Spurious Relics and Devotions.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 18, 1 May 1902, Page 2

Spurious Relics and Devotions.

An anonymous correspondent in one of our daily papers has been trying to throw ridicule on the Catholic practice of venerating relics by sending a clipping to the paper in question in which the statement is made on the authority of ' an Italian Protestant pastor,' that the tail of Balaam's ass is exhibited at the Cathedral of Verona for the veneration of the multitude. We are at one with this correspondent in condemning overcredulity in such matters, but the only credulity that we see in the case is the credulity of the people who can swallow without a gulp the fairy tale of this guileless ' pastor.' They are the real lineal descendants of Balaam's historic animal, and they should be the last in the woild to say anything about ' credulity.' The authorised teaching and practice of the Church with regard to relics is eminently simple, reasonable, and Scriptural. It is based on the principle that Matter is capable of being used as a channel or medium of grace and is susceptible of a union with a Divine Presence and influence. Thus, the Church specially venerates the bodies of the martyrs and other saints, because while they Were on earth their bodies were the temple of the Holy Ghost and were the receptacle of countless graces. The graces and virtues of the saints were not virtues of the soul only: they belonged to the whole man, body and soul, which worked and suffered together. Next, Catholics believe that God is sometimes pleased to honor the relics of the saints by making them instruments of healing and other miracles, and also by bestowing spiritual graces on those who, for His sake, honor those whom He Himself has honored so greatly. In proof of this we appeal to the Old Testament, in which is recorded the resurrection of a dead body which touched the bones of Eliseus (2 Kings, xin., 21), and to the New, which tells of grace and healing being imparted by the hem of Christ's own garment (Matt, ix., 22), by the shadow of St. Peter (Acts v., 15), and by towels which had touched the living body of St. Paul (Acts'xix., 12). To the teaching of reason and of sacred Scripture may be added the testimony of the Fathers, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries generally, being witnesses to this belief in the Apostolic Church.

No doubt in all ages abuses have occurred with regard to relics, but the Church cannot, with anytiuth or fairness be held responsible for these. As a writer in a recent number of the Month remarks : ' Spurious relics and legends arc no more part of the revelation guarded by the Church than the barnacles are part of the ship to which they adhere so tenaciously, nor has the Church ever really sanctioned them with her authority.' On the contrary, she has, so far as was possible, made express provision for the prevention of such abuses. So long pgo as 12 15, Canon 62 of the Fourth Lateran Council, inserted in the ' Corpus Juris,' forbade relics to be sold or to be exposed outside of their cases or shrines, and prohibited the public veneration of new relics till their authenticity had been approved by the Pope (Mansi, ' Concil. 1 torn xxii. 1049-50). 'lhe Council of Trent (Scss. xxv. De Inyoc. Sanct.) renews these prohibitions and requires bishops to decide on the authenticity of new relics after careful consultation with theologians, or, if n< cessary, with the metropolitan ard other bishops of the province assembled in Council. It will thus be seen that ttie Chuich has taken every possible precaution to secure that only genuine r< lies shall be honored by the faithful, and if well-meaning but insufficiently instiucted Catholics are occasionally tound who accept as genuine anything and everything that is oliered to them as a 'relic,' the Church certainly cannot, under the circumstances, be held responsible.

What has been said as to the Church's altitude and the Church \ iv-ponsiulity in repaid to mv.miou-, iclics applies also to unauthorist d and purely legendary devotions and pra)ers. Many C'ltholu ■> who h »ye a /.-al, indeed, but not according to knowledge, rush eagerly after any new-tangled and much-

advertised devotion, and this notwithstanding that there is a superabundance of excellent authorised prayers in all the prayer-books and notwithstanding that by application to their priest they could ascertain at once the precise value of the particular prayer or devotion that is pressed upon them. A recent example of this is furnished by our esteemed contemporary the Catholic Standard, A Catholic pastor had sent to our contemporary a prayer which he had found in circulation in three counties of Wisconsin, U.S.A., and desired the Standard to call attention to its spurious character. The prayer was entitled 'In the Tomb ' and purported to have been found in the tomb of Our Lord in the 83rd year of the Christian era. The most ample promises were attached to its recital. Those who repeat it or keep it about them ' shall never die a sudden death. Reading it over, any woman in labor will deliver in safety and be a glad mother. And when the child is born lay this on the child's right side and he or she will not be troubled with any misfortune. If you see anyone in fits lay this on their side and they shall stand up and thank God. And you who shall repeat it any house shall be blessed by the Lord. And he that will laugh at it will suffer. Believe this for certain, etc.' The prayer and its descriptive matter, according to the Standard, abound in Scriptural and historical errors, and our contemporary very properly rebukes the foolishness of those who could have anything to do with such spurious rubbish. Here was a case in which an undoubtedly spurious prayer, with absurd promises, was being somewhat widely accepted by foolish people, yet no one could with any reasonableness hold the Church responsible, and her attitude on the matter was rightly interpreted by her official representatives when they lost no time in taking steps to suppress the abuse. The true place of spurious relics and devotions is that assigned to them by the Abbe Hemmer when he describes them as instances only of misuse of that liberty which the Church leaves to her children, in her desire not to extend too far the sphere of her authoritative action.