The curious case of the heart of St Laurence O’Toole....questions?

[jack63]

Recently, I visited Christ Church Cathedral Dublin which is an Anglican Church (church of Ireland). They have relic there that I was very curious about. It is the heat of St Laurence O’Toole. He is a saint to both the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. He was born in 1128 to a noble Irish family. I was curious because it is a relic of an important Irish Catholic saint in an Anglican Church. Also recently the relic was stolen and returned after thief felt it was causing bad luck and heart attacks in the family of the thief that stole the relic.

After shocking theft, heart of Irish saint Laurence O’Toole returns home | Catholic News Agency

Below is a link describing what happened to the family of the thief who stole the relic…

https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/irish-independent/20180427/281483571993584

So my questions…

1. When you visit a Catholic Saint’s relic in an Anglican church, do you do anything differently? That is compared to visiting a saint’s relic in a Catholic church…
2. Is there information or resources or anything relevant out there about how the Catholic church honors relics of Catholic Saints that are not located in a Catholic church?
3. Does the Catholic church still encourage people to visit relics of Catholic saints that are not located in a Catholic church?
4. I shared two articles. One article was about the “bad luck” and heart attacks that occurred within the family of the thief who stole this relic. This seems superstitious. However, is there anything out there about this. That is, what happens if a relic is misused? Are there any writings by that Catholic church about this? Are there any known cases out there about other relics that were stolen and what happened to those who stole the relic?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

1. When you visit a Catholic Saint’s relic in an Anglican church, do you do anything differently? That is compared to visiting a saint’s relic in a Catholic church…

No. If the saint is a saint in the Catholic Church, you are free to venerate his or her relic. If that means you go into an Anglican church to do so, then that’s okay. Venerating a relic usually means you reverently view the relic, maybe touch the reliquary if they let you, say a prayer asking the saint for his intercession, and perhaps pray to God to help you emulate the qualities of the saint. You can do these things just fine in an Anglican Church.

1. Is there information or resources or anything relevant out there about how the Catholic church honors relics of Catholic Saints that are not located in a Catholic church?

No. The Catholic Church does not have possession of the relic so they wouldn’t be “honoring” the relic unless the relic was somehow loaned by whoever owned it or a joint ecumenical service honoring the saint was planned, etc.

1. Does the Catholic church still encourage people to visit relics of Catholic saints that are not located in a Catholic church?

The Catholic church does not mind if you go into another Christian church to venerate a Catholic saint, or even just to say a prayer to the Trinitarian God or to admire the stained glass windows. However, if your faith would somehow be endangered by going into the other church, then you should not go in. You should also use caution about engaging in any church services put on by the non-Catholic church - don’t be going up for their version of “Communion”, etc.

1. I shared two articles. One article was about the “bad luck” and heart attacks that occurred within the family of the thief who stole this relic. This seems superstitious. However, is there anything out there about this. That is, what happens if a relic is misused? Are there any writings by that Catholic church about this? Are there any known cases out there about other relics that were stolen and what happened to those who stole the relic?

I’m not aware of any stories about misuse of saints’ relics. There may be some out there, I just don’t know of any.

 

[jack63]

1. Is there information or resources or anything relevant out there about how the Catholic church honors relics of Catholic Saints that are not located in a Catholic church?

Thanks for the helpful responses Bear!

I’ve never heard of joint ecumenical services honoring saints. This is interesting. Are there examples of this?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

They had an ecumenical service for St. Laurence O’Toole, as described in the article you posted.
I presume that was so the Catholics could attend as I don’t think the Presbyterians or any other religions are interested in honoring him as a saint in Ireland.