Valentine Obienyem
The images and videos of Catholics venerating the relics of St Agatha, particularly what is traditionally identified as her skull, have been circulating widely on social media. Predictably, they have provoked questions, disbelief and, in some cases, accusations of idolatry: Why would Catholics venerate a skull? What has a piece of a dead person’s body got to do with Christianity?
These are not unreasonable questions. But they are certainly not new questions.
Indeed, one of the things that struck me about the present controversy is how quickly some people have concluded that they have discovered something irrational or idolatrous, without first asking whether the Church has ever considered the question. The answer is yes. The questions being raised today have been raised for centuries, examined by theologians, addressed by councils and settled within the Church’s understanding of Scripture and Tradition.
I love what Fr. Kelvin Ugwu wrote about this. Our explanations may not necessarily make sense to someone who is not Catholic, and that is understandable. But perhaps a more important question is this: have we asked ourselves why the ancient Churches that preserve apostolicity have similar practices concerning the relics of saints?
The Catholic Church is not alone in this. The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches have all, across centuries of history, retained a profound reverence for the remains of martyrs and saints. Relics are preserved, honoured in liturgical celebrations and associated with churches and altars. These ancient Churches have disagreed on many theological questions and have been separated for centuries, yet they have retained this common practice. That should at least make us pause before casually dismissing it as superstition or, worse, idolatry.
So, who was St Agatha?
St Agatha was an early Christian martyr of Catania in Sicily that suffered martyrdom during the Decian persecution around the middle of the third century. Her memory is not a medieval invention; she belongs to the ancient Christian tradition and remains commemorated in the Roman Canon of the Mass. This year marks 900 years since her relics were returned to Catania, an occasion the Church has been commemorating with particular solemnity.
A relic is not an idol, a magical charm or an independent source of supernatural power. The Church does not worship the bones or skull of St Agatha. The relic is honoured because the body belonged to someone who lived in Christ, suffered for Christ and, in the case of a martyr, gave her life for Christ. Catholic theology carefully distinguishes “latria”, the worship due to God alone, from the veneration shown to the saints.
It is therefore wrong to equate the veneration of relics with idolatry. Idolatry is giving to a creature the worship that belongs to God. Catholics do not worship St Agatha, nor do they worship her relics. The honour given to the relic points to the saint, and the honour given to the saint ultimately points to God.
Scripture itself gives us a framework for understanding this. In 2 Kings 13:20–21, a dead man comes back to life after touching the bones of the prophet Elisha. In Acts 19:11–12, handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched St Paul were carried to the sick, and God worked miracles through them. In the Gospel, a woman suffering from haemorrhage is healed after touching the garment of Christ (Mark 5:25–34). The objects themselves are not divine; God is the source of the grace.
The second-century Martyrdom of St Polycarp provides historical evidence that Christians were preserving and honouring the remains of martyrs within generations of the Apostles. After Polycarp’s martyrdom, Christians gathered his remains and commemorated his witness. They were not confused about the distinction between Christ and His servants: Christ was worshipped; the martyr was honoured as a faithful disciple.
The practice continued through the centuries. The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 affirmed the veneration of relics; the Council of Trent reaffirmed the practice while condemning abuses; and the Second Vatican Council likewise recognised the veneration of authentic relics.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law has an entire section devoted to “The Veneration of the Saints, Sacred Images, and Relics” (Canons 1186–1190). Canon 1186 directs the Church to promote the authentic veneration of the saints because their example edifies the faithful and their intercession sustains them. Canon 1187 provides that public veneration is reserved to those recognised by the Church as saints or blesseds. Most directly, Canon 1190 (1)states: “It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics.” Canon 1190 (2) further provides that significant relics, and relics held in great popular veneration, cannot be alienated or permanently transferred without the permission of the Apostolic See.
The Church has also established a detailed procedure for the authenticity, preservation and veneration of relics. The Vatican’s 2017”Instruction on Relics in the Church: Authenticity and Conservation” requires an ecclesiastical certificate before relics of saints are publicly displayed, insists on their proper preservation, and explicitly requires that superstition and illicit trade be avoided.
In other words, the Church does not merely permit the veneration of relics; she recognises and regulates it while deliberately guarding against precisely the abuses that critics sometimes attribute to the practice.
The Church’s beliefs, moreover, are not like government policies that can be overturned whenever a new administration comes to power. If Christian beliefs could simply be changed whenever they became inconvenient, unpopular or unfashionable, Christianity would become a religion of trial and error – one generation believing something, another rejecting it and another inventing something else.
That is not the Catholic understanding of the Church. The Church is the custodian of a deposit of faith received from Christ and handed down through the Apostles. She can clarify, develop and deepen her understanding, and she can correct abuses, but she cannot simply reinvent the faith.
As a Catholic, there are teachings and practices that I may find difficult. There are even dogmas I may initially be inclined to question. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. But it is good to seek the mind of the Church before passing judgment on what the Church teaches.
We should have the humility to recognise the limitations of our own understanding. We cannot pretend that this little brain of ours will casually comprehend – or surpass – the accumulated wisdom of nearly two thousand years of Scripture, Tradition, the Fathers, councils, theologians and the witness of the saints. That is not blind faith; it is intellectual humility.
So, before declaring the veneration of relics idolatry, perhaps we should ask: What has the Church taught? Why has she taught it? What is its biblical and historical foundation? And why have the ancient Churches that preserve apostolicity retained similar practices?
In the case of St Agatha, this is not a new question, nor is the practice idolatry. It is an ancient Christian practice, rooted in Scripture, preserved in Tradition and authoritatively regulated by the Church.
The relic itself is not the destination. It points to the saint; the saint points to Christ; and Christ points us to God.
And perhaps the most important question St Agatha leaves us with is not why Catholics venerate her relics, but this: if she could remain faithful to Christ at the cost of her life, how faithful are we when our own discipleship demands far less?
