CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Relics</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12734a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="An object, notably part of the body or clothes, remaining as a memorial of a departed saint"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="12734a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/r.htm">R</a> > Relics</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Relics</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>The word <em>relics</em> comes from the Latin <em>reliquiae</em> (the counterpart of the Greek <em>leipsana</em>) which already before the propagation of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> was used in its modern sense, viz., of some object, notably part of the body or clothes, remaining as a memorial of a departed saint. The veneration of relics, in fact, is to some extent a primitive <a href="../cathen/08050b.htm">instinct</a>, and it is associated with many other religious systems besides that of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. At Athens the supposed remains of Oedipus and Theseus enjoyed an <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> which it is very difficult to distinguish from a religious cult (see for all this <a href="../cathen/11786b.htm">Pfister</a>, "Reliquienkult in Altertum", I, 1909), while Plutarch gives an account of the translation of the bodies of Demetrius (Demetr. iii) and Phocion (Phoc. xxxvii) which in many details anticipates the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> practice of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>. The bones or ashes of Aesculapius at Epidaurus, of Perdiccas I at Macedon, and even—if we may trust the statement of the Chronicon Paschale (Dindorf, p. 67)—of the Persian Zoroaster (Zarathustra), were treated with the deepest veneration. As for the Far East, the famous story of the distribution of the relics of <a href="../cathen/03028b.htm">Buddha</a>, an incident which is believed to have taken place immediately after his death, seems to have found remarkable confirmation in certain modern archaeological discoveries. (See "Journ. of R. Asiatic Society", 1909, pp. 1056 sqq.). In any case the extreme development of relic-worship amongst the <a href="../cathen/03028b.htm">Buddhists</a> of every <a href="../cathen/13674a.htm">sect</a> is a fact beyond dispute.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2 id="section1">Doctrine regarding relics</h2> <p>The teaching of the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> with regard to the veneration of relics is summed up in a <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> of the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> (Sess. XXV), which enjoins on <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and other <a href="../cathen/11537b.htm">pastors</a> to instruct their flocks that "the holy bodies of <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> and of others now living with <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>—which bodies were the living members of Christ and 'the temple of the Holy Ghost' (<a href="../bible/1co006.htm#vrs19">1 Corinthians 6:19</a>) and which are by Him to be raised to eternal life and to be glorified are to be <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerated</a> by the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, for through these [bodies] many benefits are bestowed by <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> on men, so that they who affirm that veneration and <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> are not due to the relics of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, or that these and other sacred monuments are uselessly <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a> by the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, and that the places dedicated to the memories of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> are in vain visited with the view of obtaining their aid, are wholly to be condemned, as the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has already long since condemned, and also now condemns them." Further, the council insists that "in the invocation of <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> the veneration of relics and the sacred use of images, every <a href="../cathen/14339a.htm">superstition</a> shall be removed and all filthy lucre abolished." Again, "the visitation of relics must not be by any perverted into revellings and drunkenness." To secure a proper check upon abuses of this kind, "no new <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a> are to be acknowledged or new relics recognized unless the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> has taken cognizance and approved thereof." Moreover, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, in all these matters, is directed to obtain accurate information to take council with <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theologians</a> and <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> men, and in cases of <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> or exceptional difficulty to submit the matter to the sentence of the <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> and other <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> of the province, "yet so that nothing new, or that previously has not been usual in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, shall be resolved on, without having first consulted the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>."</p> <p>The justification of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> practice, which is indirectly suggested here by the reference to the bodies of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> as formerly <a href="../cathen/14495a.htm">temples</a> of the Holy Ghost and as destined hereafter to be <a href="../cathen/05551b.htm">eternally</a> glorified, is further developed in the authoritative "Roman Catechism" drawn up at the instance of the same council. Recalling the marvels witnessed at the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tombs</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>, where "the blind and cripples are restored to health, the dead recalled to life, and *devils?