My Own Fault, a LS 502 Post

I am in my current pickle for not really reading my articles thoroughly enough. While I am finding a lot of articles dealing with oral history, there not so much out there in terms of research in how to preserve it. But my idea of shift my focus to a more broader scope has helped tremendously.

To write this I am taking a similar method I used when writing my thesis for my B.A.; figure out what areas I want to cover, then as I read the articles make notes under each section. It helps me organize my thoughts and the setup of my paper.

So with a freshly made batch of french-pressed coffee I go into the unknown for my literature review!!!

A Morbid Connection to Heaven:

An Investigation of Relics & The Modern Need for Them

Chapter Two: Relics Today and Their Defense

 

In the movie Singing in the Rain there is a moment near the beginning in which fan-girls start attacking the lead male character and rip his clothing in an attempt to have a piece of him to keep as a memento. It is interesting to note that a culture filled with autograph hounds and with those who become star struck whenever a celebrity comes by can consider the Catholic veneration of relics a joke. A lovely dish is just a lovely dish, but one owned by your grandmother is a special treasure. A pocket-watch gotten at a pawn stop is just a time piece, but one given to you by a grandfather is one you dread losing and would mourn if that were to happen. People are willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money for an article of clothing worn by some famous person, faint at Beatles concerts, and engage in riotous behavior to get their hands on an article of clothing or some other item belonging to a new pop icon; but when a relic of Saint Catherine is mentioned, people snicker.

Especially today, in a world filled with atheists and misinformed Catholics, the snickering gets louder. In the year 2009, some of the relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux went on tour around England, even going to a correctional facility, after visiting forty other countries. Many English pilgrims came to see and touch the remains of the French saint. Simon Jenkins, a self proclaimed “Dawkins-ite”, wrote an article concerning the saint's visit to his country. Jenkins finds the whole event rather distasteful, crediting the frenzy that the faithful display towards the relics as “brainwashing of unreason.” But Jenkins decided to be gracious towards the less rational of his fellow man and take up the mantle of courtesy, the same he “would show a Hindu elephant worshiper or a Polynesian medicine man.” Such a mantle is hard to see in the rest of his article, which consists of a rather snarky description of how the relics came across the English channel and what the faithful would do once in reach of the relics. He blatantly states that relics are nothing more then “jujus, [or] religious placebos for the credulous classes” while most rational people “find them ghoulish.”

One of the members of the committee which arranged for Saint Thérèse to visit England, Father Stephen Wang, quickly responded to Jenkin's article. Wang quickly goes into an explanation of why so many come to the relics. People “come to pray; to find inspiration in the life of an extraordinary woman; to deepen their sense of community and belong; to connect with a person they love”; basically people are coming because they are seeking spiritual help. Wang explicitly states that relics are not, as Jenkins says, 'jujus', which are magical charms. A common misconception about relics held by non-Catholics and some Catholics is that relics possess magical powers; there is a supernatural aspect to relics, but there is no 'hocus-pocus' involved with them. The relics are part of the physical aspect of the faith, it is “not just about abstract spiritual truths.” The very act of the Incarnation confirms this – people were able to touch the Word of God and interact with Him. It is of little wonder then that Christianity developed with tangible ways to express the faith; this includes church architecture, polyphonic music and statues alongside of relics.

Today, relics are found in several different states in general. The first is relics lost and forgotten in a museum, where people gawk and wonder why there is a skull in a glided box. Next, the relics become a tourist attraction, like Pope Blessed John XXIII; the Swiss guards usher people along as they take pictures of a partially decomposed man under an altar. The last state, which is probably the most common, is that of relics in some form of a storage room, whether it be in a church or in a museum's back closet; they are hidden away out of sight, and the only way to see them is if one knows somebody with connections to the relics. But above all these states is that in every altar in the churches there has to be a relic, inside according to Cannon Law.

There are three classes of sacred relics depending on the closeness of the object to the saint. The first class are instruments of the Passion of Christ or a part of a saint's body. The relics found in church altars are first class, most likely one of a martyr. Then, the second class relics is a piece of the saint's clothing or something used often by the saint, such as the letters written by Saint Teresa of Ávila. Lastly, third class relics are objects touched to first class relics.

