This week we have some exciting news to share! Recently, our parish’s Order of the Secular Franciscans was gifted a relic of St. Clare of Assisi, follower of St. Francis of Assisi and founder of the Order of the Poor Clares. The relic was gifted to a professed member of our parish Fraternity when, providentially, the original plans for its display elsewhere fell through. On Nov 1, the relic will be installed near the stained-glass representation of St. Clare (by the St. Joseph statue in the back of the church).

You may be wondering, “What are relics and why does the Catholic Church venerate them?” Relics are sacramentals that connect us to the holy men and women who have come before us throughout Church history as we honor and imitate their heroic virtue. A first degree relic – which is how our St. Clare relic is classified – is a physical fragment of the saint’s body. A second degree relic is a fragment of something the saint owned, such as an article of clothing or a book. Finally, a third degree relic is a piece of something the saint touched, like the kneeler they knelt on while attending Holy Mass.

The Church collects and authenticates relics before gifting and distributing them. They are typically accompanied by a certificate of authentication, which our relic has. They are carefully sealed in a container called a reliquary and marked with a seal so as not to lose or damage the delicate item. Our certificate of authentication indicates that our relic was selected from her ashes.

The veneration of relics is commonly misunderstood, either perceived as an inappropriate worship of matter, or as being a bit morbid. Neither is true. We know that God created the physical world and works through matter to bring about grace for us. For example, He works through physical water to bring about sanctifying grace in the Sacrament of Baptism and He works through bread, water, and wine to give us the grace we receive in the Eucharist. Similarly, if we are open and responsive in our faith, He can give us grace through our veneration of relics, while also reminding us that this person was an example of how to follow Christ. St Jerome tells us, “We do not worship relics, we do not adore them, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator. But we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are.” (Ad Riparium, i, P.L., XXII, 907). As for the morbidity factor, from the beginning, Christians have not considered the use of relics to be morbid, but rather as a way of remaining connected to all of the members of the Mystical Body of Christ through time and space. For example, during the persecutions, Christians would go into the underground catacombs and celebrate the Holy Mass, using the tombs of martyrs as altars. To this day, it is customary to install relics in our Catholic Churches’ altars to continue that tradition.

In addition to simply being part of our tradition, we have great scriptural evidence that relics have been used to bring about miracles and grace, of which these are a few examples:

- The corpse of a man was touched to the bones of the prophet Elisha after being tossed into Elisha’s grave. The man came back to life and rose to his feet (2 Kings 13:20-21).

- A woman reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak and was cured of her 12-year hemorrhage (Matthew 9:20-22).

- People brought the sick to the Apostles and laid them on cots and mats so that Peter’s shadow could “touch” them and they would be healed (Acts 5:12-15).

- The handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul’s skin were brought to heal the sick. (Acts 19:11-12).

If you would like to see more relics, there is actually a reliquarium (a collection of relics) at St. Timothy’s Church in Mesa. There you can see a whole collection of relics from a variety of saints, spend time in their presence, and experience the holiness of the space.

Prior to the installation of St. Clare’s relic in our church, there will be a ceremony on All Saints’ Day, Nov 1^st at 1pm. Included in the ceremony will be prayer and reading about St. Clare. There will be time for the veneration of the relic, followed by a blessing of its permanent home and the installation. This is a very unique and blessed opportunity for us, so hopefully, many of you are inspired to attend this event!

BACK TO LIST