Relics of the BVM?

[Walsingham]

I’m a religious historian. It is true that before the Reformation (and the Council of Trent) there were thousands of churches, abbeys etc all over Europe claiming to have relics, either directly from the body (e.g milk) or items of clothing (girdles etc) from Our Lady. Walsingham in Norfolk England was a famous one. Relics of the Virgin are still venerated in many parts of the world–Italy (see the writings of Michael Carroll, for instance), central and south America.Chaucer (like Erasmus after him) certainly poked fun at some of the excesses of the cult of the Saints, but beneath such ‘folk religion’ practices there are real human yearnings that in some religions come out in goddess worship and in Catholic Christianity in the cult of the Virgin. The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saint Benedict Center, P.O. Box 1000, 282 Still River Road, Still River, MA. 01467 might be a useful place to go.

 

[Metaron]

The Canterbury Tales (by Chaucer) are totally fiction.
There are no relics of Mary. She was assumed into Heaven.

On the contrary, their are relics of Our Lady. Her veil is in Cologne Cathedral.

 

[Julian_1066]

There is a website that has a number of sacramentals, particularly rosewood and ebony crucifixes, as well as holy medals - but they also have hand made badges of various types and a couple of them have swatches of cloth enclosed that have been touched to the relic of the Blessed Mother’s veil.

Which is all well and good, but one has to wonder if that relic is, in fact, genuine or is simply a product of medieval hype. When I hear of something like this I feel like Mulder’s poster on the “X-Files” - you know, the one that says “I Want to Believe.”

At the same time, belief works wonders. So who can say, really?

 

[bpbasilphx]

** I would worry about how some Catholics would go over the line of veneration and go full tilt worship. **

If any do, it won’t be because of the teaching of the Church, BUT IN SPITE OF IT!