Sisters of St. Francis, forensic anthropologist Vincent Sava, and others prepare to touch bags containing the remains to St. Marianne to white cloth. (Photo courtesy of Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP)
The remains of St. Marianne in a transparent cloth bag is pulled across the surface of white fabric to make third-class relics of the saint.
Five hands slowly swept small gossamer bags containing remains of St. Marianne Cope across every inch of several yards of white cloth being unrolled on the altar at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church July 26, turning the fabric into a third-class relic of the Hawaii saint.
The cloth was later cut up into tiny pieces each to be sealed onto the front of St. Marianne prayer cards beneath a sheet of clear plastic laminate.
According to Sister Davilyn Ah Chick, the Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities who coordinated the creation of the relics with the endorsement of Bishop Larry Silva, 20,000 cards will be produced and distributed.
Bishop Silva compared a relic to a “keepsake” of a loved one.
“Relics are one of the ways we stay close to the saints we have come to know and love through their stories of heroic virtue for the Lord,” said Bishop Silva by email regarding this first-time mass-production of St. Marianne relics.
“It helps spread devotion to the saint by making the saint’s love for Christ and his people more tangible by the kind of physical closeness it suggests,” the bishops said.
A first-class relic is an actual physical part of the saint’s body such as a piece of bone or hair, and therefore the “most desirable” kind, said the bishop, “since it the temple of the Holy Spirit in which they lived out their holiness.
The prayer card on which is mounted a tiny piece of the fabric visible on the bottom edge of St. Marianne’s picture.
A second-class relic is an object that the saint personally owned, used or wore.
According to the bishop, third class relics are created “when the fame of a person’s sanctity is spread far and wide, as it is for the canonized saints, and there are simply not enough first- and second-class relics to go around.”
A third-class relic is an object, normally a piece of cloth, that is touched to a first-class relic.
St. Marianne’s third-class relics were created in a blessing ceremony that included Scripture readings, prayers and a recitation of quotes attributed to the saint.
The ceremony also included a testimonial letter by forensic anthropologist Vincent Sava verifying that the small bags used in the blessing contained the remains of St. Marianne.
The remains were originated sifted from the soil dug up in the exhumation of St. Marianne’s body from her grave in Kalaupapa in January 2005, which Sava supervised.
Sava participated in the relic blessing, which Sister Davily described as “heavenly with such remarkable reverence and solemnity.”
In describing the value of relics, Bishop Silva warned against treating them superstitiously.
“While we must be careful never to view relics as objects of magical power, they can remind us of the real power of prayer,” he said, “especially our own prayer joined to the prayer of the saint who is now in the presence of the God who is love.
The bishop said that the relics are distributed on prayer cards “so that we can join our feeble prayers to the prayers of this saint who now stands forever before the throne of God’s mercy.”
St. Marianne was canonized at the Vatican by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 21, 2012
For information about obtaining a relic card, write to Sister Davilyn Ah Chick, OSF, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, 91-1010 North Road, Ewa Beach, HI 96706, or call her at 689-0474.
