The Worship of Relics by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 11, 1915

The Worship of Relics

By C. M. S.

“Rome Never Changes”—No. 12

The Worship of Relics

ONE of the earliest manifestations of departure from the simplicity of the Christian faith and practice was seen in the collection and veneration of “relics of the saints.” The church of the apostles’ days knew nothing of relics or relic worship. There is nothing in the Scripture that authorizes relic hunting or relic worship. In fact, there is nothing in the Word of God which in any way suggests divine approval of relic worship, though efforts have been made to torture a few passages of Scripture into such a meaning. By such a misconstruction Jacob is said to have “worshiped the top of his staff,” whereas the text, rightly translated, merely states that Jacob worshiped, “leaning upon the top of his staff.” Heb. 11: 21. An attempt of the Israelites to preserve and worship a “relic” was frustrated when the good king Hezekiah broke in pieces the serpent of brass,

which Moses had erected in the wilderness. That act of Hezekiah is recorded of him as one of his meritorious deeds, showing that “he clave to the Lord,” that “he trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah.” The people had begun to “burn incense” to the brazen serpent because of its association with the earlier experiences of Israel. But Hezekiah called it “Nehushtan,” a piece of brass; and for what he did in this matter and in destroying idolatrous worship the record says of him: “And the Lord was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth.” See 2 Kings 18: 1-7.

New Testament passages that are quoted to give an excuse for relic worship are the following: Matt. 9: 20-22; Acts 5: 12-15; Acts 19: 11, 12. In the first, a woman having an issue of blood was healed by touching the Saviour’s garment. So were the Israelites healed of the bite of the serpents by looking upon the brazen serpent; yet the Lord, through Hezekiah, rebuked and put an end to the worship of that relic. His attitude would be the same toward any attempt to worship the hem of his garment if that were in existence. And it was not the hem of his garment that healed the woman; for the record states that the Lord perceived “that virtue had gone out of him” (Mark 5: 30), not out of his garment.

In the second text (Acts 5: 12-15) it is recorded that the sick were placed where Peter’s shadow would fall upon them, in the hope that they might be healed. Was there virtue in Peter’s shadow? There is nothing in the narrative to indicate it. Whatever healing power was manifested on that occasion was the power of God working through his servant in response to the faith of the afflicted ones. The virtue was not in Peter’s shadow.

In the third text (Acts 19: 11, 12), the record states that “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.” But it was not the handkerchiefs and aprons that wrought the miracles, but God himself who wrought them in response to the faith of the people. Nowhere is it recorded that these articles were laid up and worshiped as relics, or that miracle-working power was retained in them. One writer asks, “How could the shadow of Peter be thus preserved?”

Thus is it shown that the Bible nowhere encourages relic worship, but does specifically discourage it, by the record of Hezekiah’s course and the Lord’s approval of it.

It was not until two hundred years this side of Calvary that the members of the Christian church began to pay any attention to the “relics of the saints.” After Constantine’s “conversion,” when the church, released from persecution, began to assume a pomp and pageantry ill-suited to its mission in the world, they began to collect the “relics of the martyrs,” and to rebury them under the Communion table. This custom was wholly of pagan origin. Plutarch, in his life of Theseus, describes a similar custom among the Athenians. What the Athenians did with the relics of their heroes, these Christians began to do with the relics of their martyrs.

To such an extent has the veneration of relics been carried that no Roman Catholic church is considered completely consecrated without some relic to sanctify it. The second Council of Nice enacted the following law on this subject:

We decree that whatever venerable churches have been consecrated without holy relics of martyrs, shall have a deposit of relics made in them with the accustomed prayer. And if after the present time any bishop shall be found consecrating a church without holy relics, let him be deposed, as one that transgresses ecclesiastical tradition. — Conc., vii. 604. Labbe and Cossart, Paris, 1671-2.

