Do the Archives keep relics?

One of the most frequent requests the archive receives concerns relics. Various faithful, from all over the world, write to us asking us to send them first, second and third degree relics. None of these requests, however, are granted. Let us find out why and what these relics are.

The Archives do indeed possess some relics of different types. We can divide them into three groups according to their provenance. Let us see together what their characteristics are and why they cannot be requested in any way.

First-degree relics

Relics of the first degree, or ex corpore, correspond to organic material from the body of the Blessed, the Saint or the Venerable. They can be hair, bone fragments, sometimes even eyes, skin, individual organs or body parts, such as the arm of St Francis Xavier. An example is the relic of Fr. .

Being organic material, it is a more difficult type of relic to preserve and, above all, it is present in the form of fragments, so it is not available indefinitely. In the past it has happened that, at the death of a Jesuit or a person in the odour of sanctity, locks of hair were taken and small boxes were already prepared for future devotion. In this case the relic is also a document and historical testimony and as such cannot be exported or requested in any way.

Second degree relics

Second-degree relics, on the other hand, refer to personal items that belonged to the person: clothes and fragments of clothing, every day and personal items, a cross, a rosary. These are usually more numerous than those of the first degree. Among the ones in our Archives, there are those of Fr Giuseppe Picco and Fr. Riccardo Friedl.

Here again, we are dealing with a historical testimony that cannot be taken away from the archive fund to which it belongs.

Third-degree relics

Third-degree relics are the most numerous and potentially infinite in quantity. They are, in most cases, pieces of common cloth, not belonging to the saint, rubbed over first or second degree relics, then divided into small fragments and packaged for the benefit of the faithful. Our archive does not possess these relics as they are made specifically for marketing. They are often found in the sales outlets of shrines, churches and places of worship.

How to request relics

First and second degree relics cannot be freely requested for personal devotion. Their commercialisation is forbidden by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which recently ruled on the matter by issuing an instruction.

Considering that these are fragments of a person’s body, it would be impossible to think of endless requests, because the material would be exhausted in a short time. For requests for relics of these two types, it is necessary to contact the Postulation that took care of the cause of the Saint or Saint. Only the Bishop can request them for public devotion, i.e. for the erection of altars and churches, following a procedure established by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Many religious orders have their own Postulation office, but dioceses can also institute the process directly.

In the case of causes handled by the Postulation of the Society of Jesus, the General Curia, where it has its headquarters, must be contacted.

The role of the Postulation

Our Postulation in fact deals with the causes of Saints, Jesuits and others. The Postulator together with his collaborators collect the documentation, prepare the positio – a dossier on the life and virtues of the Servant of God, Blessed or Saint, and his martyrdom – and carry out all the steps of the process. These also include the collection of relics that have often been removed from the body in the past, at the time of death or in the recognition of the body, a step required by the canonical process. The Postulation certifies the relics and packages them in special caskets. Often, in the past, in the case of deceased persons in the odour of sanctity, the preparation of the relic for worship was carried out shortly after death. This was the case, for example, in Fr. Friedl’s case; in his personal archive, these small relics are preserved. Fr Friedl’s case is currently dormant, so the process has not continued because the cult has waned and there has been no further progress. One of the tasks of the Postulation is precisely to monitor the devotion of the faithful with respect to the many open causes, many of which will never be closed by reaching canonisation precisely because the memory of the deceased and his work among the faithful has faded.

First and second-degree relics can only be requested for public devotion, a Bishop must make the request directly to the Postulation. These relics must therefore be intended for the erection of altars or churches or for public display. It is therefore not possible to request them for private chapels or to be placed in the home for private worship. The only relics that can be requested and sold are third degree relics.

However, the Archives do not even possess these types of relics and cannot in any way deal with them, as they are not our responsibility.

For this reason, no requests for relics addressed to our Archives can be granted.

Maria Macchi