New Baltimore Catechism defines Relic as

'Something belonging to, or connected with Our Lord or the Saints, such as a portion of their bodies or a garment they wore'

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)

There are three categories of relics

1st Class

Items directly associated with the events of Christ’s life (manger, cross, etc.), or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, a limb, etc.). Traditionally, a martyr’s relics are often more prized than the relics of other saints. Also, some saints relics are known for their extraordinary incorruptibility and so would have high regard. It is important to note that parts of the saint that were significant to that saint’s life are more prized relics. For instance, King St. Stephen of Hungary’s right forearm is especially important because of his status as a ruler


2nd Class
An item that the saint wore (a sock, a shirt, a glove, etc.) Also included is an item that the saint owned or frequently used, for example, a crucifix, book etc. Again, an item more important in the saint’s life is thus a more important relic.

3rd Class
Anything which has touched a first or second class relic of a saint.

Apart from Roman Catholic relics are part Buddhism, Hinduism, Shamanism etc


Attached is Relic skull and reliquary of Saint Ivo of Kermartin (also St. Yves or St. Ives), (1253–1303) in Tréguier, Brittany, France (wikipedia)

Some of the acclaimed Catholic Relics and their location

Jesus' baby blanket - Aachen, Germany
Jesus' foreskin (Holy Prepuce) - Coulombs Abbey, France
Jesus' loin cloth worn on the cross - Aachen, Germany
Pieces of the true cross - many locations, but primarily Santo Toribio de Liébana, Spain
Mary's cloak - Aachen, Germany
St. Peter's remains - St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
St. Mark's remains - St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, Italy

Acclaimed Relics of Church Fathers

St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. c.107) - St. Peter's Baslica, Vatican City
St. Augustine's Elbow - Annaba (formerly Hippo Regius), Algeria
St. Augustine - Pavia, Italy
St. Athanasius (d. 373) - Santa Croce, Florence, Italy
St. Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) - Alexandria, Egypt
St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274)- Saint-Servin, Toulouse, France

Acclaimed Relics of Other Saints

Venerable Bede - Durham Cathedral, Durham, England
St. Cuthbert (d. 687) - Durham Cathedral, Durham, England
St. Anthony of Egypt (d. 356) - near Vienne
St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) - Assisi, Italy
St. Teresa of Avila (d. 1582) - Alba de Tormes, Spain
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 270) - Calabria

The remain of Saint Diego of Alcala is kept in a 17th century silver urn inside the Cathedral in Alcalá de Henares in Madrid. His claimed “untouched” body is shown to the public every year, on his feast of November 13th.

More on Saint Diego

One of the claimed miracles that lead to the canonization of this “saint”

On a hunting trip, Henry IV of Castile fell from his horse and injured his arm. In intense pain and with his doctors unable to relieve his agony, he went to Alcalá and prayed to Didacus for a cure. The saint’s body was removed from his casket and placed beside the king. Henry then kissed the body and placed the saint’s hand on his injured arm. The king felt the pain disappear and his arm immediately regained its former strength

Source (wikipedia)

1 Timothy 4:1-3

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth

“According to the Roman Martyrology, August 14, the Church remembers and venerates “… the approximately eight hundred martyrs of Otranto, in Puglia, pressured to renounce the faith after the crushing assault of the Ottoman soldiers in 1480 A.D.

Corpses of dead Popes are kept in the crypt in the Vatican. The body of Pope Celestino V is kept in the open in Central Italy.

Source: Wikipedia

There are over 100 tombs within St. Peter’s Basilica (extant to various extents), many located in the Vatican grotto, beneath the Basilica. These include 91 popes, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Holy Roman Emperor Otto II, and the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Exiled Catholic British royalty James Francis Edward Stuart and his two sons, Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart, are buried here, having been granted asylum by Pope Clement XI. Also buried here are Maria Clementina Sobieska, wife of James Francis Edward Stuart, Queen Christina of Sweden, who abdicated her throne in order to convert to Catholicism, and Countess Matilda of Tuscany, supporter of the Papacy during the Investiture Controversy. The most recent interment was Pope John Paul II, on April 8, 2005. Beneath, near the crypt, is the recently discovered vaulted fourth-century “Tomb of the Julii”.

