Catholic pilgrims line up to pay respects as bones of St. Therese go on tour across Britain

[lemonbeam]

LONDON — Thousands of Britons are lining up to see the bones of a 19th-century nun who became a Roman Catholic saint.

The relics of St. Therese of Lisieux were on display Thursday at St. John’s Cathedral in Portsmouth, southern England. They will tour the country until Oct. 16, with stops including London’s Wormwood Scrubs prison and Westminster Cathedral.

Therese was a French Carmelite nun who died of tuberculosis, aged 24, in 1897. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

Bones from the saint’s thigh and foot are displayed behind a glass window in a gold-trimmed hardwood casket.

The relics have visited more than 40 countries, including the United States, Brazil, Russia and Iraq.

Britain, a majority Protestant country, is home to about 5 million Catholics.

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