Relics

A relic is what remains of a saint, his body or his bones, or an object that belonged to him. The Church venerates them in memory of the saint whose trace they keep, and of God who made him his dwelling.

What Scripture shows

Scripture shows God acting through the matter bound to his servants. At the touch of the bones of the prophet Elisha, a dead man returns to life: “The man went and touched the bones of Elisha, and he revived and stood on his feet.” 2 Kings 13:21 Likewise, through the hands of Paul, “cloths that had touched his body were applied to the sick, and the diseases left them.” Acts 19:11-12 God thus makes use of what has been united to his saints to pour out his grace.

The body, temple of the Spirit

This veneration rests on what the body of a saint is. During his life, it was the temple of the Spirit: “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.” 1 Corinthians 6:19 Sanctified by grace, united to Christ, this body is promised to the resurrection. The Church does not treat it as an ordinary corpse: it honours it as what carried a friend of God, and awaits its glory on the last day.

The three classes of relics

The Church distinguishes three classes of relics. First-class relics are the body of the saint or its fragments; when it is a notable part, such as the head or a limb, they are called insignes. Second-class relics are the objects the saint wore or used during his life, his garments or the instruments of his martyrdom. Third-class relics are objects, most often a cloth, brought into contact with a first-class relic; Christian antiquity called them brandea. All point to the same person, the saint they recall.

Honouring the saint, not the matter

To venerate a relic lends no magical power to the matter. The relic neither heals nor saves of itself: it is God who acts, freely, when he wills, through the memory and the intercession of the saint. The honour given to the relic rises to the saint, and from the saint to God, whose work he was. The Church honours in it the trace of a life given to God.