This decree plainly indicates that churches without relics were considered defective by the Roman Church; that some portion of the remains of “holy martyrs” or some of their belongings were essential to God’s acceptance of the people’s worship. Churches without such furnishings must be provided with them. This, in itself, shows that at that time the Roman Church made a very radical change,—so very radical that bishops were to lose their position in the church if they did not bring their practice into harmony with the new order of things. The severity of the penalty shows unmistakably that Rome had reason to believe there was danger of some of her bishops continuing to do as they had done heretofore in the matter; that is, continuing to consecrate churches without relics. And that decree, if we had no other proof, proves untrue the claim that Rome never changes. For at least two hundred years this side of Christ relic hunting and relic worship were unknown in the Christian church. Churches were dedicated without relics. Then gradually, as the church began to increase in influence and worldly honor among worldlings and to lose its grip on the fundamentals of Christian faith, and as the partially converted pagans flocked in greater numbers into the church, pagan customs began to appear and claim a place in the faith and practice of Christians. A few churches were dedicated with relics, then more, and finally came the decree of the Council of Nice, above quoted, making that manner of dedication compulsory. And yet the claim of Rome is reiterated that “Rome never changes.”

The Council of Trent also authorized and commanded the “veneration and honor” of relics. See “Dogmatic Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent,” authorized translations, page 168.

The distinction which a Jesuit would make between the veneration and worship of relics is one which the masses never understand; and for dreary ages it was comprehended by few in the Catholic Church. The wood of the cross, the seamless coat, the images and bones of dead saints, the blood of St. Januarius, were long the gods of Christian nations.—Cathcart’s “Papal System,” page 295.

The superstitious faith in the power and efficiency and protection of relics, especially during the Dark Ages, was so great as almost to be beyond the belief of an enlightened individual of the present day. The dead “saints” were felt to be more efficacious in case of need than the living ones. A man by the name of Romuald, who was reputed to be a saintly man, was quietly informed, when about to leave France, that if he could not be persuaded to remain the people intended to kill him in order to secure the protection of his holy remains. See Neander, Vol. III, page 446, note.

Teaching men to put their trust in fragments of the bodies of the dead is one of the most glaring and outrageous insults Satan has ever taught men to offer to God; and were the Word of God permitted to the laity in the Church of Rome, to be read as freely as they chose and without human interference, it would be impossible to perpetuate relic worship in that church. Jehovah has plainly taught us in his Holy Word in whom we should put our trust. We are not to trust in man, not even in princes; for we read:—

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God.” Ps. 146: 3-5.

If there is no hope outside of God, not even in living princes, what place is there for the bones, and teeth, and hair, and nails of dead “saints,” whose breath has gone forth, who have returned to their earth, and whose thoughts have ceased to be. God is the hope and help and refuge of his people. What an insult to God for us to turn our backs upon him (as we surely do if we trust in relics), and put our hope in those things, and look for help to come to us from the fragments of dead human beings. How

bitterly has Satan deceived the millions that have put their trust in such things!

“How strange it would sound,” says Cathcart, “to hear Paul say, ‘I am able to do all things, for I have a thumb of Moses with which I make the sign of the cross when great efforts are needed!’ Or to hear David say, ‘I have a thigh bone of Abraham, and it is my refuge and my strength, a very present help in time of trouble!’ Or to hear Luke say, ‘The Bereans are more noble than those of Thessalonica because they devoutly venerate the head of Isaiah in a golden shrine!’ How singular John would have appeared praying to God before a leg of Melchizedek! Or Peter kneeling before the relics of Joseph and venerating them! Or Philip, Stephen, Lazarus, and Martha and Mary, at their devotions in a chapel dedicated to ‘all saints,’ before a costly shrine in which were placed a tooth of holy Rahab, the mantle of St. Elijah, a finger of Esther, some of Miriam’s hair, the renowned coat of Joseph, and a foot of the mighty Jacob! There is no record of the veneration or worship of one human relic in the Old Testament or in the New. There was not one adored relic among all the servants of Christ while he lived, nor for two centuries after his death. And as it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve,’ there never should have been a trace of relic worship among the servants of God.”—“Papal System,” pages 295, 296.

C. M. S.