These are no bones of contention.
Various body parts of beloved St. Bernadette Soubirous — who at the age of 14 had 18 visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France in 1858 – are on a 140-stop US tour.
The Journey of Grace features a 132-pound, 24-karat gold-plated reliquary containing fragments of her fifth and sixth ribs, kneecaps, strands of hair, muscle from her right femur and pieces of her skin.
While it might seem morbid to some, the Catholic tradition of venerating relics, or the remains of saints, dates back to 156 A.D.
Rev. Patrick Flanagan, chair of St. John’s University’s theology department, explained to The Post why the body parts are significant to Catholics.
“Roman Catholics believe in the sanctity of human life and concurrently value the body. The body is not merely a shell that contains the soul but an essential part of who the human person is,” he said.
“A bone, a fragment of skin, or perhaps even a heart . . . It is essentially the saints’ presence among us once again. It is comforting and encouraging to realize that heaven has come to Earth in the presence of these relics.”
Flanagan debunked the notion that Catholics worship saints.
“We do not. We venerate them as holy, virtuous, really remarkable people who served as intercessors for us,” he said.
The patron saint of illness in the Catholic Church, the teenaged Bernadette had her series of famous visions of the Blessed Mother across several months in the small French town of only 4,000 inhabitants. She died in 1879 at the age of 35, partly due to tuberculosis.
The Catholic Church has since recognized 72 miracles related to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes. The town is now the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.
The American tour of St. Bernadette’s reliquary, which will visit basilicas, shrines, cathedrals, parishes, hospitals and universities, kicked off in Washington, DC, on Sept. 18, and this weekend, it will be at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in West Harlem. On Oct. 19 it will be at The Shrine Church of St. Bernadette in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and the next day at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“Hundreds of thousands of people visited the reliquary in the hope of experiencing the same grace, healing, and hope that so many visitors to Lourdes have experienced,” Flanagan explained of its first US tour in 2002.
Bernadette’s body was exhumed in 1909 and 1919 to prove the cause for her sainthood, and in 1925 pieces of her body were removed to be preserved as relics. The first time her body was exhumed, 30 years after her passing, it was miraculously incorrupt.
“The face was dull white. The skin clung to the muscles and the muscles adhered to the bones . . . The mouth was open slightly and it could be seen that the teeth were still in place. The hands, which were crossed on her breast, were perfectly preserved, as were the nails,” reads a document signed by examining physicians, which is kept in the convent of Saint-Gildard at Nevers, as per the National Catholic Register.
Many relics are already preserved right here in the Big Apple.
Approximately 80% of Mother Cabrini’s skeletal remains are underneath the main altar at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in Washington Heights. Her eyeglasses, shoes, socks and a gold denture spring are also housed there.
St. Frances Cabrini Shrine executive director Julia Attaway said they welcome up to 40,000 pilgrims a year.
“We greet visitors every week who come to give thanks for miracles they attribute to Mother Cabrini’s intercession. Some are miracles of healing, others for green cards, and still others for the relief of emotional suffering,” she told The Post.
The arm bone of St. Anne, the Virgin Mary’s mother, is on display at St. Jean Baptiste Church on the Upper East Side. The bone was first brought there on tour in 1892, and after sick people who visited it began feeling better, it was decided that the bone be split so a piece could remain at the church.
The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in the East Village has all the bones of the Roman martyr St. Datian, encased as a wax figure.
The Church of St. John the Baptist in the Garment District pays homage to the Italian friar St. Padre Pio by displaying a linen sock stained with his blood, and the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer on the Upper East Side has a finger joint of its Dominican friar patron saint.
Flanagan said he’s seen a resurgence in Catholics’ devotion to relics.
“People are beginning to recognize how much technology has consumed our lives and distracted us from quality relationships … People are hungry for the tangible, things they can see and touch.”
