Relics are customarily remains or personal effects of a
saint, martyr or venerated person. The
Catholic Church recognizes three classes of relics: 1) first class, which
consist of a part of the saint’s body, such as a bone, blood or hair, or the
instruments of Christ’s Passion (i.e., the “True Cross”), 2) second class,
which are possessions of a saint, such as clothing, devotional object, letter
or furniture, or instruments used to torture a martyr, and 3) third class,
which is an object that has touched a First or Second Class Relic. There
is no method by which older alleged relics, such as the True Cross and that of
Saint Anne, mother of Mary, can be authenticated. Relics that are found in
Roman Catholic churches are usually kept in special glass containers called
reliquaries or in the altar stone of an altar.
According to
historical accounts, in the Church of Notre Dame, a relic of St. Severin was
installed in the altar of the grotto chapel, and a relic of St. Innocentia was
either installed in the altar of the Chapel of Saint Joan of Arc or the Chapel
of the Sacred Heart (accounts are unclear and there is no access to the relics). In addition, a reliquary currently housed in the sacristy
contains nine relics.
Photo: relics currently in the sacristy of the Church of Notre Dame.
In 1962, on the annual parish report, the Church of Notre
Dame listed eleven relics (besides the ones installed in the altars); however
only four of them coincide with the relics currently held by the Church. Why the discrepancy?
The 1962 relics inventory list:
True Cross
St. Anne (two entries)
St. Bernadette (two entries)
St. Peter Claver, St. Aloysius, et alii.
St. Margaret Mary [Alacoque]
St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus (AKA St. Therèse of Lisieux)
Current relics inventory:
St. Anne (mother of Mary)
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