* expelled from the bodies of men" the Catechism points out that these are facts which "<a href="../cathen/01383c.htm">St. Ambrose</a> and <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a>, most unexceptionable witnesses, declare in their writings that they have not merely heard and read about, as many did but have seen with their own eyes", (Ambrose, Epist. xxii, nn. 2 and 17, Augustine, Serm. cclxxxvi, c.v.; <a href="../fathers/120122.htm"><em>City of God</em> XXII</a>, "Confess.", ix). And from thence, turning to Scriptural analogies, the compilers further argue: "If the clothes, the kerchiefs (<a href="../bible/act019.htm#vrs12">Acts 19:12</a>), if the shadow of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> (<a href="../bible/act005.htm#vrs15">Acts 5:15</a>), before they departed from this life, banished diseases and restored strength, who will have the hardihood to deny that <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> wonderfully works the same by the sacred ashes, the bones, and other relics of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>? This is the lesson we have to learn from that dead body which, having been accidentally let down into the sepulchre of Eliseus, "when it had touched the bones of the Prophet, instantly came to life" (<a href="../bible/2ki013.htm#vrs21">2 Kings 13:21</a>, and cf. <a href="../bible/sir048.htm#vrs14">Sirach 48:14</a>). We may add that this <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracle</a> as well as the veneration shown to the bones of <a href="../cathen/08506a.htm">Joseph</a> (see <a href="../bible/exo013.htm#vrs19">Exodus 13:19</a> and <a href="../bible/jos024.htm#vrs32">Joshua 24:32</a>) only gain additional force from their apparent contradiction to the ceremonial <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> against defilement, of which we read in <a href="../bible/num019.htm#vrs11">Numbers 19:11-22</a>. The influence of this Jewish shrinking from contact with the dead so far lingered on that it was found <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> in the "Apostolical Constitutions" (vi, 30) to issue a strong warning against it and to argue in favour of the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> cult of relics.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>According to the more common opinion of <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theologians</a>, relics are to be <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a>; <a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">St. Thomas</a>, in <a href="../summa/4025.htm#article6">Summa III:25:6</a>, does not seem to consider even the word <em>adorare</em> inappropriate—<em>cultu duliae relativae</em>, that is to say with a veneration which is not that of <em>latria</em> (divine worship) and which though directed primarily to the material objects of the cult—i.e., the bones, ashes, garments, etc.—does not rest in them, but looks beyond to the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> they commemorate as to its formal term. Hauck, Kattenbusch, and other non-Catholic writers have striven to show that the utterances of the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> are in contradiction to what they admit to be the "very cautious" language of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> scholastics, and notably St. Thomas. The latter urges that those who have an affection to any <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> hold in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> all that was intimately connected with him. Hence, while we <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> and venerate the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> who were so dear to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, we also venerate all that belonged to them, and particularly their bodies, which were once the <a href="../cathen/14495a.htm">temples</a> of the Holy Spirit, and which are some day to be conformed to the glorious body of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus Christ</a>. "whence also", adds St. Thomas, "<a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> fittingly does <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> to such relics by performing <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a> in their presence [<em>in earum praesentia</em>]." It will be seen that this closely accords with the terms used by the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> and that the difference consists only in this, that the Council says per quae—"through which many benefits are bestowed on <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a>"—while St. Thomas speaks of <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a> worked "in their presence". But it is quite unnecessary to attach to the words <em>per quae</em> the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of physical <a href="../cathen/03459a.htm">causality</a>. We have no reason to suppose that the council meant more than that the relics of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> were the occasion of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> working <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a>. When we read in the <a href="../bible/act000.htm">Acts of the Apostles</a>, xix, 11, 12, "And <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> wrought by the hand of Paul more than common <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a>. So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out from them" there can be no inexactitude in saying that these also were the things by which (<em>per quae</em>) <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> wrought the cure.</p> <p>There is nothing, therefore, in <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">Catholic teaching</a> to justify the statement that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> encourages <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> in a magical virtue, or physical curative efficacy residing in the relic itself . It may be admitted that <a href="../cathen/04595b.htm">St. Cyril of Jerusalem</a> (A.D. 347), and a few other patristic and <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> writers, apparently speak of some power inherent in the relic. For example, St. Cyril, after referring to the <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracle</a> wrought by the body of Eliseus, declares that the restoration to life of the corpse with which it was in contact took place: "to show that even though the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> is not present a virtue resides in the body of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, because of the righteous <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> which has for so many years tenanted it and used it as its minister". And he adds, "Let us not be foolishly incredulous as though the thing had not happened, for if handkerchiefs and aprons which are from without, touching the body of the diseased, have raised up the sick, how