Altar and Relics

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sandmountainsli

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I have heard said that all altars in RC Churches contain the bones of a martyr saint.
Is this true today?
I know there are many, many RC Churches and each has an alter.
How do you find a martyr to bury in say Nebraska for instance?
Thanks for any answers.
WP
 
I don’t know if it is EVERY alarm, but at least many have a relic. I don’t know who puts the relic in the altar, maybe the manufacturer?

I asked our Pastor, and there is a relic of a saint in our altar. He didn’t know who. It’s not a whole body, just a part or a bone.
 
Every Catholic Church’s altar has a relic(a piece of bone) of some saint in it. If possible, the relic is from the saint that the Church was named after when it was built. If not possible, then the Vatican sends the relic of another saint. It isn’t necessarily a martyr.

The veneration of relics can be traced back to the earliest days of the Church. The Christians at Smyrna, wrote a letter, around AD156, describing the death of St. Polycarp, the disciple of St John the Evangelist.

After he had been burnt at the stake, his faithful disciples wished to carry off his remains, but the Jews urged the Roman officer to refuse his consent for fear that the Christians “would only abandon the Crucified One and begin to worship this man”.

Eventually, however, as the Smyrnaeans say, “we took up his bones, which are more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold, and laid them in a suitable place, where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together, as we are able, in gladness and joy, and to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom.”

Our Church is a communion of Saints. The veneration of relics was recommended, and taken for granted, by writers like St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and by all the other great doctors without exception.

We believe they are still alive in glory and stand before God as intercessory prayers for us all.
 
I may be one of the few people here who has witnessed the ceremony of the censecration of an altar. Please tell me if I am wrong, but bear with a story, please.

Back in, don’t laugh, sligtlhy pre- 1968, the time when the new order was being finalized, my old traditional parish church had been condemned by the building inspector. That is a rather unusual way for a parish to get a new church, but I understood it, because, for instance, I had been badly burned on my lower leg by an open heating pipe that ran through a pew.

So the parish was forced to a new building, and it was one of the very first new construction new order churches around. The new style was mandated by the archdiocese; there was no local choice involved. At the time, as the thing went up, everyone was in a state of shock, though for me as a boy it was more like adventurous surprise.

The patron of the parish was St. Thomas of Canterbury (aka St. Thomas a Becket). I believe it is one of only two parishes in the US of that name, so it would not be difficult for you to find the location details. Someone had forwarded what they thought were some relics of that saint, which is not impossible because he has a distinct history (in fact I was always proud of this), and they decided to do an official consecration of the altar, which unlike the dedcation of the church is not mandatory… It was performed by the auxiliary bishop, and they got everything right. If I complain about ritual, I can’t complain about this one. But as the young curate who was the excellent master of ceremonies said to me (just a teen hanger on at the time): too much hocus-pocus.

BTW the church as a building, though flawed (I’ll spare you the details) is pretty successful as a pioneer church of its type.
 
Not sure about relics for altars. But other items, clothing and tangible posessions of saints are also regarded as relics. There used to be a relic classification system, i.e. Class 1, Class 2, etc. Maybe some other reader has more info on these things.
I understand that in some eastern rites, the relics are contained in a cloth container, sort of a “folding altar stone” such as military chaplains use in the field.
 
There is a Catholic Church about 20 miles from here which is mostly peopled by immigrants who speak Spanish.
I wonder if they would allow me to see their altar or if they have it written down somewhere who the relics belonged to?
I would be very interested in the story.
Or would that be rude for a Presbyterian-Methodist to ask?
WP
 
Just to clarify, the relic is usually under the altar, not “in” the altar. This is not a absolute rule. Sometimes particularly in areas of active persecution the relics were kept easily accessible so that they could be removed in a hurry in case of emergency.
 
mystified said:
I understand that in some eastern rites, the relics are contained in a cloth container, sort of a “folding altar stone” such as military chaplains use in the field.
Click to expand...
This is true of the Byzantine Catholic Church. The cloth is called an antimension. Relics are sewn directly into the ornate cloth and it is signed and sealed by the bishop.

Occasionally an antimension will turn up for sale on eBay. I recall one that was recently purchase by a member of an Eastern Catholic forum I participate on. His purchase was an effort to rescue this very sacred item from possible sacrilege - he donated it, as I recall, to an Orthodox church. Attempts have been made to get eBay to prohibit the sale of antimensions based on their existing prohibition against trafficking in body parts, but somehow sellers seem to bypass this rule by stating that all they are actually “selling” is the cloth itself - they’ll include the relics themselves are a “free bonus.” :mad:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimension
 
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