Skip to content
Wellsprings
christian-customsfeatured in 16 works

Veneration of Relics

An altar with a saint's bones beneath it — the dead in Christ keeping watch over the living

This is the honoring of saints' and martyrs' bodily remains and possessions, including the custom of placing relics within altars. The Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 156) attests early reverence, and Nicaea II (787) regularized relics in altars. Catholic, Orthodox, and Oriental churches traditionally include relics in an altar; most Protestants rejected the practice. Even in antiquity it was debated, as in Jerome's dispute with Vigilantius.

How it traveled

  1. The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius
    Caesarea · 339
    explains
  2. The Church History of Eusebius
    Caesarea · 339
    explains
  3. The Letters
    Caesarea (Cappadocia) · 379
    explains
  4. Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose
    Milan · 397
    explains
  5. Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  6. Against Vigilantius
    Bethlehem · 420
    applies
  7. City of God
    Hippo Regius · 430
    applies
  8. The Confessions
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  9. Letters of St. Augustin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    applies
  10. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 439
    explains
  11. The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 450
    explains
  12. The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret
    Cyrrhus · 458
    explains
  13. Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great
    Rome · 604
    applies
  14. The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great
    Rome · 604
    explains
  15. The Seventh Ecumenical Council. The Second Council of Nice
    Nicaea · 787
    explains
  16. Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)
    Paris · 1274
    explains

Key passages(20)

Against Vigilantius — part 1↗challenges

Against Vigilantius · Jerome

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Against Vigilantius — part 2↗applies

Against Vigilantius · Jerome

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
City of God — Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body, and the miracles of the early Church. — Of Miracles Which Were Wrought that the World Might Believe in Christ, and Which Have Not Ceased Since the World Believed. — part 2↗applies

City of God · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus — Book I — The Emperor's Mother Helena having come to Jerusalem, searches for and finds the Cross of Christ, and builds a Church.↗explains

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus · Socrates Scholasticus

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Letters of St. Jerome — To Riparius.↗applies

The Letters of St. Jerome · Jerome

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Letters — To Ambrose, bishop of Milan.↗applies

The Letters · Basil of Caesarea

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Seventh Ecumenical Council. The Second Council of Nice — The Canons of the Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Council. — Canon VII.↗applies

The Seventh Ecumenical Council. The Second Council of Nice · The Ecumenical Councils

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59) — Question. 25 - OF THE ADORATION OF CHRIST (SIX ARTICLES) — part 5↗explains

Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose — Letter XXII: To Marcellina on Finding the Bodies of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. — part 2↗explains

Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose · Ambrose of Milan

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great — Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great. — Book IV. — part 9↗explains

The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
City of God — Some account of the Socratic and Platonic philosophy, and a refutation of the doctrine of Apuleius that the demons should be worshipped as mediators between gods and men. — Concerning the Nature of the Honor Which the Christians Pay to Their Martyrs.↗applies

City of God · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas — On the Holy Martyr, S. Babylas. — part 2↗applies

Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas · John Chrysostom

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Book VI, Sec. VI.—Conclusion of the Work↗applies

Book VI · Constitutions of the Holy Apostles

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
City of God — Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body, and the miracles of the early Church. — Of Miracles Which Were Wrought that the World Might Believe in Christ, and Which Have Not Ceased Since the World Believed. — part 3↗applies

City of God · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
City of God — Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body, and the miracles of the early Church. — Of Miracles Which Were Wrought that the World Might Believe in Christ, and Which Have Not Ceased Since the World Believed. — part 4↗applies

City of God · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas — Eulogy. — part 4↗explains

Homilies on S. Ignatius and S. Babylas · John Chrysostom

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great — Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great. — Book IV. — part 10↗applies

The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Church History of Eusebius — Book IV — Under Verus, Polycarp with Others suffered Martyrdom at Smyrna. — part 5↗explains

The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Confessions — Attaining his thirtieth year, he, under the admonition of the discourses of Ambrose, discovered more and more the truth of the Catholic doctrine, and deliberates as to the better regulation of his life. — She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of the Martyrs.↗explains

The Confessions · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus — Book VII — The Body of John Chrysostom transferred to Constantinople, and placed in the Church of the Apostles by the Emperor at the Instigation of Proclus.↗applies

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus · Socrates Scholasticus

Read in Sefaria →
Very high