To venerate the relics of the saints is a profession of belief in several doctrines of the Catholic faith. The first of these is the belief in everlasting life for those who have obediently witnessed to Christ and the Holy Gospel whilst on earth. Next is the truth of the resurrection of the body of all persons on the last day, which relates to the doctrine of the splendor of the human body and the respect which all should show toward the bodies of both the living and the deceased. Also, there is the belief in the special intercessory power which the saints enjoy in heaven because of their intimate relationship with God. Last is the truth of our closeness to the saints because of our connection with the communion of saints, since we are all part of the same Church.

To understand how to venerate relics, one must understand the difference between latria, dulia and hyper-dulia. Latria is sacrificial in character, and may be offered only to God. Catholics offer other degrees of reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Saints; these non-sacrificial types of reverence are called hyper-dulia and dulia, respectively. Hyper-dulia is essentially a heightened degree of dulia provided only to the Blessed Virgin since she is the revered Mother of God. 

End of Part One.
To Be Continued............
(Copyright: Belongs to the Wanderer)
(If interested in research please contact me.)

A Morbid Connection to Heaven:

An Investigation of Relics & The Modern Need for Them

Chapter One: History (Part Two)

  There were several reasons used to justify the stealing of relics. First was the basic need of relics for new churches and religious organizations that were being established; the churches had to possess a relic before they could be properly consecrated. When there was a strong devotion to a particular saint, the physical remains of that saint tended to appear to act as a focal point for the devotion. Relics were also used as a form of spiritual protection against the injustice of secular authority. This, in turn, lead to competition amongst the religious communities of whom had who of the holy dead, spurring translations. Relics were also a source of income for monasteries from the donations that pilgrims would give in hope of intercessions from the saint. So in a sense relics of a saint became a form of a fund raiser for a community and even collectible items, and owning them became a symbol of prestige for cities, kingdoms, and monarchs.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the cult of the relics during the Middle Ages. They were used in the dedication of churches where they were integrated into the altar; they were used in law courts for swearing oaths; relics were found on the battlefield as suggested by the description of Roland's sword in the Song of Roland. In short, relics were an integral part of daily life and were accepted unquestioningly. The cult of the relics played a critical role in the missionary activities. The missionaries who converted northern Europe were dealing with people whose religion was fundamentally animistic. To them, it seemed that the entire world was inhabited and controlled by unseen powers; every tree had its own spirit, every pool its devil, every mountain its god. There was no distinction between the laws of nature and the laws of God. In accepting Christianity, pagans believed Christ's powers to be more potent than those of their former gods. The converts expected the new God to intervene as often and as powerfully in nature as the old, and if He failed to do so, they would frequently revert to their old beliefs. Gregory the Great recommended to Augustine of Canterbury that the cult of the saints and martyrs be presented to the English as the rival to pagan animism.

As the Medieval Age wore on, “relics came to be displayed more prominently in the churches” more so than before; even the reliquaries and altar tombs became more ornate to draw attention to the strange treasure. This brought a greater demand unto the relic market; so when the Crusades allowed access to the Holy Land for Western Europe and the saints that rested there, it was a welcome conflict. When Constantinople was sacked in 1204, a great number of relics were found and sent back, including those of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. But for some reason, when the relics were sent back, they were not sent in their original reliquaries. Since the relics were not in their reliquaries, there was only the word of the relic-monger that the bones were those of a saint. With the lack of identification, the relic market was flooded by false relics, and it became hard to distinguish between the true saint relic and bones of an animal. The Council of Lyon forbade anyone to venerate any relic new on the scene without proper approbation by the Pope.  But once the relic was discovered, authenticated and enshrined in a church, pilgrims came flocking. Setting out on a pilgrimage to visit shrines that housed a relic became a way to be blessed and forgiven of sins. Often pilgrimages were prescribed by confessors as a form of penance.

The veneration of relics had a strong following until the sixteenth century, when the Protestant Reformation occurred. The Protestants had a rather violent reaction against the cult of relics and the saints to whom they belong, particularly the idea of saintly intercession. Martin Luther opposed the use of relics since many had no apparent proof of historic authenticity or any biblical support; it also “constitute[d] a reliance on works rather than on faith.”  Luther saw the cult of relics as an invention of the Roman Church. John Calvin rejected relics based on theology; and his followers, particularly in Northern Europe, destroyed many reliquaries, melting them and taking the precious gems that adorned them.  Calvin himself, though, confined his attacks to relics that appeared to be improbable, such as the multiple heads of Saint John the Baptist and even claimed that if one took all the pieces of the True Cross and put them together it would make a large ship. The Huguenots in France were probably the most violent when destroying reliquaries.  Some of the French churches still bear the marks of their attacks.  In England, many relics were destroyed, especially the relics of Saint Thomas à Becket, which were taken from their reliquary, burned, and the ashes spread to the winds, though some say that Becket's bones were hidden elsewhere in the Cathedral.