much more should the body itself of the Prophet raise the dead?" (Cat., xviii, 16.) But this seems rather to belong to the personal view or manner of speech of St. Cyril. He regards the <a href="../cathen/03696b.htm">chrism</a> after its <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a> "as no longer simple ointment but the gift of Christ and by the presence of His <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">Godhead</a> it causes in us the Holy Ghost" (Cat., xxi, 3); and, what is more striking, he also declares that the meats <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> to idols, "though in their own nature plain and simple become profane by the invocation of the <a href="../cathen/04710a.htm">evil spirit</a>" (Cat., xix, 7)—all of which must leave us very <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> as to his real <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> in any physical virtue inherent in relics. Be this as it may, it is <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, with regard to the veneration of relics has defined nothing, more than what was stated above. Neither has the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> ever pronounced that any particular relic, not even that commonly <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerated</a> as the wood of the Cross, as authentic; but she approves of <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> being paid to those relics which with reasonable probability are believed to be genuine and which are invested with due <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> sanctions.</p> <h2 id="section2">Early history</h2> <p>Few points of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> can be more satisfactorily traced back to the earliest ages of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> than the veneration of relics. The classical instance is to be found in the letter written by the inhabitants of <a href="../cathen/14060b.htm">Smyrna</a>, about 156, describing the death of <a href="../cathen/12219b.htm">St. Polycarp</a>. After he had been burnt at the stake, we are told that his faithful disciples wished to carry off his remains, but the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> urged the Roman officer to refuse his consent for fear that the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> "would only abandon the Crucified One and begin to worship this man". Eventually, however, as the Smyrnaeans say, "we took up his bones, which are more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold, and laid them in a suitable place, where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together, as we are able, in <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">gladness</a> and <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">joy</a>, and to celebrate the birthday of his <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a>." This is the keynote which is echoed in a multitude of similar passages found a little later in the patristic writers of both East and West. Harnack's tone in referring to this development is that of an unwilling witness overwhelmed by evidence which it is useless to resist. "Most offensive", he writes, "was the worship of relics. It flourished to its greatest extent as early as the fourth century and no Church doctor of repute restricted it. All of them rather, even the Cappadocians, countenanced it. The numerous <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a> which were wrought by bones and relics seemed to confirm their worship. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> therefore, would not give up the practice, although a violent attack was made upon it by a few cultured <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">heathens</a> and besides by the <a href="../cathen/09591a.htm">Manichæans</a>" (Harnack, "Hist. of Dog.", tr., IV, 313).</p> <p>From the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> standpoint there was no extravagance or abuse in this cult as it was recommended and indeed taken for granted, by writers like <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a>, <a href="../cathen/01383c.htm">St. Ambrose</a>, <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a>, <a href="../cathen/07016a.htm">St. Gregory of Nyssa</a>, <a href="../cathen/08452b.htm">St. Chrysostom</a>, <a href="../cathen/07010b.htm">St. Gregory Nazianzen</a>, and by all the other great <a href="../cathen/05072b.htm">doctors</a> without exception. To give detailed references besides those already cited from the <a href="../cathen/13120c.htm">Roman Catechism</a> would be superfluous. Suffice it to point out that the inferior and relative nature of the <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> due to relics was always kept in view. Thus <a href="../cathen/08341a.htm">St. Jerome</a> says ("Ad Riparium", i, P.L., XXII, 907): "We do not worship, we do not adore [<em>non colimus, non adoramus</em>], for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate [<em>honoramus</em>] the relics of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> in order the better to adore Him whose <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> they are." And <a href="../cathen/04592b.htm">St. Cyril of Alexandria</a> writes ("Adv. Julian.", vi, P.G. LXXVI, 812): "We by no means consider the <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> to be gods, nor are we wont to bow down before them <a href="../cathen/01151a.htm">adoringly</a>, but only relatively and reverentially [<em>ou latreutikos alla schetikos kai timetikos</em>]." Perhaps no single writing supplies a more striking illustration of the importance attached to the veneration of relics in the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> practice of the fourth century than the panegyric of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a> St. Theodore by <a href="../cathen/07016a.htm">St. Gregory of Nyssa</a> (P.G., XLVI, 735-48). Contrasting the horror produced by an ordinary corpse with the veneration paid to the body of a saint the preacher expatiates upon the adornment lavished upon the building which had been erected over the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr's</a> resting place, and he describes how the worshipper is led to approach the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> "believing that to touch it is itself a sanctification and a blessing and if it be permitted to carry off any of the dust which has settled upon the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr's</a> resting place, the dust is accounted as a great gift and the mould as a precious treasure. And as for touching the relics themselves, if that should ever be our <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happiness</a>, only those who have experienced it and who have had their wish gratified can <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> how much this is desirable and how worthy a recompense it is of aspiring <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>" (col. 740).