Buying relics and the sin of simony

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Oumashta

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Dear CAF members,

I recently came across an antique dealer that specializes in church antique that was selling an ex corpore relic of St. Maria Goretti. They get most of their items from old churches and monasteries that closed down. They have several other first class relics from these churches up for sale as well. I know that buying and selling relics is the grave sin of simony, and I would never want to be caught guilty of that sin, but I can’t help but feel like the relics are not being treated reverently by being left to collect dust on an antique store shelf instead of being in a place where it should be properly venerated.

I did tell the antique seller that selling relics is a sin, and that they should be given to churches or monasteries near them, but they said that they bought all of their items from churches. They also have many statues and liturgical items up for sale. (I have NO IDEA why churches would sell relics to antique dealers >_<…)

I know that rescuing a relic from profanation, even if it means paying for the relic, is something good, and I am now in contact with someone in the antique store asking about this relic, but I can’t help but feel like I would be participating in simony by buying this relic from the antique store, since the Code of Canon Law is extremely clear that buying and selling relics is a terrible sacrilege… I’m kind of in this dilemma. :confused:… And I want to save all the relics by buying all of them, but… yeah… I don’t know. Please help, thanks.

God bless!
 
reviews.ebay.com/CATHOLIC-SAINT-RELICS-ON-EBAY-A-REPLY?ugid=10000000002229692

Well, I didn’t properly post the link (I don’t know how), but there are some articles I found online, the above being one of them, which quote and explain Canon Law about this question. One cannot sell a relic, apparently, but one CAN sell and buy a reliquary, even if it contains a relic. What the antique stores are selling are the reliquaries, which are often old, beautiful, ad valuable. The relic (according to the interpreters of Canon Law) has no intrinsic secular value, so the reliquary can be sold with the relic in it, because what has the secular value is the reliquary.

Anyway, that is what I found online. You can find other article doing a search.

Edit: Looks like I did properly post the link, and it is working. Yay!
 
CB_Catholic said:
reviews.ebay.com/CATHOLIC-SAINT-RELICS-ON-EBAY-A-REPLY?ugid=10000000002229692

Well, I didn’t properly post the link (I don’t know how), but there are some articles I found online, the above being one of them, which quote and explain Canon Law about this question. One cannot sell a relic, apparently, but one CAN sell and buy a reliquary, even if it contains a relic. What the antique stores are selling are the reliquaries, which are often old, beautiful, ad valuable. The relic (according to the interpreters of Canon Law) has no intrinsic secular value, so the reliquary can be sold with the relic in it, because what has the secular value is the reliquary.

Anyway, that is what I found online. You can find other article doing a search.

Edit: Looks like I did properly post the link, and it is working. Yay!
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Thanks for the reply, but after talking more with the antique dealer, he wants $600 just for a small relic in the theca with the document of authenticity. Ha, that was the end of that. He is obviously selling the relic.
Thanks and God bless!
 
Oumashta said:
Dear CAF members,

I recently came across an antique dealer that specializes in church antique that was selling an ex corpore relic of St. Maria Goretti. They get most of their items from old churches and monasteries that closed down. They have several other first class relics from these churches up for sale as well. I know that buying and selling relics is the grave sin of simony, and I would never want to be caught guilty of that sin, but I can’t help but feel like the relics are not being treated reverently by being left to collect dust on an antique store shelf instead of being in a place where it should be properly venerated.

I did tell the antique seller that selling relics is a sin, and that they should be given to churches or monasteries near them, but they said that they bought all of their items from churches. They also have many statues and liturgical items up for sale. (I have NO IDEA why churches would sell relics to antique dealers >_<…)

I know that rescuing a relic from profanation, even if it means paying for the relic, is something good, and I am now in contact with someone in the antique store asking about this relic, but I can’t help but feel like I would be participating in simony by buying this relic from the antique store, since the Code of Canon Law is extremely clear that buying and selling relics is a terrible sacrilege… I’m kind of in this dilemma. :confused:… And I want to save all the relics by buying all of them, but… yeah… I don’t know. Please help, thanks.

