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Posted on 06/09/2026 11:36:44 AM PDT by Morgana
BELGRADE, Serbia — More than a million people traveled to the Church of Saint Sava over the past several weeks to witness a holy relic of the Virgin Mary, a piece of a belt she wore when pregnant with Jesus Christ.
The belt, on display for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the last couple of weeks, was flown in from Mount Athos in Greece, where it is normally kept — the first time in centuries the relic had been returned to Serbia.
Orthodox Church officials, per a Serbian government official, formally estimated that more than 1.1 million people visited the Church of Saint Sava during the display of the relic, considered one of the holiest in Christianity.
“She made it by hand and wore it when she was pregnant with the baby Jesus,” Nemanja Stavorich, the Serbian Minister of European Integration, told Breitbart News during a tour of the Church of Saint Sava.
“It’s a very special occasion for us because for 650 years, this belt wasn’t in Serbia,” Bozidar Lijeskic, a Church official who gave Breitbart News a tour of the Church of Saint Sava, said. “It’s actually one of the holiest and most prized and venerated possessions of the whole of Mount Athos.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
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I’ve got a hunk of a Moses sandle. It’s true.
Is that anything like a sandal?
Very close. Just older.
Subtle difference between a belt and a thong.
RE: I’ve got a hunk of a Moses sandal. It’s true.
Exodus 3:5 when hearing from the Burning Bush—
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
That’s when a piece of his sandal broke off.
I have an axe that once belonged to Abraham Lincoln, but since then it has had four new heads and six new handles.
Like the Neil Diamond hit "Thong Thung Blue: 🎶🎶
In the movie The Ten Commandments when Moses is walking down from the mountain after talking to God in the burning bush, he’s barefoot. That was Charlton Heston’s idea. He told DeMille that if God Himself had told Moses to do something, would Moses really have put his sandals on before going back?
Follow the gourd.
If only those million people were focused on a living Savior instead of some hoax.
It seems so difficult to authenticate any relics. There actually are officials of the Vatican who have to investigate all cases. Most don’t work out.
The two excellent horror films Nun and Nun II in producer James Wan’s Conjuring series were based on the real life married couple who investigate (and they sued for getting not enough money for being exploited in the sequel films).
The relic of most importance was a glass vial containing blood shed by Jesus.
Real life and non blasphemous author and host Michael O’Neill (show Explore With the Miracle Hunter and also hosts They Might Be Saints) usually ends with relic or reason for canonization being unproven. Not always.
Well maybe if you kept track of something like that you wouldn’t have fakes.
Protestants just can’t stop protesting everything Catholic.
Good point. I heard Charlton Heston say first “If you want my sandals then pull them off my cold, dead feet” but then had an epiphany and relented in obedience.
We have no idea what they may be focused on, or what this might mean to an individual’s faith. People are different and different things hold meaning and inspiration for them.
I’d much rather be Reverend Bluejeans.
You two do not seem impressed with their sure enough genuine rooting tooting idol. As St.Greta would say “how dare you”.
How should a Christian view relics?
A splinter from Jesus’ cross has been found in Turkey. Jesus’ baby blanket has surfaced in Germany. The index finger of John the Baptist is now on display in a reliquary in a Missouri museum. Relics—carefully preserved religious artifacts meant to be venerated—have long played a role in many religions, including Christianity. By the Middle Ages, there were hundreds of supposed burial places for the twelve apostles. It has been said that one could build a large boat from all the pieces of wood purported to be from Jesus’ cross. The most famous Christian relic, the Shroud of Turin, attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Should Christians be interested in relics?
Undeniably, it would be extremely interesting if an actual piece of Jesus’ cross or a thorn from the crown of thorns could be discovered and verified. The problem is that there is absolutely no way to know if a piece of Judean wood dates to the 1st century A.D. Someone could claim it came from Jesus’ cross, but how could that claim be substantiated? The wood could just as easily have come from a Judean fence post. In the early centuries of the Roman Catholic Church, relics became a massive profiteering scam. Seemingly every church throughout Europe had some sort of relic to attract visitors. If a church in a nearby town “discovered” a more important relic, a game of one-upmanship ensued, with the relics being “discovered” becoming more and more impressive. All that to say, it is highly unlikely that any of the Christian relics discovered in the past 2,000 years have any true connection to Jesus or the apostles.
One of the dangers inherent in the veneration of relics is the temptation to commit idolatry. This is exactly what happened in ancient Israel. God had told Moses to make a bronze serpent in order to save the Hebrews from a plague of poisonous snakes (Numbers 21:8–9). That bronze serpent was kept by the Israelites as a reminder of God’s goodness and salvation; however, by the time of King Hezekiah, the “relic” had become an object of worship. Hezekiah’s reforms included breaking “into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan)” (2 Kings 18:4). Physical aids to faith, if not commanded by God, are unnecessary and inevitably lead to superstition and idolatry.
There is absolutely no power in Christian relics. Even if the entire cross of Jesus were discovered intact, it would have no spiritual value. Relics do not, in any manner whatsoever, enable us to get closer to God. The humerus of a saint can do nothing for your spirit. Relics should not be prayed to, worshiped, or in any way be used as a means to better connect with God. Using relics in such a talismanic way is blatant idolatry (Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 42:8). An elaborate church filled with relics is no more valid a place for worship than a simple tent in a jungle. We worship the Lord in spirit and truth (John 4:24), not by idols, icons, or relics, whether genuine or fake.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-relics.html
That’s an opinion, and carries the same weight as many others do. You can’t see into another’s heart and know whether they’re practicing idolatry or simply taking inspiration from a story.
To be fair, JP Deuce anathematized himself by kissing a Koran and kept moving molesting priests around from parish to parish instead of defrocking and disciplining them. The Catholic Church considers both of those to be “saintly” behavior.
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