Back to Sudbury, day 3, part 3: Saint Andrew the Apostle in Sudbury!

The title of this blog post has a bit of a double meaning. On the one hand, I am referring to the parish church that I visited this evening (the last of 4 for today). But on the other hand, I mean that Saint Andrew the Apostle can literally be found in Sudbury (well, a piece of him!)

To put this in context: I got home from my visit to Sturgeon Falls in the early evening. I took some time to unpack and rest up before heading out to my last stop of the day (the aforementioned Saint Andrew the Apostle). I was given a nice tour by the parish priest, Father Denis Vaiz. As we looked around the church, he casually pointed out a small monstrance affixed to the wall in a small box. This, he explained, was a first-class relic of Saint Andrew the Apostle. 

To which I thought to myself, "Wow!"

For those who don't know what a relic is, it is a generally a piece of the body of a saint, or a bit of his clothing or other artifact closely associated with that saint, or a cloth touched to one of the above. The earliest written record we have of this practice is found in the Bible itself, in the Acts of the Apostles, which describes how "God did extraordinary miracles through the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefsc and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and the diseases and evil spirits left them." (Acts 19:11-12)

With regards to the practice of keeping the actual body of the saint, while this is sometimes seen as gruesome it is actually part of an ancient tradition meant to honour the saint in question. In one of the earliest written testimonies we have to the practice. When Saint Polycarp was martyred in the second century, the Christians of the time gathered up his bones and placed them together in a suitable place so that, every year, they could celebrate his "birthday" into eternal life. Then, as people moved about they carried these special devotions with them, and erected shrines to those same saints in the places with one or more of the bones of the saint in question with them. 

And, believe it or not, that's what we've got in Sudbury: a bit of Saint Andrew the Apostle! First class relics of apostles are very rare, so I was really quite amazed to see it there!

There are some who think the devotion to saints via their relics is a bit passé, but the practice continues to draw the faithful despite those who do not understand. A major relic of Saint Francis Xavier, for example, recently made a tour of Canada, and many articles were written on the subject (scroll down to see). I especially enjoyed this fun article called Have arm, will travel. Only a Newfoundlander could come up with an article like this, that is both reverent and a bit cheeky! :-)

Want to know more about relics? Here is a good article in the Catholic Encyclopedia on the doctrine and practice of this kind of devotion.