Relics, ignorance, superstition & magic

(Photo of Mary's dress - at Aachen)

Relics, for those persons not steeped in the ignorance and superstition of the Roman Catholic Church, are artifacts deriving from the mythological Christ or the legendary martyrs and saints of Catholic Christendom.

Early on, the Roman hierarchy realized that the processing of relics could be profitable to the church. If a church could claim the bones of an early martyr or saint, those relics tended to draw larger crowds (and, of course, more money). In our day, people have been known to walk a mile for a Camel (cigarette), but in the Dark Ages pilgrims would walk for days and hundreds of miles to be able to view a piece of the cross.

Not much has changed over the years, as we shall see.


The trade in relics grew enormously during the Middle Ages. Monte Burke, in a Forbes.com article, says that it was in the Middle Ages that "Catholic pilgrims returned home from the Holy Land with tokens of the burial places of martyrs or of the martyrs themselves. These relics were believed capable of working miracles."

Relics were also thought to provide a direct connection to the saint. Pilgrimages offered a way that people could have their sins forgiven and cut their time in Purgatory. "For many pilgrims, coming face to face with relics was the most terrifying and awesome experience of their lives."

The Protestant reformers of the 16th century were antagonistic toward relics. Martin Luther, for example, believed "the veneration of relics was tantamount to idolatry and a symptom of a church gone astray."

Today the Roman Church has officially banned the sale of relics. But that has done little to stop the trade in relics. It works out well for the church, as it can piously claim that the trade in relics is against church law, while at the same time, in a variety of ways, it promotes the trade and profits from the trade.


Here are some of the relics adored or up for sale today:

"A small reliquary cross containing tiny fragments of the bones of saints embedded in wax. It was sold in June 2007 by Christie's for $31,000." (Reliquaries are "vessels that contain relics. ... A beautiful reliquary puts a relic into context. It gives it a different impact.")

Aachen, Germany was "Europe's most important pilgrimage destination during the Middle Ages after Rome and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In Aachen today you can see a 2,000-year-old dress promoted as the dress worn by Mary when she gave birth to Jesus. Aachen also has "Jesus swaddling clothes, a cloth used during John the Baptist's beheading, and the waistcloth Jesus wore during his crucifixion."

Since 1394, Aachen has provided pilgrims an annual opportunity to view these relics.


Last year, Timesonline reported that "Fragments of a cassock worn by Pope John Paul II are being offered for sale to the faithful ..."

Said cassock has been cut into 100,000 pieces to "satisfy demand."

The sale is operated by the Vicariate of Rome, a group promoting sainthood for John Paul. It's a profitable little scheme, and entices additional believers by providing a "holy card" with a prayer to "obtain graces through the intercession of John Paul II."

The Vicariate gets around the ban on sales of relics by soliciting donations rather than demanding a certain price. These "donations," of course, go to "cover costs, with any surplus going towards the cost of John Paul's 'cause for sainthood.'" They don't mention what their "costs" consist of. It would be interesting to know what the people operating this scam put in their own pockets.


Monte Burke describes an "antiques arcade on Manhattan's Upper East Side," which contains a small store run by Amanda Broomer. "Broomer sells the skulls of martyrs ($4,500 each). She sells the teeth of saints ($300). For $975 you can get what may be a tiny splinter from the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified...

"Other items in stock include, ostensibly, pieces of the body of Saint Therese, the Little Flower, made into paste; clothing worn by St. Anthony of Padua; and a 'touched' nail, meaning a nail that once touched a nail from the Crucifixion."

Broomer claims she has three bone fragments from St. Francis of Assissi, and expects those will be soon sold.

Burke notes that relics are classified by grade. "'First class' pertains to body parts of saints--a fingernail of the Apostle Paul ... or a strand of the Virgin Mary's hair. Items (supposedly) touched by Jesus often are first class. The second class encompasses the relics of lesser figures--Mother Teresa's tennis shoes. The third class has items hat have touched something first-class--the 'touched' nail described above, for instance."


You may recall that last year we wrote about "tragedy" that occurred in Calcata, a small town 30 miles north of Rome, Italy.

Back in 1983, the parish priest announced that "This year, the holy relic will not be exposed to the devotion of the faith. It has vanished. Sacrilegious thieves have taken it from from home."

The village priest had been keeping this relic "in a shoe box at the back of his wardrobe." No one knows what happened to it. Some think the priest sold it; others claim it was stolen, perhaps by the Vatican.

