Chapter XXVI. Of the Use and Veneration of Relics in the Catholic Church

Q. What do you mean by Relics?

A. The dead bodies or bones of the saints we call Relics; as also whatever other things have belonged to them in their mortal life.

Q. And what is the doctrine and practice of the church with regard to these things?

A. We keep such things as these with a religious respect and veneration for the sake of those to whom they have belonged, but principally for the sake of him to whom the saints themselves belonged; that is, for the greater glory of God, who is glorious in his saints, and to whom is referred all the honour that is given to his saints.

Q. What reasons has the church for showing this respect to the dead bodies or bones of the saints?

A. First, because they have been the victims and the living temples of God, in which his divine Majesty has in a particular manner inhabited, and which he has sanctified by his presence and grace: and therefore, if God required of Moses, Exod. iii. 5. and of Joshua, Josh. v. 15. to loose their shoes from off their feet, in respect to the ground on which they stood, as being rendered holy by his presence, or that of his angels, we must conclude, that it is agreeable to his divine Majesty that we should testify the like honour to that venerable earth of the bodies of his saints, which he in such an extraordinary manner has sanctified, by abiding in them as in his temples.

Secondly, we know that the bodies of the saints are pre-ordained to a happy resurrection and eternal glory, and upon this account also deserve our respect.

Thirdly, the bodies and other relics of the saints have been, and are daily the instruments of the power of God, for the working of innumerable miracles, which God, who is truth and sanctity itself, would never have effected, if it had not been' agreeable to him that we should honour and respect these precious remnants of his servants.

Fourthly, the relics and shrines of the martyrs and other saints serve much to encourage the faithful to an imitation of their virtues, and to help to raise their souls from the love of things present and temporal to the love of things eternal.

Q. Did the primitive christians show this respect to the relics of the saints?

A. Yes: nothing is more evident, from all kind of monuments of antiquity, than that the veneration of the relics of the saints is one of the most ancient things in Christianity. The learned church-historian Eusebius, 1. 7. c. 19. relates that St. James's chair was kept with great veneration by the chris tians of Jerusalem, from the Apostles time till the days in which the historian wrote, that is, till the beginning of the fourth century. The acts of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, disciple of the Apostles, who suffered at Rome, anno 107, written by the christians who accompanied him to Rome, bear record, that his holy relics were carried to Antioch by the christians, and left to that church as an inestimable treasure. The christians of Smyrna, in the account that they give of the martyrdom of their holy bishop St. Polycarp, disciple of the Apostles, inform us, that the faithful carried away his relics, which they valued more than gold and precious stones, Euseb. hist. 1. 4^ c. 15. And that this veneration of relics was approved by all the most holy and most learned bishops and doctors of the church, and condemned by none but infidels and heretics, such as Julian the apostate, Eunomius and Vigilantius, may be seen in the writings of the holy fathers. See St. Basil, in Ps. 115. t. 1. p. 274; Homil. 5. in Martyrem Julittam, p. 217; Horn. 20. in 40; Martyes, p. 479, St. Gregory Nyssen, Orat. de S. Theodoro Marty re, t. 3; St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. 3. in Julianum, t. 1. p. 76, 77, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. 18; St. John Chrysostom, ad Pap. Ant. Horn. 40, 47, 59. 1. contra Gentiles, Horn. 26. in 2 Cor. 2, &c.; St. Ambrose, Epist. 22; St. Hierome. 1. adversus Vigilantium. St. Augustine, 1. 9. Confess, c. 7. Serm. 92. de Diversis, 1. 22. of the city of God, c. 8. Epist. 103; Theodoret, L 8. contra Grsecos, &c. To pass over many others, who all agree in approving this practice; and all or most of them bear record, that God also has approved it by innumerable miracles.

Q. But have you any instance in scripture of miracles wrought by the bones of God's saints, or other things belonging to them?

A. Yes; we read 2 (alias 4.) Kings xiii. 21. of a dead man raised to life by the touch of the bones of the prophet Elisha, and ^cts xix. 12. 'that from the body of Paul were brought unto the sick, handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

Q. But does not Christ reprehend the Scribes and Pharisees for building up and adorning the so/ pulchres of the Prophets, St. Matt, xxiii.29,30,31.?

A. He does not reprehend them for the action, which in itself was good, but for their wicked dispositions; inasmuch as, whilst they should seem to honour the prophets, and thereby obtain the favouT of the people, they sought all The while to fill up the measure of their fathers, by persecuting unto the death the Lord of prophets.

Q. What kind of honour does the Catholic Church allow to relics?

A, An inferior and relative honour, as to things belonging to God^s saints; but by no means divine honour.

Q. But are not candles allowed to burn before them? and are they not sometimes fumed with incense?

A, These are honours indeed, but such as we may give to one another; as in effect we incense in the church both clergy and people, and burn candles to our princes upon occasions of joy: for since these honours are no ways appropriated to God, either by the nature of the things in themselves, or by any divine ordinance, why may not the church of God allow them to the relics of the saints.^ not as divine honours, but as tokens of our love and respect to them; of our joy for the triumphs of Christ in his saints, and as emblems of their eternal life, light and glory.

Q. Does not this practice of the veneration of relics expose the faithful to the danger of idolatry and superstition, by honouring false' relics?

A. No: first, because the church of God, by her public canons and her zealous pastors, takes what care she can to prevent such impostures. Secondly, because, if by the wickedness of men it should sometimes happen that the faithful should be imposed upon in this regard, so far as to honour a false relic for a true one, there would be neither any idolatry nor superstition in the case, but a mistake on their part, innocent, as when a charitable christian relieves an impostor or a hypocrite, innocently believing him to be a real object of charity.

Q. Bui if the church has so much zeal against false relics, how comes she to tolerate them in so many cases, as when divers churches pretend to possess the body of the same saint, for some or* other of these must be false relics?

A, You are too hasty in concluding that these must needs be false relics, first, because it often happens, that some part of the body of a saint is in one place, and some part in another, in which case both places claim the body of such a saint, though they really possess only a part of it; and yet neither the one or the other is therefore to hQ charged with honouring false relics. Secondly, many of the saints and martyrs have borne the same names, and hence it easily happens, that relics, which indeed belong to one saint, are attributed to another of the same name. Thirdly, there have been many ancient martyrs, whose names at present are not known, whose relics nevertheless have been all along honoured by the church: now it was easy that the ignorance of some, or the vanity of others, might attribute to them the names of other saints: so that all these may be true relics, notwithstanding they do not all belong to the saints to whom they are attributed.

Q. What is the meaning of making pilgrimages to the shrines or other memorials of the saints?

A, To honour God in his saints, to excite devotion by the sight of those places sanctified by these heavenly pledges, and to obtain graces and blessings of God by the prayers of the saints: for though God be every where, and his bounty and mercy be not confined to any particular place, yet the experience of all past ages convinces us, that it is his holy will and pleasure to bestow his favours more plentifully, and to show more frequent and miraculous effects of his power and goodness in some places than in others, see St. Augustine, epist. 137.

Q. Have not Catholics a more than ordinary veneration for the wood of the cross, the nails, thorns, and other instruments of Christ's passion?

A. Yes, they have, because these things have so close a relation to the passion of Christ, by which we were redeemed, and have been sanctified by the blood of our Redeemer.