Catholic relics

In 2009, a famous tour came to London. Every day for several weeks, people queued in their thousands, huddled into little groups and raising flimsy umbrellas against the old city’s autumnal drizzle. Big Ben chimed another hour gone, the sun began to retreat behind clouds, but still, they waited, inching…

The unusual side of Church history. Click to read Weird Catholic, by Dcn. Thomas L. McDonald, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

In 2009, a famous tour came to London. Every day for several weeks, people queued in their thousands, huddled into little groups and raising flimsy umbrellas against the old city’s autumnal drizzle. Big Ben chimed another hour gone, the sun began to retreat behind clouds, but still, they waited, inching…

Reliquary of the jaw of St. Anthony, 1349

Art historian Paul Koudounaris hunted down and photographed dozens of gruesome skeletons in some of the world's most secretive religious establishments.

by Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A saint’s lock of hair, bone shards, a vial of blood, even a severed hand whose discolored fingers curl in a macabre way are venerated by many members of the Catholic Church. Others may just get the heebie-jeebies and wonder why holy people’s body parts are even put […]

It’s hard to fathom now but there was a time (specifically, ninth-century Holy Roman Empire) when the bones of Christian martyrs provoked the same kind of...

reliquary

Jesus Christ’s crown of thorns was among prized relics saved from the inferno in Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, but how did it get there?