</p> <p>This passage, like many others that might be quoted, dwells rather upon the <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr's</a> resting place and upon that of his mortal remains collected as a whole and honourably entombed. Neither is it quite easy to determine the period at which the practice of venerating minute fragments of bone or cloth, small parcels of dust, etc., first became common. We can only say that it was widespread early in the fourth century, and that dated inscriptions upon blocks of stone, which were probably altar slabs, afford evidence upon the point which is quite conclusive. One such, found of late years in Northern Africa and now preserved in the Christian Museum of the Louvre, bears a list of the relics probably once cemented into a shallow circular cavity excavated in its surface. Omitting one or two words not adequately explained, the inscription runs: "A holy memorial [<em>memoria sancta</em>] of the wood of the Cross, of the land of Promise where Christ was born, the Apostles Peter and Paul, the names of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> Datian, Donatian, <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">Cyprian</a>, Nemesianus, Citinus, and <a href="../cathen/15412b.htm">Victoria</a>. In the year of the Province 320 [i.e. A.D. 359] Benenatus and Pequaria set this up" ("Corp. Inscr. Lat.", VIII, n. 20600).</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>We learn from <a href="../cathen/04595b.htm">St. Cyril of Jerusalem</a> (before 350) that the wood of the Cross, discovered c. 318, was already distributed throughout the world; and <a href="../cathen/07016a.htm">St. Gregory of Nyssa</a> in his <a href="../cathen/07448a.htm">sermons</a> on the forty <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>, after describing how their bodies were burned by command of the <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecutors</a>, explains that "their ashes and all that the fire had spared have been so distributed throughout the world that almost every province has had its share of the blessing. I also myself have a portion of this holy gift and I have laid the bodies of my <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> beside the ashes of these warriors, that in the hour of the <a href="../cathen/12792a.htm">resurrection</a> they may be awakened together with these highly privileged comrades" (P.G., XLVI, 764). We have here also a hint of the explanation of the widespread practice of seeking burial near the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tombs</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>. It seems to have been felt that when the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a> of the blessed <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> on the day of general were once more united to their bodies, they would be accompanied in their passage to <a href="../cathen/07170a.htm">heaven</a> by those who lay around them and that these last might on their account find more ready acceptance with <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>.</p> <p>We may note also that, while this and other passages suggest that no great repugnance was felt in the East to the division and dismemberment of the bodies of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, in the West, on the other hand, particularly at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, the greatest respect was shown to the holy dead. The mere unwrapping or touching of the body of a <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a> was considered to be a terribly perilous enterprise, which could only be set about by the holiest of <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">ecclesiastics</a>, and that after <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> and <a href="../cathen/05789c.htm">fasting</a>. This <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> lasted until the late <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> and is illustrated, for example, in the life of <a href="../cathen/07519c.htm">St. Hugh of Lincoln</a>, who excited the surprise of his episcopal contemporaries by his audacity in examining and translating relics which his colleagues dared not disturb. In the Theodosian Code the translation, division, or dismemberment of the remains of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> was expressly forbidden ("Nemo martyrem distrahat", Cod. Theod., IX, xvii, 7); and somewhat later <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">Gregory the Great</a> seems in very emphatic terms to attest the continuance of the same tradition. He professed himself sceptical regarding the alleged "customs of the Greeks" of readily transferring the bodies of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> from place to place, declaring that throughout the West any interference with these <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a> remains was looked upon as a sacrilegious act and that numerous prodigies had struck terror into the hearts of even well meaning men who had attempted anything of the sort. Hence, though it was the Empress Constantina herself who had asked him for the head or some portion of the body of <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>, he treated the request as an impossible one, explaining that, to obtain the supply of relics needful in the <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a> of churches, it was customary to lower into the Confession of the Apostles as far as the second "cataract"—so we learn from a letter to <a href="../cathen/07470a.htm">Pope Hermisdas</a> in 519 (Thiel, "Epist. gen.", I, 873) ] a box containing portions of silk or cloth, known as <em>brandea</em>, and these brandea, after lying for a time in contact with the remains of the holy Apostles, were henceforth treated as relics. <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">Gregory</a> further offers to send Constantina some filings from St. Peter's chains, a form of present of which we find frequent mention in his correspondence (<a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory</a>, "Epist.", Mon. Germ. Hist., I, 264 -66). It is <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> that long before this time an extended conception of the nature of a relic, such as this important letter reveals, had