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Relics and their Veneration
The veneration of saints and relics is a tradition from the very beginnings of the Church and even with the prophets of the Old Testament. Within the Catholic Church, relics fall into one of these categories:
- 1st class relics
part of a Saint’s (or Blessed’s) body- 2nd class relics
parts of clothing or other objects used during the person’s life- 3rd class relics
objects that come into contact with a 1st class relic (these may be touched to a shrine or a tomb in some cases).
Veneration shown to relics is part of the honor deserved for the angels and saints which the Church recommends to the faithful. This veneration is entirely diferent from the adoration given to God alone. We venerate relics since the saints’ souls have been confrmed to be with God in heaven; the Church afrms that their bodies will one day be glorifed when reunited with their souls. Veneration of relics is a witness to the union of the Church on earth with the Church in heaven.
“For just as Christian communion...brings us closer to Christ, so our companionship with the saints join us to Christ…” (Lumen Gentium, Vatican II document)
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St. Alphonsus Relic
The relic housed at St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church in Zionsville, IN is ex ossibus (from the bone) of the great Saint and Doctor of the Church. It was a gift from the Provincial House of Redemptorists in Denver, Colorado. Reverend Father Dennis O’Keeffe took a pilgrimage to that Redemptorist House in 2007, shortly after becoming pastor of St. Alphonsus Liguori Church in Zionsville. Thus began a relationship and conversation with the Denver Province, to which our parish belongs. Several years later they sent us a 1st class relic of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.
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