Posted by Holy Relics/Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Relics, as well as commemorating the Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost. Though this feast only dates from the nineteenth century the veneration of relics goes back to the earliest days of the Christian Church. The early Christians held the martyrs in great reverence as those who had made the ultimate witness to their faith. One of the most famous of the early martyrs was St. Polycarp, the second century bishop of Smyrna. The account of his martyrdom is based on eyewitness testimony and is therefore of great historical value as evidence of the practice of the early Church. After St. Polycarp’s body had been burned the faithful “later took up his bones, more precious than costly stones and more valuable than gold, and laid them away in a suitable place. There the Lord will permit us, so far as possible to gather together in joy and gladness to celebrate the day of his martyrdom as a birthday, in memory of those athletes who have gone before, and to train and make ready, those who come hereafter.” The ancient world, both Jewish and pagan, paid great respect to the dead. Roman law protected tombs and it was the custom for the family to visit the tomb of the deceased on their birthday and hold a meal in their honour. By contrast, the early Christians met on the day of the martyr’s death which was now regarded as their true birthday, their entry into eternal life. The faithful met annually to celebrate the liturgy at the tomb of the martyrs. The account of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp again provides valuable evidence. It notes that some suspected that the desire to “have fellowship with holy flesh” would lead them to “abandon the crucified and begin worshipping this one.” On the contrary “we can never forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of the whole world who are saved, the faultless for sinners, nor can we ever worship any others. For we worship this one as the Son of God, but we worship the martyrs as disciples and imitators of the Lord, deservedly so, because of their unsurpassable devotion to their own King and Teacher. May it be also our lot to be their companions and fellow disciples.”
The account given of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp clearly shows how the practice of the veneration of the saints originally arose in connection with the actual bodies of the martyrs. It was thus originally a local cultus and each church paid especial reverence to the tombs of the martyrs in that particular place. Over the course of time this veneration was extended to confessors (those who had suffered persecution but had been denied death as martyrs). Later, after the empire became Christian, the veneration was extended from the martyrs to those the sanctity of whose lives meant that they could be accorded the same status, even though they had not actually died for their faith. Now that the age of the martyrs was over even greater respect was paid to their relics. Churches were built over the tombs of martyrs. Not all local churches had the same antiquity and so in order to establish themselves the practice of the division of relics took place. This applied in particular to areas like Gaul, which (unlike Rome), were not rich in martyrs and needed to obtain relics to establish their status. This meant that, over the course of time, the cultus of martyrs and confessors gradually spread from their actual tombs, to places which had part of the relic from the original tomb and finally to places which had no direct physical link with the actual bodies of the saints. But the tradition of celebrating the liturgy at the tombs of the martyrs was so strong that it came gradually to be the custom for a relic to be deemed necessary for a church and altar to be consecrated. This led to much competition between churches and many questionable practices developed. Relics were often stolen from one place to another and consequently many places claimed to possess the same relics.
Since the time of the Protestant Reformation, the veneration of relics has often been called into question as a practice that is at best a distraction from the faith and at worst a practice that is harmful. However, as we have seen, the veneration of relics is a practice that has been accepted by the Church since the earliest ages as a means of strengthening faith. The Church does not require us to assent that every relic is a genuine relic, but it does affirm the soundness of the basic theological principle undergirding the practice.
John Henry Newman stated that “the principle from which these beliefs and usages proceed is the doctrine that matter is susceptible of grace, or capable of union with a divine presence or influence… Christianity began by considering matter as a creature of God, and in itself very good. It taught that matter, as well as spirit, had become corrupt, in the instance of Adam; and it contemplated its recovery. It taught that the highest had taken a portion of that corrupt mass upon himself, in order to the sanctification of the whole; and that, as a firstfruits of his purpose, he had purified from all sin that very portion of it which he took into his eternal Person, and thereunto had taken it from a virgin womb which he had filled with the abundance of his spirit… As a first consequence of these awful doctrines comes that of the resurrection of the bodies of the saints, and of their future glorification with him; next, that of the sanctity of their relics; further, that of the merit of virginity; and lastly, that of the prerogatives of Mary, Mother of God. All these doctrines are more or less developed in the ante-Nicene period, though in varying degrees from the nature of the case.”
Similarly, Kallistos Ware states that, “because Orthodox are convinced that the body is sanctified and transfigured as well as the soul, they have an immense reverence for the relics of the saints. Like Roman Catholics, they believe that the grace of God present in the saints’ bodies during life remains active in their relics when they have died, and that God uses these relics as a channel of divine power and as an instrument of healing. In some cases the bodies of the saints have been miraculously preserved from corruption, but even where this has not happened, Orthodox show just as great a veneration towards their bones. The reverence for relics is not the fruit of ignorance and superstition, but springs from a highly developed theology of the body”.
As previously stated, none of this compels us to assent to the genuineness of every alleged relic, but our belief in the incarnation compels us to affirm the soundness of the basic theological principle upon which the practice is based. We must avoid falling into the Gnostic error of reducing religion to the realm of the spiritual as opposed to the material, and instead affirm that since the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, matter (and that includes all the created order) can be redeemed and sanctified. Our faith rests not on the ultimate separation between heaven and earth, the spiritual and the material, but in their reconciliation, as we await that new heaven and that new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.