gradually grown up. Already when <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> wrote (c. 325) such objects as the hair of St. James or the oil multiplied by Bishop Narcissus (<a href="../fathers/250107.htm"><em>Church History</em> VII.39</a>, and <a href="../fathers/250106.htm"><em>Church History</em> VI.9</a>) were clearly <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerated</a> as relics, and <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a>, in his <a href="../fathers/120122.htm"><em>City of God</em> (XXII.8)</a>, gives numerous instances of <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a> wrought by soil from the Holy Land flowers which had touched a <a href="../cathen/12762a.htm">reliquary</a> or had been laid upon a particular altar, oil from the lamps of the church of a <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a>, or by other things not less remotely connected with the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> themselves. Further, it is noteworthy that the Roman prejudice against translating and dividing seems only to have applied to the actual bodies of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> reposing in their <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tombs</a>. It is <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory</a> himself who enriches a little cross, destined to hang round the neck as an <em>encolpion</em>, with filings both from St. Peter's chains and from the gridiron of St. Laurence ("Epist.", Mon. Germ. Hist., I, 192). Before the year 350, <a href="../cathen/04595b.htm">St. Cyril of Jerusalem</a> three times over informs us that the fragments of the wood of the Cross found by St. Helen had been distributed piecemeal and had filled the whole world (Cat., iv, 10; x, 19; xiii, 4). This implies that Western <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrims</a> felt no more impropriety in receiving than the Eastern <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> in giving. </p> <p>During the Merovingian and <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Carlovingian</a> period the cultus of relics increased rather than diminished. <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory of Tours</a> abounds in stories of the marvels wrought by them, as well as of the practices used in their <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a>, some of which have been thought to be analogous to those of the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> "incubations" (De Glor. Conf., xx); neither does he omit to mention the <a href="../cathen/06249a.htm">frauds</a> occasionally perpetrated by scoundrels through motives of <a href="../cathen/02148b.htm">greed</a>. Very significant, as Hauck (Kirchengesch. Deutschl., I 185) has noticed is the prologue to the text of the Salic Laws, probably written, by a contemporary of <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory of Tours</a> in the sixth century. "That nation", it says, "which has undoubtedly in battle shaken off the hard yoke of the Romans, now that it has been illuminated through Baptism, has adorned the bodies of the <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a> <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> with gold and precious stones, those same bodies which the Romans burnt with fire, and pierced with the sword, or threw to wild beasts to be torn to pieces." In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> we find from the first a strong tradition in the same sense derived from <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory</a> himself. <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Bede</a> records (Hist. Eccl., I, xxix) how the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> "forwarded to Augustine all the things needful for the worship and service of the church, namely, <a href="../cathen/01357e.htm">sacred vessels</a>, altar linen, church ornaments, <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priestly</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerical</a> vestments, relics of the holy Apostles and <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> and also many books". The Penitential ascribed to St. Theodore, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, which certainly was known in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> at an early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a>, declares that "the relics of the saints are to be venerated", and it adds, seemingly in connexion with the same <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a>, that "If possible a candle is to burn there every night" (Haddan and Stubbs, "Councils", III, 191). When we remember the candles which <a href="../cathen/01309d.htm">King Alfred</a> constantly kept burning before his relics, the authenticity of this clause in Theodore's Penitential seems the more probable. Again the relics of English <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, for example those of <a href="../cathen/04578a.htm">St. Cuthbert</a> and St. Oswald, soon became famous, while in the case of the latter we hear of them all over the continent. Mr. Plummer (Bede, II, 159-61) has made a short list of them and shows that they must have been transported into the remotest part of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>. After the <a href="../cathen/11045a.htm">Second Council of Nicaea</a>, in 7 87, had insisted with special urgency that relics were to be used in the <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a> of churches and that the omission was to be supplied if any church had been <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> without them the English Council of Celchyth (probably Chelsea) commanded that relics were to be used, and in default of them the Blessed Eucharist. But the developments of the veneration of relics in the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> were far too vast to be pursued further. Not a few of the most famous of the early <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> inscriptions are connected with the same matter. It must suffice to mention the famous Clematius inscription at <a href="../cathen/04116a.htm">Cologne</a>, recording the translation of the remains of the so called Eleven thousand Virgins (see Krause, "Inscrip d. Rheinlande", no. 294, and, for a discussion of the legend, the admirable essay on the subject by <a href="../cathen/15670a.htm">Cardinal Wiseman</a>.