more horrifying picture suffered by the defenseless priest.
“The worst has happened,” declared Lech Walesa, Solidarity’s leader. In Rome, the Holy Father reacted with shock, following the news late into the night. At the parish church in Warsaw, a priest made several attempts to get the mourning population to say the Our Father. When he reached “Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us” the congregation refused to pray with him. It took several more attempts before the people would utter that line, and when they did, they prayed it with great force.
Just as was feared, when the state trial was held for the perpetrators, only the mid-level criminals were sentenced. Those who masterminded the plot got off scott-free. Because they were afraid that Father Jerzey’s final resting place would become a shrine, the state officials pressured his parents to bury him in their distant village. The faithful demanded a huge funeral and that he be buried in the parish cemetery. It was the pleading of Father’s mother that he be buried at the parish church in Warsaw.
Father’s mother had continued to wear a red shawl as long as she believed her son was alive. Now, for the funeral, she wore her black shawl. On the day of the funeral ten thousand steelworkers in hard hats marched past secret police headquarters, chanting “We forgive,” “Greetings from the underground,” and “No freedom without Solidarity.” Half a million people filled the streets leading up to the parish church. Scattered throughout were the forbidden Solidarity banners of factories, schools and offices from every corner of Poland. One read “A strike at the heart of the nation,” another proclaimed, “But they can’t kill the soul.”
Father Jerzy knew that his death would have immense power. “Living I could not achieve it,” he once said when the danger rose. The parish church, Saint Stanislaw’s has become a national shrine. As of the writing of this piece by James Fox in 1985, and unending river of pilgrims flow past Father’s grave. Great mounds of flowers are put there. Even communists visited the grave. A thousand-man volunteer force guards the church yard in teams around the clock.
The murder of the holy, defenseless priest emboldened the populace and encourage many conversions and vocations. All the while the regime continued to defame the priest.
Today, Poland, as the rest of the former Iron Curtain countries of Europe, is a free country and a proud ally of our own country. The enemies of Christ rule Europe no more.
***Author’s note: It was by chance that I was looking for reading material when I happened upon this Reader’s Digest of May, 1985. I could not sleep thinking that Father Jerzy’s story must be made widely known. The title of the original article was “Do you hear the Bells, Father Jerzy?” The author of the piece is John Fox.
Father Jerzy, may you rest in peace.
More nonsense from our spineless American bishops. OF COURSE they will continue to endorse political candidates, in the same manner as they have been doing for the past 50 years at least. They will continue to glad-hand, chuckle, laugh, and pose for photographs with every scandalous “catholic” politician on the left. They will continue to excuse every pro-death, anti-family and anti-religious vote and policy of the “catholic” Democrats. They will continue to scold every Catholic Republican politician for imaginary offenses against Catholic teaching. The political positions of the Catholic bishops of America will continue to be crystal clear and unmistakable. They will ALWAYS have the backs of their Democrat Party financiers.