carrying of relics is not peculiar to the procession, which takes place at the dedications of a church. Their presence is recognized as a fitting adjunct to the solemnities of almost every kind of precession, except perhaps those of the Blessed Sacrament, and in medieval times, no exception was made even for these latter. V. FEAST OF RELICS It has long been customary especially in churches, which possessed large collections of relics, to keep one general feast in commemoration of all the saints whose memorials are there preserved. An Office and Mass for this purpose will be found in the Roman Missal and Breviary, and though they occur only in the supplement Pro aliquibus locis and are not obligatory upon the Church at large, still this celebration is now kept almost universally. The office is generally assigned to the fourth Sunday in October. In England before the Reformation, as we may learn from a rubric in the Sarum Breviary, the Festum Reliquiarum was celebrated on the Sunday after the feast of the Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury (7 July), and it was to be kept as a greater double "wherever relics are preserved or where the bodies of dead persons are buried, for although Holy Church and her ministers observe no solemnities in their honor, the glory they enjoy with God is known to Him alone."
ICHRusa – Internal Standards Document The saints occupy a most significant position within the universal church. The ICHRusa has created this internal document for use by members. This document will be recognized as the ICHRusa internal standards document. The ISD will address the classification of relics and their relative order within each class, i.e.: first class, second class, and third class. We will also present and address in a separate section, the proper liturgical practices relating to the public veneration of relics. We recognize that these standards and practices are not wholly sanctioned by the Catholic and/or the Orthodox churches. The Catholic Church and the organized Orthodox churches have different views and requirements in the area of relics. The culmination of this ISD has come from the involvement and cooperation of active religious and official church documents of the aforementioned Churches. What we have attempted to accomplish is a better understanding and appreciation of (and for) the remains and mementoes left for us by our Christians predecessors and return them to the rightful dignity they so rightly deserve. SACRED RELICS The Collectio Rerum Liturgicarum of Rev. Joseph Wuest, C.SS.R., Latin - 1889 Matters Liturgical by Rev. Thomas Mullaney, C.SS.R., English translation - 1925
168. Authenticity of Relics. Only those relics can be honored with a public cult in churches, even though exempt, which are certified as genuine in an authentic document of a Cardinal, a local Ordinary, or an ecclesiastic to whom the faculty of authenticating relics has been granted by apostolic indult (c. 1283, 1).
This is an ICHRusa Official Document – www.ICHRusa.com
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