While some relics are the obvious things you would expect: nails said to be from the Crucifixion,
bits of the True Cross, Jesus' burial shroud; many of them are weirder, grosser, or otherwise
more fascinating than you might have guessed.
Despite being one of the few saints to have a feast day known to non-Catholics, practically
nothing is known about Saint Valentine.
In fact, there are three Saint Valentines, any of whom might be the guy whose decapitation
we celebrate with romantic dinners every February 14th.
Several legends have been created to justify his association with romantic love.
However, we probably devote that day to love because it’s the day Geoffrey Chaucer thought
birdies did the dirty, as told in his poem "The Parliament of Fowls."
Only adding to the confusion is the fact that there are no fewer than ten places that claim
to be the home to the relics of Saint Valentine.
Of these relics, one of the most interesting has to be the flower-wreathed skull found
in Rome's Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin.
In case there's any doubt about whose head you're looking at, his name is helpfully written
across his forehead.
As an added bonus, this same church is also home to the famous Mouth of Truth.
It’s said that it will bite your hand off if you tell a lie.
While Catholicism definitely has the most in the way of relics, it doesn't have a monopoly
on the concept.
"He acquired the spear of Longinus.
Which pierced the side of Christ.
He who holds it becomes invincible.
Hitler's power increases tenfold."
There are several relics said to be the mortal remains of Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual
teacher better known as the Buddha.
These relics include a hair that's supposed to have been Buddha's that moves on its own.
There are also the 10,000 colored crystals said to have been sifted out of his cremated
remains.
But perhaps the most popular relic of Buddha is his tooth.
Many different sites claim to have the only authentic example of it.
This is probably because it’s supposed to be the only thing that remained after his
cremation… not counting the thousands of crystals, apparently.
One such tooth, located in Rosemead, California, is inhumanly large and reportedly continues
to grow even today, long after Buddha's death.
It also apparently radiates light, emits a beautiful fragrance, and attracts baby birds.
Another relic claiming to be Buddha's left canine can be found in the Temple of the Tooth
in Sri Lanka.
The person who holds this tooth is said to have the divine right of rulership.
Naturally, wars were fought over it.
Singapore likewise claims to have the real tooth at its Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and
Museum, a beautiful and elaborate tourist destination in Chinatown.
Saint Camillus de Lellis was a 16th-century priest and nurse from Italy whose compassion
for the sick caused a revolution in how we think about health care.
He was known as "the Giant of Charity," and the concept that "the rights of the weak are
not weak rights" is attributed to him.
He founded a religious order called the Order of the Ministers of the Sick, also known as
the Camillians.
This group has continued to carry on his work in the ensuing centuries.
Camillus' advice to his adherents was to put "more heart in those hands" when serving the
ill.
How do we preserve the empathy and compassion found in a heart like Camillus'?
Well, in this case, you actually preserve the heart.
The physical heart of Saint Camillus was preserved in a box with herbs.
The infirmary in Rome where Camillus died was transformed into a highly ornate Baroque
chapel where the heart is on permanent display.
It rests inside a glass casket surrounded by Doric columns and elaborately carved angels.
From there, it serves as an inspiration to pilgrims to tend to the poor and infirm.
Saint Anthony of Padua is venerated as the patron saint of lost things.
Perhaps ironically, following his death at age 35 in 1231, one thing that he lost was
the majority of his body to the natural process of decomposition.
Which is something that doesn’t always happen to saints.
One thing that remained, however, was his lower jaw, tongue, and vocal cords.
When the body parts were exhumed to move them to a new basilica 30 years later, they were
found to be completely preserved.
This miracle was interpreted to be representative of his oratorical skill in life.
You can go see the remains of Anthony's oral apparatus in Padua even today.
The jawbone is kept inside a fancy head-shaped fishbowl display.
Just below the jaw is a golden reliquary in which the tongue is housed.
Below the tongue is a more modern reliquary holding the saint's vocal cords.
Perhaps the most famous relic among modern audiences is the Shroud of Turin.
It's a linen cloth marked with the negative image of a man on it.
Many claim that it’s the burial cloth of Jesus, whose holy presence rubbed off on the
shroud.
The Shroud, however, isn't the only bit of cloth with Jesus' face printed on it.
It is preceded by a relic known as the Mandylion, a strange-looking word that just means "towel."
The Mandylion, also known as the Image of Edessa, is considered the first icon; that
is, a sacred image for religious devotion.
It's also one of the most notable miraculous artifacts not made by human hands.
The legend of the Mandylion says that Abgar, the king of Edessa, wrote a letter to Jesus
asking him to heal him of leprosy.
Jesus wrote back saying that while he could not be there, he would send a disciple in
his stead.
That disciple brought with him a washcloth on which Jesus had dried his face, leaving
his holy visage indelibly printed on the cloth.
The Mandylion healed Abgar, but unfortunately, the Holy Face was lost when Crusaders sacked
Constantinople in the 13th century.
Nevertheless, the Orthodox Church still commemorates this important relic every August 16th.
Technically, there shouldn't be relics of Muhammad, the great prophet of Islam.
Not because he wouldn't have body parts or clothes to leave behind.
But because venerating relics could easily be interpreted as idolatry by more strict-minded
sects of Islam.
Islam has a general prohibition against the depiction of sentient beings in art for this
very reason.
Setting up a shrine celebrating parts of Muhammad would be much worse.
That said, there are relics of Muhammad.