Now this wasn't just any old relic. "It was the foreskin of Jesus Christ, the snipped-off tip of the savior's penis, the only piece of his body he supposedly left on earth."

Here's the story according to David Farley of Slate:

"It was discovered in Calcata in 1557, and a series of miracles soon followed (freak storms, perfumed mists engulfing the village). The church gave the finding a seal of approval by offering a 10-year indulgence to those who came to venerate. Lines of pilgrims stretched from the church doors to beyond the walls of the fortress town. Nuns and monks from nearby villages and monasteries made candlelit processions. Calcata was a must-see destination on the pilgrimage map."

Things changed a few hundred years later, however. When a "rediscovery" of a holy foreskin was revealed in France, "the Vatican decreed that anyone who wrote about or spoke about the name of the holy foreskin would face excommunication. And 54 years later, when a monk wanted to include Calcata in a pilgrimage tour guide, Vatican officials didn't just reject the proposal ... They upped the punishment: Now, anyone uttering its name would face the harshest form of excommunication--"infamous and to be avoided"--even as they concluded that Calcata's holy foreskin was more legit than other claimants."

Farley continues: "In the late 1960s, government officials, worried that crumbling cliffs and threatening earthquakes might doom the village, decided to build a new town." Some hippies bought up the old town and became interested in the foreskin relic and began writing about it and pretty soon the church sat up and took notice.

About then, the priest brought the relic from the church to his home. Neither he nor his predecessor will talk about it. Farley thinks it is possible that Vatican thieves stole the foreskin, or perhaps the priest brought it to the Vatican himself.


The holy foreskin got around. During the Middle Ages, there were as many as 12 to 18 foreskins in various European towns. It was said to make sterile women fertile. Henry V had the foreskin in Chartres sent to England to assist his wife deliver the child who would become Henry VI. It is said that St. Catherine of Siena, supposedly the "spiritual" spouse of Jesus, wore his foreskin around her finger. Then there's the sexy St. Bridget who claimed an angel gave her the foreskin and when she would put bits of it on her tongue, she would feel "orgasmic-like sensations throughout her body."


It is amazing that in the 21st century there are people who adore, revere, venerate or otherwise pay attention to the supposed bones of "saints" long dead, or pieces of cloth from a so-called "martyr," or a splinter of Jesus' cross, or a dress supposedly worn by the mythological virgin called Mary or more correctly, Miriam.

It is possible, but unlikely, that some of the bones resting in some reliquary are actually related to a person who lived at a certain point in time. There are no pieces of the cross, however. There is no dress worn by Mary. There is no foreskin of a first-century Jew called Yeshua.

In 2007, Aachen had over 100,000 pilgrims and tourists show up to view its collection of relics. It is said that many of these people do not believe the relics are real, that "Most modern day Catholics emphasize relics' importance as symbols rather than their belief in supernatural powers."

Christian Weisner, who represents the We Are Church organization, a group advocating the reform of the Roman Church says that relics are "a form of superstition." But he isn't willing to come right out and say relic veneration is pure nonsense. He thinks that some good comes of "pilgrimages, praying and meeting other believers ... Belief needs emotional things. At the same time we have to use our brain, we need reason."


Yes, we need reason. Lots of it. Unreason or irrationality rule in too many areas of our life today. Religious people, true believers, fly airplanes into skyscrapers convinced that is the will of God; the prezident of the most powerful and supposedly most scientifically-advanced nation in the world invades a non-threatening country because God told him to do so; a Protestant pastor claims that a nuclear war (involving Iran) is necessary because that will result in the second coming of the mythological Christ; certain Christians pray for days at a time believing their pious efforts will entice their god to notice their insignificant little lives and help them make it through their boring and meaningless days and dark and gloomy nights...

And it is sad but true that even in the first decade of the 21st century, some Roman Catholics traipse the world to buy or venerate the bones, hair or clothing [which are more than likely not real] of ancient and legendary and long-dead persons believing that these relics have special powers that can affect their lives and also that by so doing God will love them more and noting their devotion, will accept them to live eternally in his presence when they die.

All of these religious beliefs and practices are based on ignorance and superstition.

And the veneration of relics, including the relic of the Bible, is to believe in and practice, magic.


Here are a few sites dealing with Roman Catholic relics:

The Veneration of Holy Relics

Relic Santorum

Apostolate for Holy Relics

Authentic Relics of the Saints