On Nov. 15, at Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, Dominican Father Vincent Kelber holds a reliquary containing bone fragments or first-class relics of nine recognized saints. — Anchor photo
Posted on 12/06/2010 10:52:32 AM PST by NYer
On Nov. 15, at Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, Dominican Father Vincent Kelber holds a reliquary containing bone fragments or first-class relics of nine recognized saints. — Anchor photo
By PATRICIA COLL FREEMAN
On a little make-shift altar on a sewing table in Kathy Adler’s house in Palmer, Alaska, there are minute, ornately glass-encased fragments of bone from two saints who are known the world over. Such relics of saints who once walked the earth are physical reminders that holiness is achievable – even for ordinary people who are flesh and bone, too.
REVERING RELICS
A relic is an object such as a piece of clothing or a piece of the body that serves as a memorial of a deceased person.
According to the Catholic Church, “real” or “first-class” relics include parts of a saint’s body, clothing, objects used for penance and instruments of a martyr’s imprisonment or passion. Lesser, “representative” relics are objects placed in contact with a saint’s body or grave.
Revering relics is a long-standing Christian tradition, and a universal practice that predates Christianity. Ancient Greeks, Persians and Buddhists honored relics of their heroes. According to the Old Testament, the bones of Moses were venerated. And since apostolic times, honoring relics has been a Christian practice, as well.
In 156, the Christians of Smyrna described retrieving the bones of Saint Polycarp after he had been burned at the stake. “We took up his bones, which are more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold,” they wrote, and laid them in a holy place where they could gather and “celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom.”
Early Christians buried their loved ones close to the tombs of martyrs like Saint Peter the Apostle, hoping that, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa explained, “in the hour of the resurrection they may be awakened together with these highly privileged comrades.”
By the fourth century, churches were cementing into stone altar tops small fragments of saints’ bones. That gave rise to the altar stone – a square of stone containing a relic – that was embedded in a church’s altar.
But in the early years, Christians’ enthusiasm about holy relics piqued the greed of scam artists who donned monks’ habits and hawked imitations.
To help combat the practice, the Catholic Church instituted safeguards. Those included tests to vet questionable relics, rules requiring the pope’s approval before newly found relics could be venerated and a prohibition against selling relics.
There is no proscription against buying a relic, however, in order to rescue it from someone not showing it proper respect. Nowadays, some ransom relics on eBay.
According to church law, no person or group may own a relic. One caring for a relic is considered a temporary guardian.
Obtaining first-class relics can be difficult. It took almost two years for the Anchorage Archdiocese to secure one from the Vatican for the altar at the Korean parish of St. Andrew Kim Taegon Church, named for the world’s first Korean-born Catholic priest and 19th century martyr.
“It’s really a process,” Vice Chancellor Eileen Kramer explained. Finally, the Vatican approved the request and FedXed a relic to Anchorage.
Relics of six new saints are seen in front of Pope Benedict XVI at the conclusion of a canonization Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 17. The new saints included Australia's first, St. Mary MacKillop, and St. Andre Bessett, a Holy Cross brot her who became known as the "Miracle Man of Montreal." — CNS photo
POINTING HEAVENWARD
Cherished and guarded, saints’ relics are seen as signposts to heaven.
According to the Catholic Catechism, venerating holy relics is a form of Christian piety that should help the faithful “advance in knowledge of the mystery of Christ.”
“We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator,” stressed Saint Jerome, Church Father of the late 300s, “but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are.”
At the Council of Trent, the church noted that saints’ relics are an important reminder that the saints’ bodies were “living members of Christ and ‘the temple of the Holy Ghost’ (1 Cor 6:19)” which are to be raised by God to eternal life and glory.
“We tend to view the saints as superheroes of the church,” observed Father Robert Fath, 32-year-old pastor of St. Nicholas Church in North Pole. It’s easy to “lose sight of the fact that they were human beings just like you and me,” he added.
So during November, when the universal church especially recalls the saints in heaven and souls in purgatory who are on the way there, Father Fath displays several reliquaries – akin to “mini-monstrances” – on a platform near the altar at St. Nicholas. They contain relics that help remind parishioners that the saints were “flesh and bone” – just as they are.
The relics are on loan from the Fairbanks Diocese’s archive. Others are on temporary display for veneration at the diocesan Catholic school. And another large collection containing relics of 102 saints is permanently maintained at Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks.
The relics at St. Nicholas Church are of saints from myriad backgrounds: Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, lay Christians martyred in Uganda; Saint John Neumann, the 19th-century Philadelphia bishop who founded the diocesan school system in the United States; and Saint Andrew, who Christ chose as one of his Apostles.
By living “ordinary lives in extraordinary ways,” said Father Fath, they are “an example to all of us that we, too, could be proclaimed saints of the church one day.”
“All of us are called to holiness of life,” he explained. That requires “that we devote our lives and our vocations to God and live out his commandments in everything that we do, even the little things.”