The Council of Trent convened in 1545 in response to the criticisms of the Protestants. The Council, in its twenty-fifth session, stressed that, despite the lack of Biblical support, the veneration of relics was a legitimate devotion basing on the Apostolic tradition and the constant practices of the Church. There was also an affirmation of what earlier councils (such as Council of Lyon) and synods had said, especially the condemnation of anyone who denied the cult of relics as false or unholy. It also stressed the need for the cult of relics to be under the direct supervision of the Holy See and not the local bishops. Much of what Trent did to reorganize the veneration of relics still holds true today.

After Trent, however, the devotion to relics never returned to the level of fervor it had before the Protestant Reformation. Not much attention was given to them until the theologian F. Suarez collected the teachings concerning relics and commented upon them. He built his argument on top of Saint Augustine's saying that “the relation between the saint and his relics is not to be sought in physical continuity … but in the reason on which the moral dignity of the relics is based.”  Around the age of so-called Enlightenment, theologians had differing views of the cult of relics. Some viewed the cult of relics on a different, even a lower, level then that of the cult of saints, but others viewed the cult on the same level. Saint Robert Bellarmine, in his De Ecclesia trimphanti distinguished the respect and honor given to relics here on Earth and the honor given to the saints in Heaven. Cardinal Billuart explains that relics as materiel objects have absolutely no right to be venerated, and that this right comes in the formal aspect in which they are worthy of the same veneration as the saint.

The cult of relics has never been a foreign idea in the Catholic Church; it has been there since the beginning and is by no means an invention of the Medieval Church. It has been an integral part the the Church's development and has aided in the strengthening of the resolve of the faithful. This veneration of the holy dead still plays a role today in the Church and should not be discontinued.

End of Part Two.

End of Chapter One.
To Be Continued............
(Copyright: Belongs to the Wanderer)
(If interested in research please contact me.)

A Morbid Connection to Heaven:

An Investigation of Relics & The Modern Need for Them
Chapter One: History (Part One)

Charles Thomas explains that:

The cult of relics, was not just an interesting piece of religious phenomenology. It was a constant, potent, and often spectacular witness to the power of Christianity, countering latent heathenism, bolstering shaky belief, and enhancing the influence of those who taught adherence to the Divine Will, the only possible fount of this miraculous power.

Nor is it exclusive to the Catholic Church. Veneration of the dead was common amongst many, if not all, people. For example, when Buddha died in 483BC his remains were distributed and were housed in buildings called stupus. Even the remains of Confucius began to be venerated in the year 195BC by the Emperor Kao Tsu, and it is continued to this day. The Romans had a similar practice of going and visiting the graves of their relatives. The oddballs in all of this were the Jewish people; they “recognized the veneration of the dead especially of deceased heroes” as stated in the Mosaic Law. But unlike the other cultures of the time, it is not certain if the Jewish people applied a strong religious angle to their burial practices. They feared falling into idolatrous behavior and so suppressed human representation in any form. But in the Old Testament of the Bible the stories of Elisha, in which a dead man was cast unto the bones of Elijah and upon contact came back to life, and Elijah, in which nature reacted to the touch of Elijah's mantle, allow for an early foundation for the cult of relics. There is even less in the New Testament, but the new converts in the time of Saint Paul began dispersing objects that had once belonged to the Apostles. A good example of this comes straight from the Acts of the Apostles, retelling that “God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.” This act of trying to get close to Saint Paul led to the practice of distributing brandea, which are cloths that laid “in contact with the remains of the holy apostles”. There has always been a need to be near the holy dead ever since the Early Church as seen with Saint Peter. Evidence shows that many Christians visited Saint Peter's grave and left messages asking him to pray for people. There were also Christian burials, no less then six, near the first Pope's tomb so that they could be near him in death.

