Relics in Early Church History

The Veneration of Saints and Martyrs by Medieval Christians

Mar 9, 2009 Michael Streich

Linking relics with sacred and sacramental practices began in the early second century and expanded rapidly as Christianity replaced old pagan cultures.

Sacred relics have played an important part in Christian worship and sacramental identity since the early second century. Clothing and objects worn by martyrs extended the spiritual relationship of the saint with believers. This led to Christians venerating the bodies of saints. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, referring to this transition, writes that “it is well known that such external objects as handkerchiefs and aprons have cured the sick after touching the martyr’s body; how much more then will the body itself heal them.” In Smyrna, Christians venerated the bones of St. Polycarp, burned at the stake.

Growth of Relics in the Early Middle Ages

As the Roman world of antiquity transformed itself into groups of Christian communities, the influx of relics from the East grew. St. Helena brought parts of the true cross to Rome, housed in the Lateran, today the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The basilica also features the steps Jesus walked up during his trial before Pilate.

The Basilica of St. Peter in Chains houses the chains that bound Peter during the persecutions of Nero, while up the street the Basilica of St. Mary Major contains the Bethlehem crib of Jesus. According to legend, an angel appeared to Charlemagne in AD 800, giving him the foreskin of the baby Jesus. Charlemagne presented it to Pope Leo III who authenticated it and placed it in the Lateran.

As cathedrals and monasteries were built throughout Europe, communities vied with each other to collect the most important relics. In many cases duplicate relics, such as three different heads of John the Baptist, were all individually authenticated. Relics fed the pilgrimage routes, bringing in revenue and adding to the prestige of the religious site.

Thomas Aquinas justified relics on the basis of the intrinsic merit (grace) obtained through their existence in that the bodies of saints were sanctified. Further, relics provided a physical reminder. Perhaps the most visible reason was the many cures associated with relics. Pilgrims at Canterbury scratched the blood stained side of the wall near the high altar where Becket had been slain, mixed the dust with water, and drank it. In Paris, on the Feast of St. Genevieve, the faithful lined up to drink a cup of water from a cauldron into which an arm of the saint had been placed.

Relics Moved or Disappeared

For over 700 years St. Nicholas of Myra in Asia Minor had blessed the city. In 1087, however, Italian merchants forcibly seized his body and took it to Bari, a prosperous commercial center that grew after the saint’s arrival, thus legitimizing the notion that St. Nicholas himself approved of the relocation. The merchants had told the Myra guardians that the saint had wished the move, conveyed to the pope in a dream. Dreams and visions were often used to find the bones of saints or legitimize them.

On the other hand, when Protestant reformers in Scotland wanted to end the popular cult of St. Andrew, they simply tossed his relics into the waters. The pilgrimage town sharply declined, the cathedral fell into disuse, and St. Andrews never recovered until the advent of golf.

Relics in the Post Modern World

The Catholic Church still displays important relics in monstrances during significant feast days and pilgrims still travel to Rome, the great European cathedrals and monasteries, and ancient sites associated with relics. In Budapest, volunteers stand guard at the reliquary containing the hand of St. Stephen to ensure that no visitors use flash photography. Every Catholic altar contains a relic.

For the faithful, relics remain an important reminder of exceptional men and women who gave their lives for the faith or lived as spiritual role models.

Sources:

Rosalind and Christopher Brooke, Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000-1300 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1984) see chapter one.

Herbert L. Kessler and Johanna Zacharias, Rome 1300: On the path of the pilgrim (Yale University Press, 2000).

Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Medieval Religion (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975) see chapter one.

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