RELICS AT HOME
Kathy Adler of Palmer, Alaska is daily reminded of that saintly mission. In her home, she has two first-class relics of Saint Maria Goretti and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. They were passed down from a great-aunt who had managed to secure audiences with all the popes since Pope Pius XII, whose reign ended in 1958.
Adler keeps the relics on a little altar she crafted atop a sewing table in her bedroom. Along with the little, glass-encapsulated bone fragments, there is a statue of the Infant of Prague, a container of holy water from Lourdes, France, where the Blessed Mother appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, several holy cards and a blessed candle.
Adler treats the relics with devotion. They are not “trinkets,” she said, but reminders that “we belong to the communion of saints” – that spiritual solidarity binding the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory and the saints of heaven in the mystical body of Christ.
Across the years, friend and fellow member of the Third Order Franciscans Jackie Palmer also has managed to secure first-class relics – of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Thomas the Apostle. The latter bit of “Doubting Thomas” went to her husband George who, after decades, converted to Catholicism. “I prayed for him for 42 years,” she noted.
Palmer said that she has taken good care of the relics because of their connection to Christ. Speaking of Saint Thomas, who the resurrected Christ invited to touch his wound, Palmer observed, “Anybody who was that close to Jesus, you want to be close to them, too.”
Since saints’ relics are “treasures,” Palmer is making arrangements to ensure they are in an appropriate, holy place after she and her husband die.
The relic of Saint Thomas is now enclosed in an altar of a chapel at a Catholic children’s school overseas.
Until Palmer finds a spot for the tiny splinter of Saint Francis’s bone, it will continue to inspire her faith.
“All these little things help, if you’re open to them,” she said.
“I was asked one time by a little girl, ‘Why do you have all these pictures and all these statues?’” Palmer recalled. Along with the relics, they are reminders of loved ones she has yet to meet, she said. “I’m getting used to being with my family because I hope I get to heaven.”
Below is a list of some of the first-class relics in the Anchorage Archdiocese:
Holy Family Cathedral’s altar contains a relic of 19th century Saint Therese of Lisieux, patroness of Alaska. The altars at Holy Cross Church and Our Lady of Guadalupe are said to contain a bit of Christ’s Cross from Calvary. Holy Cross has relics, too, of Saint Maria Goretti and Saint Peregrine, the patron of cancer patients.
A timely article. Yesterday, our pastor placed a small, antique reliquary, containing relics of 9 saints, on the altar. It was found in the parish garage, buried behind a stack of books on a shelf. After liturgy, two of us examined the reliquary to learn the name of these saints. The print was extremely small but with a high powered light and lots of squinting, we were able to discern that all were martyr saints. It is the Church’s custom to label relics with Latin names. I have been researching these and run into some name issues, even with the use of a Latin translation tool. Perhaps some of you can provide some additional insight or advice.
Names: Aurelii, Benigai, Octavi, Ireneti, Liberati, Innocenti, Theodori, Vincenti, Berenici.
St. Aurelius
Feastday: July 20
429
Bishop and companion of St. Augustine of Hippo. Aurelius was a deacon at Carthage and became the bishop of that see in 392. He was a vigorous foe of the heresies of the time, His complaints about the loyalties of the local clergy prompted St. Augustine to write On the Work of Monks .
St. Octavian
Feastday: March 22
484
Martyr of the Vandals. He was an archdeacon in the Church in Carthage who was executed, along with supposedly thousands of other Christians, by the Arian Vandals at the command of King Hunneric.
St. Theodore and 40 others (?) martyrs beheaded at Carthage (249, 251 A.D.). April 10.
St. Liberatus
Feastday: August 17
483
Martyr with Boniface, Maximus, Rogatus, Rusticus, Septimus, and Servus. Liberatus was abbot of an African monastery near Capsa, Byzeceke. He and the others were martyred by the Arian ruler of the Vandals, Hunneric, in Carthage. Maximus was a young child.
or
St. Liberatus and Family
In 484 the king of the Vandal tribe, Huneric, an adherent of the Arian heresy that denied the divinity of Christ, issued an edict against the Catholic Church in North Africa. In this persecution, the Catholic doctor Liberatus, his wife, and their two young sons were apprehended. King Huneric ordered the parents to be separated from their children and to be exiled. Grieving this separation, Liberatus wept, but his wife urged him to take courage. The husband and wife were placed in separate prison cells, unable to see each other. Liberatus’ wife was subsequently told the falsehood that Liberatus had apostatized. When afterward she was led to her trial and saw her husband standing near the spectators, she angrily grabbed him and rebuked him for denying his faith. But her husband quickly told her the truth of the matter: “In the name of Christ, I remain a Catholic.” Both Liberatus and his wife were executed. Their sons were put to death by drowning, as was another seven-year-old Catholic boy, who cried out, “I am a Christian,” as he was dragged away from his distraught mother.
