Relics
RELICS
BASIC R.C. BELIEF The remains of holy persons (parts of their bodies or possessions), entitled to veneration. Every Roman Catholic altar contains two relics of martyred saints. Traditional commentators usually held that relics can be miraculously multiplied, i.e., there could be several heads of a particular saint.
Bodily relics of Mary were venerated until about the 11th century, when talk of her Assumption crowded out any thought of her leaving bodily relics behind.
Jesus’ Crown of Thorns is preserved as a relic in a Roman Catholic Church in Paris, France (EXTERNALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Msgr. O’Sullivan, p. 223).
OTHER WRITINGS From THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, Gibbon, p. 66. “The satisfactory experience that the relics of saints were more valuable than gold or precious stones stimulated the clergy to multiply the relics of the church. Without much regard for the truth or probability they invented names for skeletons and actions for names.”
From THE VATICAN PAPERS by Nino Lo Bello. “Even though the Vatican keeps very good records of its relics everywhere in the world, it is not possible to count or even guess how many there are, in view of the fact that there are nearly 2000 saints in the Catholic calendar. The Vatican quickly destroyed the relics of one saint, not long ago, when Catholic archaeologists discovered that her ribs, unearthed over 200 years ago in a catacomb and preserved in the Vatican since then, were the bones of a large dog.
“Inasmuch as there are, literally, hundreds of thorns taken from Christ’s crown, the multiplicity of such relics everywhere remains for the Vatican a difficult question. What do you do when you know that there are three heads of Saint John the Baptist – one in Saint Mark’s in Venice, another in Damascus and a third in Amiens, France – 28 thumbs and fingers belonging to Saint Dominic, two bodies of Saint Sylvester (one in Rome, the other near Modena), the body of Saint Luke in Venice and in Padua and more than 150 nails from the True Cross?
“Many of the listings in the Vatican relics library, however, are single items for which some kind of authentication is provided in the files. These include, for example, the right arm and head of Saint John, the head of Saint Catherine of Sienna, the full bodies of Saint Lucia, Saint Maximus, Saint Urio, Saint Felicity the Virgin and Saint Julian. Saint Julian himself brought a huge number of relics from Jerusalem, including a part of Saint Matthew’s leg, a tooth from Saint Mark the Evangelist, the skull of Saint James the Less, the Holy Sponge which was offered to Christ’s lips, some of the Virgin Mary;’s hair, a jar full of earth from Golgotha (soaked with the blood of Christ), and the jawbone of Saint Anthony, to mention some of the eminent ones. The jawbone lies in a bejewelled case in the Basilica of Saint Anthony, and what invariably astonished visitors from abroad is how Italian worshippers behave in its presence: many people push and shove to kiss the case, rub their babies against it, caress it with their hands and rub lottery tickets over it.”
POST VATICAN II The Roman Catholic Church admits there have been abuses concerning relics, and is trying to stamp these out. Most modern theologians don’t accept miraculous multiplication of relics and say where two or more exist, only one is genuine (but as they are not certain which one is genuine, veneration may be paid to each of them). Relics in altars now have to be of saints, not martyrs. Scriptures used are II Kings 2:8-14; Matthew 9:20-21; Acts 5:15-16;
19:12.