God bless!
Click to expand...
I’m pretty sure its not a sin to purchase a relic to rescue it and then give to the Church.
 
thistle said:
I’m pretty sure its not a sin to purchase a relic to rescue it and then give to the Church.
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Most Catholic writers say it is a mistake to try to do this, since it only encourages those trafficking (illegally, according to canon law) in relics. Even if they are not Catholics who are selling them, it just makes the situation worse. We should just give up on those relics as “lost,” I think.

In any case, church law in Canon 1190 (as most of us here know) says “it is absolutely wrong to sell sacred relics.” The Latin original actually says “nefas est,” as in “nefarious.” Pretty strong language. There is nothing said about exceptions to “rescue” them and give to churches, so I would think we should just never ever get involved in buying and selling relics. Now, if we went in a time machine to the Middle Ages, and a Turkish sultan was holding the whole skeleton of an apostle that he had stolen from a Byzantine church for ransom, and we paid him off to rescue it, and then enshrined it in a basilica in Europe (as happened in history), that is probably at least in a gray area leaning towards being OK.

The Church’s doctrines seem only to define “relics” as the bodies of saints or parts of them (see the decrees of the Council of Trent). As we all know, however, the Christian faithful also venerate what are called “second-class” and even “third-class” relics, but these are not defined or recognized in doctrine or canon law anyplace.

There are lots of websites that claim it is “permitted” to sell third-class relics. This is untrue, though, but by the same token, since the Church doesn’t define them or really say anything about those, it seems like it’s not a big deal to sell them, as long as one doesn’t pay very much (like more than a couple of dollars), since this would suggest a spirit of simony (e.g. attempting to buy or sell spiritual goods). Besides, it would be foolish to pay money for a piece of cloth that touched a saints’ tomb (which is what third-class relics usually are), since anybody can make one - they are infinitely producable, and so not rare.
 
You will not be commiting sin if you buy relics if they are gong to be used for veneration and other good practices . Many sellers say that they only sell the small reliquary the relics come in (thecas), but this is a straight up lie. Most modern thecas are usually sold between $15 to $30. If the relic belonged to a popular SaInt , the price will be muh higher. Relics of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus can reach up to $600 while a more unknown Saint can sell for $300. Sorry for any typos. It’s 12:08 AM and I’m really tired .
 
If you give the relic to a church or a monastery or if you bury it, then when you buy the relic it would be a redemption, not simony.
:):)🙂
 
The Church doesn’t say we can define simony how we would like to - it says it’s wrong to traffic in sacred relics.

Please do not buy or sell them from or to anybody. It just encourages this really serious sin! It also encourages the making of fake ones. No incentive to sell, then no incentive to fake.

Look, I love relics as much or even more than probably most here, so don’t get me wrong, but I have never been tempted to buy them. Jesus once appeared to a saint or blessed (I forget who) who had prayed that she receive a relic of the True Cross, and Our Lord appeared to her and said “all the words I spoke on Earth [as recorded in the gospel] are the best relic you could have.”
 
CatholicLife said:
You will not be commiting sin if you buy relics if they are gong to be used for veneration and other good practices .
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I don’t know how you can conclude that. Trafficking in sacred relics is an abomination. Nor can one say that the fault lies in the selling but not in the buying, because a knowing buyer deliberately suborns the sale.
 
MarkThompson said:
I don’t know how you can conclude that. Trafficking in sacred relics is an abomination. Nor can one say that the fault lies in the selling but not in the buying, because a knowing buyer deliberately suborns the sale.
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That is my opinion and the opinion of others who try to preserve and promote the practice veneration. I know a gentleman in Texas who buys relics and makes these available to any parish in his diocese . I prefer that people like him buy these items instead of a secular collectors who view them as a morbid curiosity.
 
Thanks for your advice guys, I’ll be sure not to buy first or second class relics.

What about third class? Many Catholic book stores and internet shops sell rosaries or medallions with third class relics.
 
When I was a kid, I had an electronic game called Simon. I see these relics selling on Ebay all the time. If I were to buy one, …?
 
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