Fr. Julian Druffner, parochial vicar for the Medford area Catholic churches, spends time with a young man in the reliquary chapel housed at Good Shepherd Church in Rib Lake. Bishop James P. Powers rededicated the chapel on Nov. 2. (Submitted photo)
Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald Staff
On Nov. 2, feast of All Souls, Bishop James P. Powers blessed a new reliquary space at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Rib Lake. The small devotional area was recently completed and houses 151 relics of saints, an uncommonly large collection for a parish church.
During the rededication of the reliquary chapel, Bishop Powers offered inspiration and those gathered sang a litany of saints.
In a bulletin article for the clustered Rib Lake, Whittlesey, Stetsonville and Medford parishes, Fr. Julian Druffer acknowledged the unique grace and, “because of the presence of these remains,” the opportunity to “access numerous spiritual graces from the saints.” He also recounted how the relics came to the small church on the east side of Superior diocese.
In 1975, the entire collection of relics had been gifted by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration to then-pastor Fr. Richard Gift of the Society of the Precious Blood. Fr. Girt had established a relationship with the religious order while he served as a hospital chaplain in La Crosse before his assignment as a parish pastor. As the hospital he served was merged with the Skemp-Grandview-La Crosse Clinic, the St. Anthony’s chapel, with all its relics, needed to be removed. He brought them with him to Good Shepherd and displayed them in a glass case for veneration near the front of the church. The current wall-mounted installation was overseen by Fr. Thomas Thompson in 1997.
However, Fr. Druffner explained, “All official relics of saint are required to have certificates of authenticity from Rome in order to be displayed.” When it was discovered the parish did not have the proper documentation, the relics were then required to be covered. He added that once the documentation had been found, some renovations to the reliquary chapel were made and a formal unveiling arranged.
He thanked Joe Stemper, T. H. Stemper Quality Church Supplies and Good Shepherd parishioner Tom Gojmerac for their hard work to prepare the space.
Fr. Druffner spoke about the relics during his homily the last weekend of October, just prior to the bishop’s blessing of the renovated reliquary chapel, drawing attention to the tradition of venerating relics, a “source of incredible grace for the Church for centuries.”
“The church in her incredible divine plan for us,” he stated, “has given us the gift of saints all throughout history who have lived lives of true holiness that we now know live with God in heaven, not only worshipping him and enjoying the heavenly kingdom, but still at work, praying for each one of us … These saints are present with us at every Mass, because it’s at the celebration of this great sacrament that we, the church on earth, are united with the saints in heaven,” he added. “This is an amazing treasure from the Lord, and more specifically from the saints themselves that we get to encounter.”
Fr. Druffner noted that some people have high regard for relics, others think they are “creepy” and even “grotesque” or inappropriate. As a matter of teaching, he instructed that the word relic comes from the Latin “reliqua,” meaning “remains or things left behind.”
He explained the various classes of relics. First-class being parts of the bodies of saints and instruments of Our Lord’s Passion. Second-class are objects sanctified by close contact with the saints as articles of clothing, objects they used or the instruments of torture in the case of a martyr. Third-class relics are items, usually cloth, that has touched a first- or second-class relic.
Remember that Jesus constantly used the material world “to give us grace and to perform miraculous things among his people,” Fr. Druffner said, continuing, God is “constantly utilizing the material world and the body to communicate his grace.” He described the connection of relics to the sacraments as Jesus used physical items and his own body to wash away sin and heal.
“It is no different with relics,” he added. “The materiality of the world is important to the Lord and he uses it for incredible acts of goodness.”
The Good Shepherd collection includes 134 first-class relics from the bodies of saints themselves and 17 second-class relics.
Among the first-class relics, most notable saints include the apostles St. Peter and St. Matthias; St. Teresa of Avila, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, St. Augustine and St. Anthony of Padua, St. Cecilia, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Sebastian, St. Stanislas Kostka, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Vincent de Paul.
Though lesser known, the most distinctive of the first class relics are large leg bones of one of the Martyrs of Trier in Germany, dating back to the third-century persecution of Christians under the emperors Maximian and Diocletian.
Significant second-class relics include a piece of the veil of the Virgin Mary, from the veil of St. Catherine of Siena and from clothing of St. Francis Xavier.
“Relics are venerated as a result of the incarnation of Jesus,” Fr. Druffner explained to parishioners. “Jesus chose a human body to be a source of grace and love … giving us access to his divinity.
“So, if we can see the parallel, just as Christ offers us abundant life through his material body, so does he allow the bodies of saints to provide us access to grace through their bodies.” As the human body is something considered sacred, when the Church canonizes a person as a saint in heaven, their body also is then considered sacred and a source of grace.
Historically, from the time of the first martyrs, their bodies were preserved and churches built on the sites where they gave their life for the faith. Fr. Druffner highlighted that St. Peter’s Basilica is one such example. He also explained that from the third century, relics began to be venerated and that this also began the practice of placing a saint’s relics within a church altar.
“This is one of the reasons why the priest venerates the altar with a kiss every time we celebrate Mass. We are venerating the bodies of the saints who are present to us at every mass and are praying for us in a special way,” he said.
Fr. Druffner’s homily included biblical roots for veneration of relics from the Old and New Testaments, but emphatically clarified, “It’s important to note that we do not worship relics. We treat a relic with great respect and with great honor because of the saints’ holiness and their witness of great virtue, but we do not worship the saints themselves.
“Saints are holy only insofar as Christ made them holy,” he said and went on to share some specific instances of miraculous healing and graces given from God through the treasure of relics. “The goal is to honor Christ through their bodies because the saints are always directing us to him.”