</p> <h2 id="section3">Abuses</h2> <p>Naturally it was impossible for popular enthusiasm to be roused to so high a pitch in a matter which easily lent itself to <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a>, <a href="../cathen/06249a.htm">fraud</a> and <a href="../cathen/02148b.htm">greed</a> of gain, without at least the occasional occurrence of many grave abuses. As early as the end of the fourth century, <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a> denouncing certain impostors wandering about in the habit of <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, describes them as making profit by the sale of spurious relics ("De op. monach.", xxviii and cf. <a href="../cathen/08186a.htm">Isidore</a>, "De. div. off.", ii, 16). In the Theodosian Code the sale of relics is forbidden ("Nemo martyrem mercetur", VII, ix, 17), but numerous stories, of which it would be easy to collect a long series, beginning with the writings of <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory the Great</a> and <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">St. Gregory of Tours</a>, prove to us that many unprincipled <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> found a means of enriching themselves by a sort of trade in these objects of devotion, the majority of which no doubt were <a href="../cathen/06249a.htm">fraudulent</a>. At the beginning of the ninth century, as M. Jean Guiraud had shown (Mélanges G. B. de Rossi, 73-95), the exportation of the bodies of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> from <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> had assumed the dimensions of a regular commerce, and a certain <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacon</a>, Deusdona, acquired an unenviable <a href="../cathen/11126b.htm">notoriety</a> in these transactions (see Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XV, <em>passim</em>). What was perhaps in the long run hardly less disastrous than <a href="../cathen/06249a.htm">fraud</a> or <a href="../cathen/02148b.htm">avarice</a> was the keen rivalry between religious centres, and the eager credulity fostered by the desire to be known as the possessors of some unusually startling relic. We learn from Cassian, in the fifth century, that there were <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> who seized upon certain <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs'</a> bodies by force of arms, defying the authority of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, and this was a story which we find many times repeated in the Western chronicles of a later date.</p> <p>In such an atmosphere of lawlessness <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> relics came to abound. There was always a disposition to regard any human remains accidentally discovered near a church or in the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> as the body of a <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a>. Hence, though men like <a href="../cathen/02035a.htm">St. Athanasius</a> and <a href="../cathen/09732b.htm">St. Martin of Tours</a> set a good example of caution in such cases, it is to be feared that in the majority of instances only a very narrow interval of time intervened between the suggestion that a particular object might be, or ought to be, an important relic, and the conviction that tradition attested it actually to be such. There is no reason in most cases for supposing the existence of deliberate <a href="../cathen/06249a.htm">fraud</a>. The persuasion that a benevolent Providence was likely to send the most precious <em>pignora sanctorum</em> to deserving clients, the practice already noticed of attributing the same <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a> to objects which had touched the shrine as attached to the contents of the shrine itself, the custom of making facsimiles and imitations, a custom which persists to our own day in the replicas of the Vatican <a href="../cathen/13641b.htm">statue</a> of St. Peter or of the Grotto of Lourdes, all these are causes adequate to account for the multitude of unquestionably spurious relics with which the treasuries of great <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> churches were crowded. In the case of the Nails with which <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus Christ</a> was crucified, we can point to definite instances in which that which was at first <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerated</a> as having touched the original came later to be <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honoured</a> as the original itself. Join to this the large license given to the occasional unscrupulous rogue in an age not only utterly uncritical but often curiously morbid in its realism, and it becomes easy to understand the multiplicity and extravagance of the entries in the relic inventories of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and other countries.</p> <p>On the other hand it must not be supposed that nothing was done by <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> authority to secure the faithful against deception. Such tests were applied as the historical and antiquarian <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a> of that day was capable of devising. Very often however, this test took the form of an appeal to some <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miraculous</a> sanction, as in the well known story repeated by St. Ambrose, according to which, when <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> arose which of the three crosses discovered by St. Helena was that of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, the healing of a sick man by one of them dispelled all further hesitation. Similarly Egbert, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15042a.htm">Trier</a>, in 979, doubting as to the authenticity of what purported to be the body of St. Celsus, "lest any suspicion of the <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a> of the holy relics should arise, during Mass after the offertory had been sung, threw a joint of the finger of St. Celsus wrapped in a cloth into a thurible full of burning coals, which remained unhurt and untouched by the fire the whole time of the Canon" (Mabillon "Acta SS. Ord. Ben.", III, 658).</p> <p>The decrees of <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synods</a> upon this subject are generally practical and sensible, as when, for example, Bishop Quivil of <a href="../cathen/05708a.htm">Exeter</a>, in 1287 after recalling the prohibition of the General Council of Lyons against venerating recently found relics unless they were first of all approved by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">Roman Pontiff</a>, adds: "We command the above prohibition to be carefully observed by all and <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> that no <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> shall expose relics for sale, and that neither stones, nor fountains, trees, wood, or garments shall in any way be <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerated</a> on account of dreams or on fictitious grounds." So, again, the whole procedure before <a href="../cathen/13096c.htm">Clement VII</a> (the <a href="../cathen/01582a.htm">antipope</a>) in 1359, recently brought to light by Canon Chevalier, in connexion with the alleged Holy Shroud of Lirey, proves that some check at least was exercised upon the excesses of the unscrupulous or the mercenary.