Relics
of the Saints are used to simply recall to mind
the example of a particular saint and to remind
us of their nearness to God and their power to
intercede for us on earth.
Mk 5:27-29
She (the woman
with a hemorrhage) had heard about Jesus
and came up behind him in the crowd and
touched his cloak. She said, "If I but
touch his clothes, I shall be cured."
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
Acts 5:15
Thus they even
carried the sick out into the streets
and laid them on cots and mats so that
when Peter came by, at least his shadow
might fall on one or another of them.
Acts 19:11-12
So extraordinary
were the mighty deeds God accomplished
at the hands of Paul that when face
cloths or aprons that touched his skin
were applied to the sick, their diseases
left them and the evil spirits came out
of them.
The
word relics comes from the Latin
reliquiae (the counterpart of the Greek
leipsana) which already before the
propagation of Christianity was used in its
modern sense, viz., of some object, notably part
of the body or clothes, remaining as a memorial
of a departed saint.
The teaching of the Catholic Church with regard
to the veneration of relics is summed up in a
decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV),
which enjoins on bishops and other pastors to
instruct their flocks that "the holy bodies of
holy martyrs and of others now living with
Christ—which bodies were the living members of
Christ and 'the temple of the Holy Ghost' (I
Cor., vi, 19) and which are by Him to be raised
to eternal life and to be glorified are to be
venerated by the faithful, for through these
[bodies] many benefits are bestowed by God on
men, so that they who affirm that veneration and
honour are not due to the relics of the saints,
or that these and other sacred monuments are
uselessly honored by the faithful, and that the
places dedicated to the memories of the saints
are in vain visited with the view of obtaining
their aid, are wholly to be condemned, as the
Church has already long since condemned, and
also now condemns them." Further, the council
insists that "in the invocation of saints the
veneration of relics and the sacred use of
images, every superstition shall be removed and
all filthy lucre abolished." Catholic Encyclopedia
The Three Classes
of Relics
1st
Class Relics are the bodies
of saintly persons or any of their integrant
parts, such as limbs, ashes and bones.
2nd
Class Relics are objects
that have come in physical contact with living
Saints and are thereby sanctified. These would
include clothing, tools, and personal items.
3rd
Class Relics are swatches of cloth, holy card or
medals that have been touched to a 1st or 2nd
class relic.