The veneration of relics in Islam predates the condemnation of them.
So those who choose to seek them out are taking part in a longer tradition.
The relics of the prophet believed to be the most authentic are kept in a special wing
of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
The palace contains such notable objects as Muhammad's battle standard, his swords, one
of the teeth he lost in battle, and his sandals, which are a traditional source of blessing.
However, one of the more unusual relics to be found is a glass reliquary that houses
Muhammad's beard.
The story goes that the beard was shaved from the prophet posthumously by his favorite barber,
Salman the Persian, in the presence of witnesses who testified to the hairs' authenticity.
Almost nothing is known about the life of Saint Januarius except that he was a bishop
in Italy who was martyred.
This possibly occurred during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian in the early days
of the fourth century.
What is known is the popular ritual carried out multiple times a year in Naples.
During this ritual, the Saints' 1,700-year-old blood turns liquid and starts to bubble when
brought close to his skull.
The saint's dried and congealed blood is kept in two glass vials inside a silver reliquary.
At three points in the year, including the saint's feast day, a silver head said to contain
his skull is placed on an altar.
Then the vials of blood are brought out of the bank vaults where they're kept the rest
of the year.
When the vial is brought near to the skull, the previously solid blood turns liquid.
Usually, this happens instantly, but sometimes it takes days.
When a liquid state is achieved, the event is celebrated with a 21-gun salute while crowds
of people kiss the miracle blood jar.
Instances where the blood fails to liquefy are thought to herald great catastrophe.
Examples of these moments are the beginning of World War II in 1939, a disastrous earthquake
in 1980, and one particular election in 2016.
Saint Catherine of Siena began seeing visions of Jesus at age seven.
By the time she was a teen, she'd pledged herself to perpetual virginity.
She cut off her hair and entered a nunnery to avoid potential suitors.
Soon afterward, she had a vision of Jesus visiting her and giving her a wedding band
as a sign of his love.
This wedding band, however, was no simple ring of gold.
Catherine's ring was made of the Holy Prepuce.
You know, the Baby Jesus' excised downstairs skin.
Catherine claimed for the rest of her life that she could see this ring on her finger,
though it remained invisible to everyone else.
Later, she received the stigmata when a crucifix shot lasers at her.
Such an interesting woman deserves a remarkable relic, and indeed, she got one.
If you ever wanted to see Saint Catherine's head in a fancy box, you are in luck.
After Catherine’s death, her head was smuggled back to the saint's hometown.
It made the journey in a paper bag via a miracle in which the severed head turned into rose
petals when guards looked inside.
It’s now available for pilgrims to visit at Saint Dominic's Basilica in Siena, Italy.
Also included is a smaller reliquary containing her right thumb placed nearby.
Saint Clare of Assisi was the protege of the famous Francis of Assisi, but she was an accomplished
saint in her own right.
Born to a noble family in the late 12th century, Clare spurned earthly wealth to join her friend
Francis in a life of pious poverty.
As a symbol of her renouncing worldly concerns, Francis cut off Clare's legendarily beautiful
hair and dressed her in rough sackcloth.
Soon, Clare founded a religious order, the Poor Clares, which is still active today.
And she performed such miracles as driving off a whole army of Saracens using nothing
but a communion wafer.
In 1958, she was named the patron saint of television because of a miracle in which she
was granted a vision of Christmas mass from miles away while bedridden with illness.
The Basilica of Saint Clare in Assisi contains several relics.
These include a crucifix that once talked to Francis and a crypt with Clare's entire
body preserved in wax.
Near the tomb is a display of other relics including a box full of Clare's hair that
Francis cut off and a shirt she made.
There's also a crystalline flask filled with Clare's fingernail clippings.
Relics of the Virgin Mary are rare, but in the Middle Ages, one relic of the Blessed
Virgin was surprisingly common: her breast milk.
Containers claiming to contain the fluid that nursed the Son of God were so common that
Reformer John Calvin said in a treatise about relics that:
"Even if [Mary] had been a cow her whole life, she could not have produced such a quantity."
One notable miracle involving the Holy Mother's Milk was known as the Lactation of Saint Bernard,
in which a vision of Mary appeared to 12th-century monk Bernard of Clairvaux and shot a stream
of milk into his mouth, which either granted him wisdom or cured an eye infection.
A miracle more accessible to the public can be attained at the shrine of the Milk Grotto,
just outside Bethlehem.
Legend has it that Mary spilled a drop while nursing, which turned the stone there white,
and now hopeful mothers mix bits of the soft, chalky walls of the grotto with their food,
hoping it will help them conceive.
This "milk powder" is available to visitors of the chapel, and the shrine bears countless
letters and baby pictures from former pilgrims attesting to the efficacy of Mary's milk as
a fertility aid.
Generally speaking, relics are objects.
They're bones, or blood, or scraps of cloth, or bits of wood.
Things you could, theoretically, hold in your hands, though not without a great deal of
controversy.
It's not often that a relic is the absence of a thing.
And yet, one of the most common pieces of evidence that Muhammad walked the earth is
the presence of something intangible: footprints.
Some Muslims believe that whenever Muhammad stepped on a rock, he left behind an indelible
footprint.
As such, there's no shortage of shrines dedicated to these foot-shaped imprints throughout the
world.
For example, Topkapi Palace in Istanbul has one.
And they can also be found at the Shrine of the Holy Footprint in Delhi, India, and at
the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, among many other places.
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