</p> <p>Nevertheless it remains <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> that many of the more ancient relics duly exhibited for veneration in the great sanctuaries of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> or even at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> itself must now be pronounced to be either <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certainty</a> spurious or open to grave suspicion. To take one example of the latter class, the boards of the Crib (<em>Praesaepe</em>)— a name which for much more than a thousand years has been associated, as now, with the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore—can only be considered to be of <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a>. In his monograph "Le memorie Liberiane dell' Infanzia di N. S. Gesù Cristo" (Rome, 1894), <a href="../cathen/04464b.htm">Mgr. Cozza Luzi</a> frankly avows that all positive evidence for the authenticity of the relics of the Crib etc., is wanting before the eleventh century. Strangely enough, an inscription in Greek uncials of the eighth century is found on one of the boards, the inscription having nothing to do with the Crib but being apparently concerned with some commercial transaction. It is hard to explain its presence on the supposition that the relic is authentic. Similar difficulties might he urged against the supposed "column of the flagellation" <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerated</a> at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of Santa Prassede and against many other famous relics.</p> <p>Still, it would be presumptuous in such cases to blame the action of <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> authority in permitting the continuance of a cult which extends back into remote antiquity. On the one hand no one is constrained to pay homage to the relic, and supposing it to be in fact spurious, no dishonour is done to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> by the continuance of an <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a> which has been handed down in perfect <a href="../cathen/06642a.htm">good faith</a> for many centuries. On the other hand the practical difficulty of pronouncing a final verdict upon the authenticity of these and similar relics must be patent to all. Each investigation would be an affair of much time and expense, while new discoveries might at any moment reverse the conclusions arrived at. Further, devotions of ancient date deeply rooted in the heart of the peasantry cannot be swept away without some measure of <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandal</a> and popular disturbance. To create this sensation seems unwise unless the <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> of spuriousness is so overwhelming as to amount to <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certainty</a>. Hence there is justification for the practice of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> in allowing the cult of certain <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> ancient relics to continue. Meanwhile, much has been done by quietly allowing many items in some of the most famous collections of relics to drop out of sight or by gradually omitting much of the solemnity which formerly surrounded the exposition of these <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubtful</a> treasures. Many of the inventories of the great collections of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, or of <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aachen</a>, <a href="../cathen/04116a.htm">Cologne</a>, <a href="../cathen/10683a.htm">Naples</a>, <a href="../cathen/13411b.htm">Salzburg</a>, <a href="../cathen/01588e.htm">Antwerp</a>, Constantinople, of the Sainte Chapelle at <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> etc., have been published. For illustration's sake reference may be made to the Count de Riant's work "Exuviae Constantinopolitanae" or to the many documents printed by <a href="../cathen/10525a.htm">Mgr. Barbier de Monault</a> regarding <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, particularly in vol. VII of his "Oeuvres complètes". In most of these ancient inventories, the extravagance and utter improbability of many of the entries can not escape the most uncritical. Moreover though some sort of verification seems often to be traceable even in Merovingian times, still the so called authentications which have been printed of this early <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> (seventh century) are of a most primitive kind. They consist in fact of mere labels, strips of parchment with just the name of the relic to which each strip was attached, barbarously written in Latin. For example "Hic sunt reliquas sancti Victuriepiscopi, Festivitate Kalendis Septembris", "Hic sunt patrocina sancti Petri et Paullo Roma civio", etc.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>It would probably be <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> to say that in no part of the world was the veneration of relics carried to greater lengths with no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> proportionate danger of abuse, than among Celtic peoples. The <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> paid to the handbells of such <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> as <a href="../cathen/11554a.htm">St. Patrick</a>, <a href="../cathen/13713a.htm">St. Senan</a>, and <a href="../cathen/10641a.htm">St. Mura</a>, the strange adventures of sacred remains carried about with them in their wanderings by the Armorican people under stress of invasion by Teutons and <a href="../cathen/11115b.htm">Northmen</a>, the prominence given to the taking of <a href="../cathen/11176a.htm">oaths</a> upon relics in the various <a href="../cathen/15532a.htm">Welsh</a> codes founded upon the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of Howell the Good, the expedients used for gaining possession of these treasures, and the numerous accounts of translations and <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a>, all help to illustrate the importance of this aspect of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> life of the Celtic races.