Feast draws hundreds to see, honor ‘pieces of the saints’

By Bernadette A. Parco
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
A CHAPEL on the hills of Barangay Talamban, Cebu City was packed with hundreds of mass goers for the celebration of the Feast of the Holy Relics, a feast that some people don’t know about.
Inside the place of worship were more than 1,000 relics of saints kept in reliquaries of various shapes and sizes, which the Order of Discalced Augustinians (OAD), private individuals and a priest have been keeping for years.
The Feast of Relics was last Nov. 5, but it was celebrated at the chapel only yesterday.
Within the St. Thomas Villanova formation house is the Chapel of Relics, which is managed by Fr. Dennis Duene Ruiz, (OAD).
“This is a celebration of 2,000 years of Christianity,” Ruiz said at the start of the Latin Mass he concelebrated late yesterday afternoon.
Fr. Ruiz told Sun.Star Cebu that the relics are gifts from friends and a bishop.
At least 600 of the relics on display are kept by the Augustinian community, while some are owned by iconographer Louie Nacorda and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Visayas and Mindanao Manager William Medici.
Proper care
These are relics from Saint Longinus or the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus’s side, Mary Magdalene, Maria Jacobe the mother of James the Less, Samaritan woman Saint Photinae, Maria Salome who stayed at the foot of the cross, and the good thief Saint Dimas, among others.
On one table, surrounded by several bronze and silver metal reliquaries, is a white hard hat placed beside two photos of Blessed John Paul II.
Fr. Ruiz said the hat is considered a first-class relic because of the sweat of the late Pope, who used it during an Italian trip.
The Augustinian priest used to work at the Chapel of Relics in Rome, Italy and has received training for the proper care and handling of the precious items.
Relics of saints may be bones, ashes, pieces of their clothing, and other objects they used.
The collection also includes the cross-shaped metal reliquary, which is used only for the relic of the true cross of Jesus.
Cross
The reliquary bears carvings of items connected with the Passion story of Jesus, such as the ladder used to take down the body of Jesus from the cross and the spear used to pierce his side.
Other relics are a rock from Gethsemane where Jesus prayed before he was crucified, a piece of cloth from the veil of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a piece of bone of the martyred Saint Stephen.
A fragment of Peter’s cross is also on display, enclosed in a theca, the container made of glass and metal used for relics.
Saint Peter, also considered the first pope, was believed to have been crucified upside down on an inverted cross, as he saw himself unworthy to be crucified the same way like Jesus Christ.
For an iconographer, the relics are “better than the images (of saints).”
“A relic is part of the saint that you venerate. It is unusual to have this many in one room,” Nacorda told Sun.Star Cebu.
There are three kinds of relics—the first-class relic, which is a part of the body of the saint, while the second-class relic is a part of the saint’s clothing.
“The third-class relics are things the saint touched,” he said.
Online sale
Not everybody can have a relic, said Fr. Ruiz, because the process is tedious.
“Only those who have a letter from the bishop requesting from the Vicariate of Relics in Rome (can have a relic),” he added.
The relics require meticulous care. The chapel’s humidity is regularly checked and the area is kept free from dust.
He also said that the relics are given only to people who would really care for the priceless items and would not put them up for sale.
Ruiz lamented that there are relics for sale online and warned people against buying these items.
“The relics are reminders for us of the importance of our bodies, the dignity of our flesh… As we venerate the relics of saints, we want to be like them too,” he added.
Nacorda said the relics are not for sale and should not be sold, as prescribed by provisions of the Canon Law of the Catholic Church.
“We have to give the relics importance. People may think that these are just (ordinary) things. We have to pay more attention to them, they are a piece of the saints that we have a devotion to,” he added.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on November 08, 2011.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2011/11/08/feast-draws-hundreds-see-honor-pieces-saints-189315

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