The Apostles were not the only ones that the Christians wanted to get a piece of; the new witnesses to the faith were the martyrs giving up their lives for Christ. The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp recounts the tale of the passion and martyrdom of St Polycarp, who was the bishop of Smyrna, who is worth noting for his aid in resolving the Easter date dispute. There was some difficulty for the Christians of Smyrna retrieving Saint Polycarp's remains, but once they had the remains, they treated them with honor in a religious sense. The Christians did not, as some feared, treat Saint Polycarp as a 'new Christ', but as a member of the mystical body of Christ. Each year after that, the faithful gathered on the anniversary of his martyrdom and celebrated it as a holy feast day. Saint Polycarp was not the only one of the first martyrs to receive such honors. During the persecutions, the supply of martyrs became quite plentiful and the veneration of relics spread as fast as it could across the early Church. Professor Thomas explains that “the Mediterranean owes much, for its physical development, to the evolution of the martyrium or the memoria, the visible … burial-place of a sanctified person.” Christians would gather at these martyria and celebrate the witness of the martyr. Sometimes, these gatherings were accompanied by liturgical celebrations resulting in small shrines begin built over the tombs; the greatest example of this is that of Saint Peter on the Vatican Hill outside of Rome. The catacombs of the early Christians revealed the devotion they had to their dead, stemming from the belief in an afterlife and the resurrection of the body. Since the body was resting temporarily, it only made sense for the Christians to take care of the deceased, since the deceased were going to use it again. In treating the dead to a decent burial nurtured a spiritual connection to fellow Christian brethren in heaven through their corporal remains.

It was not until the Edict of Milan and the Peace of Constantine I that the veneration really began to take off. The small monuments over the graves of martyrs were soon transformed into beautiful sanctuaries and basilicas, with Constantine leading the way with the Basilica over Saint Peter's tomb. When churches were not built over a martyr's resting place, martyrs were brought to rest within the new church, most often directly enshrined in the altar. This link between altar and relics was partially inspired by Revelation 6:9, in which John said he “saw under the altar the souls of those whose had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne,” when the fifth seal was opened.

This, however, came into conflict with the Roman Law of the time; the “Theodosian Code contained severe penalties against the spoliation of graves”. So when a martyr's remains were moved, it was an exceptional event that happened with a very strong reason or even clandestinely. It was not until the eighth century that the penalties were relaxed, thus allowing Popes to authorized a great number of saints' bodies to be moved. It is hard to determine when exactly the practice of venerating fragments of the saint came into being, but it was widespread during the fourth century. The fragments were that of bone or congealed blood, but they were so highly valued that the actual cases that held them were richly decorated and “excessive amounts of money were invested in the shrines that housed them.”

The cases were called reliquaries and they developed alongside the veneration of relics. The earliest reliquaries were essentially boxes, either simply box-shaped or based on an architectural design like a church, such as the reliquary of Saint Colette. With the discovery of the True Cross, relics from the 9th century onwards were housed in magnificent gold and silver cross-shaped reliquaries, decorated with enamels and precious stones. From about the end of the 10th century, reliquaries in the shape of the relics they housed also became popular, for example the skull of Pope Saint Alexander I is housed in a head-shaped reliquary. Similarly, the bones of saints were often housed in reliquaries that recalled the shape of the original body part, such as an arm or a foot, such as the heart of Saint Clare of Montefalco, which resides in a reliquary that is a bust of the saint and the heart can be seen in the chest portion of the bust.

Whenever a saint was moved, it was called a translation; a translation is is the removal of holy objects from one locality, such as a tomb, to another, usually a reliquary or under an altar in a church. Translations can take different forms, including all-night vigils, and the carrying of the precious remains in a reliquary of gold or silver, overshadowed with silken canopies. These acts of translation allowed the holy dead which had “once been exclusively [belonging] to communities scattered throughout the Roman world” to be more accessible to the faithful everywhere. With relics being enshrined in churches everywhere, the faithful no longer had to travel over a dangerous distances. But with such a popular demand for relics, many times these translations were done by stealth. A good example of this can be found in the Translation of Sainte Foy or Saint Faith, in which a monk named Arinisdus is sent to get the relics of Saint Foy from Agen by his superoirs from the monastery Conques “for the salvation of the country and the redemption of many people.” The monk establishes himself within the community of Agen, keeping his real intent secret, and comes to be greatly respected there. After a time, Arinisdus is placed as the guardian of the church, allowing his access to Saint Foy. When the opportunity arises, he breaks into the Saint's tomb and 'reverently' takes the bones. On his journey back to Corques, he, surprisingly, evades his pursuers; even when they are looking right at him, they cannot recognize him. Arinisdus reaches Corques safely, and Saint Foy in entombed in a new reliquary, and Agen is minus one saint.

