Broken Crusafix

[Montie_Claunch]

I was cleaing my room last saterday and I bumpt my head on a shelf that held a statue of the crusified Christ and it broke. I don’t think that I could repair it. What would be the proper thing to do with the broken statue? It feels wrong to just throw it into the trash been. Is there a set procedure for this kind of thing? What about other religious Items that break? Thanks and God bless.

 

[amills]

This remindes me of a story the deacon told at the communion service on Sunday. (We lack a priest to be able to have mass).

There was a young man in seminary. He went into the chapel and found that the Crucifix in the chapel was broken - the arms and legs were broken off of the corpus. He then took the broken cross to his superior and asked permission to properly dispose of the Crucifix (Burn the corpus). The priest told the seminarian - no you should take that crucifix back to your room and hang in on the wall. It is now your duty to be the arms and legs of Christ.

 

[porthos11]

This remindes me of a story the deacon told at the communion service on Sunday. (We lack a priest to be able to have mass).

There was a young man in seminary. He went into the chapel and found that the Crucifix in the chapel was broken - the arms and legs were broken off of the corpus. He then took the broken cross to his superior and asked permission to properly dispose of the Crucifix (Burn the corpus). The priest told the seminarian - no you should take that crucifix back to your room and hang in on the wall. It is now your duty to be the arms and legs of Christ.

Cute story, but it does give one right option. If the damaged corpus is combustible, it can be reverently burned.

Otherwise, another option would be to bury it in an appropriate place, perhaps your garden or in a cemetery.

 

[Gregor]

Several years ago I was at the wake of my wife’s grandfather. The crucifix on my wife’s rosary was bent, because she had been clutching it during a plane flight (she doesn’t fly very well). I tried to bend it back straight for her. It snapped. At her grandfather’s wake. My mother-in-law said, “I’ve never seen you turn that shade of red before.”

With a small sacramental like a rosary, you can dispose of it by taking it apart into small pieces, so it is no longer a rosary. I don’t know if that helps you much with your situation.

 

[baltobetsy]

This remindes me of a story the deacon told at the communion service on Sunday. (We lack a priest to be able to have mass).

There was a young man in seminary. He went into the chapel and found that the Crucifix in the chapel was broken - the arms and legs were broken off of the corpus. He then took the broken cross to his superior and asked permission to properly dispose of the Crucifix (Burn the corpus). The priest told the seminarian - no you should take that crucifix back to your room and hang in on the wall. It is now your duty to be the arms and legs of Christ.

Funny, the deacon who preached at our Mass told the same story!

Betsy