There are several display of Popes in St. Peter Basillica in the Vatican statehood.

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God am a jealous God . . ." (Exodus 20:4, 5)

Source: Wikipedia

Saint Ivo of Kermartin (17 October 1253 – 19 May 1303), also known Yvo or Ives, as Erwann (in Breton) and as Yves Hélory (also Helori or Heloury in French), was a parish priest among the poor of Louannec, the only one of his station to be canonized in the Middle Ages.

He is the patron of Brittany, lawyers, and abandoned children. His feast day is May 19. Poetically, he is referred to as “Advocate of the Poor.”

Ivo was canonized in June 1347 by Clement VI at the urging of Philip I, Duke of Burgundy

Capela dos Ossos in Portugal.

This Holy Roman Catholic site is located in the city of Évora 130 kilometer south of Lisbon. In plain English “Capela dos Ossos” should be translated Chapel of Bones. The Chapel is located next to the entrance of the Church of St. Francis.

The last picture shows that of a rotten child and adult hanged on a chain outside the Chapel.

What exactly do you find wrong in keeping and venerating relics?

italo: What exactly do you find wrong in keeping and venerating relics?

The same i find wrong with idol and demon worshiping.

John 14 vs 12-14

[size=13pt]…12"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13"Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14"If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.[/size]

John 15:16

[size=13pt]You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.[/size]

1 John 5:14

[size=13pt]This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.[/size]

Capela dos Ossos in Portugal

The chapel holds 5.000 skeletons. Some of these skulls have been scribbled with graffiti. Two desiccated corpses, one of which is a child, dangle from a chain.

superior1:

The same i find wrong with idol and demon worshiping.

Would you find the same thing wrong in venerating your parents' corpses?

italo:

Would you find the same thing wrong in venerating your parents' corpses?

Though I take exceptions to your mentioning my parents.

Mathew 8:22
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

The dead is for burial not to be prayed with or displayed like Catholic practice.

Jesus Christ! Yuck! Disgusting! Weird, much.
Unbelievable.

bongila: Jesus Christ! Yuck! Disgusting! Weird, much.
Unbelievable.

Those are facts. If you find a Catholic with human skull, don't be afraid, it may just be a relic he uses in his prayers.

italo:

Would you find the same thing wrong in venerating your parents' corpses?

Do you have problems with your remains hanging on a chain outside a chapel like you have in the Chapel of Bones?

[quote author21 So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.1 So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.uperior1]

Though I take exceptions to your mentioning my parents.

Mathew 8:22
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

The dead is for burial not to be prayed with or displayed like Catholic practice.[/quote]

You take exception to my mentioning your parents but you are talking about the saints and martyrs who are MY OWN fore-parents in the faith. Do you think you value your parents more than I value Mary and the saints and martyrs?

If we are to take the verse you quoted litetally, does that mean you didnt/wont bury your parents? You left/will leave other dead people to bury them?

superior1:

Do you have problems with your remains hanging on a chain outside a chapel like you have in the Chapel of Bones?

But you havent told me if you find it wrong to venerate your parents' corpses.

italo:

But you havent told me if you find it wrong to venerate your parents' corpses.

Would you? Get Their corpses,preserve them in transparent coffins,display the coffins as centre pieces in your living room?
There's nothing Wrong in that I'm thinking.

bongila:
Would you? Get Their corpses,preserve them in transparent coffins,display the coffins as centre pieces in your living room?
There's nothing Wrong in that I'm thinking.

The man said equates veneration of relics with worship of demons, so I asked him if he finds it wrong to venerate his parents' corpses...

If you share his view amd want to jump into our conversation, would you please answer the simple "yes or no" question?

That way we can move forward.

superior1:

Do you have problems with your remains hanging on a chain outside a chapel like you have in the Chapel of Bones?

The Chapel of bones (Capela dos Ossos)

The Capela dos Ossos was built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk who, in the Counter-Reformation spirit of that era, wanted to prod his fellow brothers into contemplation and transmit the message of life being transitory. This is clearly shown in the famous warning at the entrance Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos (“We, the bones that are here, await yours)".

Continue in your ridicules, you will still stand with that monk and each present souls won for Christ.
*Leaving the thread*.

Still Chapel of Bones (hanged on a chain is a decaying adult body)