The writer of the translation wished to do so in a positive sense, casting Arinisdus as a heroic man working for the betterment of souls. For Arinisdus stealing the relics of Saint Foy was a spiritual exercise. If the monastery of Corques was working against the will of God, then Arinisdus would have been caught red-handed; nor did the miracles surrounding Saint Foy's relics cease. If the miracles had stopped, it would have been seen as a sign that saint had been dishonored in some way. Many translations followed a similar pattern as the 'holy' theft of Saint Foy, but not all translations of relics were done by deceit. The approval of bishops was sought to move a saint's remains before anything else would be done. There are several names that are predominate in the realm of relic theft, though they are often called relic merchants to keep their actions honorable ones.

In the ninth century there was Deusdona, a deacon of the Church, who was “no occasional thief but rather the head of a large and highly organized group of relic merchants.” He worked mostly in Italy, his most notable acquisition being the relics of Saints Peter and Marcellinus. Then there was Felix, who was a rather well known merchant and sold relics all over Europe. Later on in the tenth century, King Athelstan of England was known for his passion in collecting relics and his small concern for how his suppliers got the merchandise. One such supplier was Electus, who tried to get the relics of Saint Bertulfus to sell to the King, but was caught before he could even get to the King.

End of Part One.
To Be Continued............
(Copyright: Belongs to the Wanderer)
(If interested in research please contact me.)

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A Morbid Connection to Heaven:
An Investigation of Relics & The Modern Need for Them

Everyone has a vague understanding of relics; even the most 'un-Churched' person has heard of relics. The question that needs to be asked is a simple one – what are relics? When the modern mind thinks of relics, they think of something old and disgusting, which is partially true, but the thoughts of saints or Heaven do not enter the mind. Relics are something more then just the dead body parts of a holy person. They are a connection to something beyond what we see in the visible world, to the invisible.

People have always wanted to improve their person and wished to be close to those who are better than they. In the early days of the Church, people always scrambled to get close to the Apostles, their successors and other holy people in hopes that a simple touch would improve their fortunes. Even when the holy person has passed on to the the next life, people still wish to touch and be connected. With this mindset, it is not hard to see why the cult of saints and of relics developed. As the Holy Mother Church grew and spread, so did the cult of relics, and the cult was integrated within the liturgy. Soon great devotions brought thousands of pilgrims to the graves of the saints and the churches that held relics. Because of people's faith and their need for graces, miracles began to occur through, not by, the relics of saints. Unfortunately, people turned the desire to be near someone holy for profit and the abuses began, which also brought about great doubt concerning the veneration.

But there will always be doubters about relics and their authenticity, which began strongly with the Protestant Revolt or Reformation. The skeptic will always be able to say, 'This might not have been so-and-so’s,' or 'You might be mistaken,' and there is a possibility that it might be true. There might have been a mistake, or fakes might have been substituted for the real relics. We evaluate relics the same way we evaluate the bona fides of anything else, like visiting where a famous pop star use to live in his youth or something similar. Skeptics have gone to great lengths to disprove some of the more fantastical miracles that occur with relics, such as the liquefaction of Saint Januarius' blood and, especially, the Shroud of Turin. But some relics are beyond doubt, others are so highly probable that it would be rash to doubt. Others are merely probable, and some, yes, are improbable. But since it is not the physical object itself Catholics venerate, it is best not to toss out even most of the skeptical relics, lest you toss out something that really is a relic of the holy dead.

Relics are an aid to the Church Militant in helping Her to remember the goal of Heaven and to have a closer connection to God through His saints. Also, in a round about way, relics can lead to a better understanding and participation in a good wholesome relationship with our fellow man. Relics become a reminder of two things – first that we must die and secondly, and most importantly, that there will be a resurrection of the body.

To Be Continued............
(Copyright: Belongs to the Wanderer)
(If interested in research please contact me.)