</p> <h2 id="section4">Translations</h2> <p>At the same time the solemnity attached to translations was by no means a peculiarity of the Celts. The story of the translation of <a href="../cathen/04578a.htm">St. Cuthbert's</a> remains is almost as marvellous as any in Celtic <a href="../cathen/07106b.htm">hagiography</a>. The forms observed of all-night vigils, and the carrying of the precious remains in "feretories" of gold or silver, overshadowed with silken canopies and surrounded with lights and <a href="../cathen/07716a.htm">incense</a>, extended to every part of <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> during the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>. Indeed this kind of solemn translation (<em>elevatio corporis</em>) was treated as the outward recognition of heroic <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a>, the equivalent of <a href="../cathen/02364b.htm">canonization</a>, in the period before the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> reserved to itself the passing of a final judgment upon the merits of deceased servants of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, and on the other hand in the earlier forms of <a href="../cathen/02364b.htm">canonization</a> <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bulls</a> it was customary to add a clause directing that the remains of those whose <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">sanctity</a> was thus proclaimed by the head of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> should be "elevated", or translated, to some shrine above ground where fitting <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> could be paid them.</p> <p>This was not always carried at once. Thus <a href="../cathen/07519c.htm">St. Hugh of Lincoln</a>, who died in 1200, was <a href="../cathen/02364b.htm">canonized</a> in 1220, but it was not until 1280 that his remains were translated to the beautiful "Angel Choir" which had been constructed expressly to receive them. This translation is noteworthy not only because King Edward I himself helped to carry the bier, but because it provides a typical example of the separation of the head and body of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint</a> which was a peculiar feature of so many English translations. The earliest example of this separation was probably that of <a href="../cathen/05323b.htm">St. Edwin</a>, king and <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a>; but we have also the cases of St. Oswald, St. Chad, St. Richard of <a href="../cathen/03657a.htm">Chichester</a> (translated in 1276), and St. William of York (translated 1284). It is probable that the ceremonial observed in these solemn translations closely imitated that used in the enshrining of the relics in the <em>sepulcrum</em> of the altar at the <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecration</a> of a church while this in turn, as Mgr Duchesne has shown, is nothing but the development of the primitive burial service the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyr</a> or saint being laid to rest in the church dedicated to his <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a>. But the carrying of relics is not peculiar to the procession which takes place at the dedications of a church. Their presence is recognized as a fitting adjunct to the solemnities of almost every kind of <a href="../cathen/12446c.htm">procession</a>, except perhaps those of the <a href="../cathen/05584a.htm">Blessed Sacrament</a>, and in <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval times</a> no exception was made even for these latter.</p> <h2 id="section5">Feast of relics</h2> <p>It has long been customary especially in churches which possessed large collections of relics, to keep one general feast in commemoration of all the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> whose memorials are there preserved. An <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Office</a> and <a href="../cathen/09790b.htm">Mass</a> for this purpose will be found in the Roman <a href="../cathen/10354c.htm">Missal</a> and <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">Breviary</a>, and though they occur only in the supplement <em>Pro aliquibus locis</em> and are not <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a> upon the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> at large, still this celebration is now kept almost universally. The office is generally assigned to the fourth <a href="../cathen/14335a.htm">Sunday</a> in October. In <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> before the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>, as we may learn from a <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubric</a> in the Sarum <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">Breviary</a>, the <em>Festum Reliquiarum</em> was celebrated on the Sunday after the feast of the Translation of <a href="../cathen/14676a.htm">St. Thomas of Canterbury</a> (7 July), and it was to be kept as a greater double "wherever relics are preserved or where the bodies of dead <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> are buried, for although Holy Church and her <a href="../cathen/10326a.htm">ministers</a> observe no solemnities in their <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a>, the glory they enjoy with <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> is known to Him alone."</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Thurston, H.</span> <span id="apayear">(1911).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Relics.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12734a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Thurston, Herbert.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Relics."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 12.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1911.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12734a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael C. Tinkler.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</strong></center></td></tr></table><p align="center"><a href="../utility/contactus.htm">CONTACT US</a> | <a href="https://cleanmedia.net/p/?psid=491-308-20180429T2217479770">ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT</a></p></div> <ins class="CANBMDDisplayAD" data-bmd-ad-unit="30849120210203T1734389107AB67D35C03D4A318731A4F337F60B3E" style="display:block"></ins> <script src="https://secureaddisplay.com/au/bmd/"></script>  <ins class="CMAdExcludeArticles"></ins> </body> </html>