St. Vicentius
Vincentiuswith Saturninus, and four children, the lectors Saturninus (another) and Felix, and the nun, Maria, and the toddler, Hilarion; Senator Dativus; Thelica, Emeritus, Felix, Ampellius, Rogatianus, Victoria, 37 other Christians ( Felix, Quintus, Maximianus, Rogatianus, Rogatus, Januarius, Cassianus, Victorianus, Caecilianus, Restituta, Prima, Rogatianus, Eva, Givalius, Rogatus, Pimponia, Secunda, Januaria, Saturnina, Martinus, Datus, Felix, Margarita, Major, Honorata, Regiola, Victorinus, Pelusius, Faustus, Datianus, Matrona, Caecilia, Heredina, Secunda, Matrona(another), Januaria, of Abitine, in Northwestern Africa.
Arrested, having prayed the Divine Mysteries in the Emeritus’ house, we proclaimed the faith. I, Saturninus, was clubbed and died in jail. 12 Feb. 304 A.D. 11 Feb. Roman, 20 Feb in Algiers.
St. Innocentius ?
martyr. theban Legionnaire.
Ancient African (Catholic) Church’s thousands of early *Black Saints.* From all Mystical Body of Christ’s branches--Latin, Coptic, & Orthodox Sts. Amoun, Augustine to Zeno.
St. Benigai (Latin for St. Generosa?)
Seperatus, Narzalea, Cittinus, Veturius, Acllinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Vestina, Donata, and Secunda. We are the Scillitan Martyrs, caught at Africa Proconsularis, Carthage, two trials, authorities ordered us beheaded 17 July 180 A.D. under Vigellius, first persecutor of Christians in Northwestern Africa. 17 July.
St. Berenici - ?? The only information I could find was this.
At the Sea of Galilee there is excavation and restoration of a church above Tiberias called Berenici, where coins have been found bearing the inscription "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”.
or
Saint Veronica or Berenice, according to the "Acta Sanctorum" published by the Bollandists (under February 4),[2] was a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. Jesus accepted the offering and after using it handed it back to her, the image of his face miraculously impressed upon it.[3][4][5] The name "Veronica" itself is a Latinisation of Berenice, a Macedonian name, meaning "bearer of victory" (corresponding to Greek: phere-nikē).
I’ve never been comfortable with relics...I always saw them as superstitious nonsense.
This is a Caucus thread.
Are you Catholic? If you’re not, please be aware that this is a Caucused thread.
Across the years, friend and fellow member of the Third Order Franciscans Jackie Palmer also has managed to secure first-class relics – of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Thomas the Apostle. The latter bit of “Doubting Thomas” went to her husband George who, after decades, converted to Catholicism. “I prayed for him for 42 years,” she noted. [emphasis mine]Catholics seem to, in general, really excel at never giving up. Thinking of St. Monica, Augustine's mother, as well as a woman we've been sitting next to at daily Mass for close to three decades. She still keeps praying for her husband daily to come to know the Church. Looks like she could have another decade or so to go, but I hope not ... :)
Yes I’m Catholic. And I think the veneration of relics is ridiculous. And no, I’m not a modernist or a VII hippy. I’m a traditional, devout Catholic.
Does post #3 break the Caucus designation rules?
Why do you think it is ridiculous?
Just replying to post #3 addressed to Non-Catholics.
It's perfectly scriptural. (see Acts 19:11-12)
So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul
that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
Still not sure?
Relic of St. John Chrysostom reportedly working miracles
It is not required that you personally venerate relics. But it is definitely worth your while to do some research on these extraordinary events. Many miracles occur without relics. What we must always remember is that every miracle comes from God! - not from the relic or the saint to whom it is attributed.
Bob, I posted that comment. After 10+ years on FR, I have come to understand that visitors often visit caucus threads. Some comply with the Rel Mod's rules; others do not. I intentionally posted comment #3 to address the scriptural basis of the use of relics in the Catholic Church for the benefit of non-Catholic visitors (i.e. lurkers). It was addressed to non-Catholics, who cannot post to the caucus thread. It was not intended to draw them into the conversation; otherwise, I would not have made this a caucus thread.
Thank you for that post! Our pastor has asked me to research the saints in the reliquary he found. Once that is complete, he will compile 9 prayers; one for each saint. The reliquary will then be made available for parishioners to bring into their homes for 9 days. Once the 9 days of prayers are complete, the priest will return to bless the family and home with the relic.
Given the unique names of the saints from this reliquary, I have taken the approach of looking for a common thread. The one that immediately surfaces is the majority of these martyr saints all lived in the 5th century and came from the various churches of north Africa. It's truly an extraordinary find given that this year, we are celebrating the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Maron, the spiritual father of the Maronite Catholic Church.
And here is another miraculous cure from a saint's relics. This story appeared today at Catholic News Agency.
NYer, post #3 was pulled because it addressed posters who are not members of the caucus and are not welcome on this thread.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.