"Bones in glass cases, scraps of cloth, splinters of wood. Isn't that superstition?" It can look strange from the outside. But the practice comes straight out of Scripture.
Short answer: Catholics honor relics because God has chosen to work through the bodies and belongings of His holy ones. In Scripture a dead man came back to life when he touched Elisha's bones, and the sick were healed through cloths that had touched St. Paul. Relics are honored, never worshiped, and the honor goes to God, who made His saints holy.
Key verses on relics
- "when the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and got to his feet." (2 Kings 13:21)
- "when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them" (Acts 19:12)
- "If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured." (Matthew 9:21)
- "Wielding the mantle which had fallen from Elijah, he struck the water" (2 Kings 2:14)
- "Moses also took Joseph’s bones with him" (Exodus 13:19)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Catholics Actually Teach
A relic is the body of a saint or part of it, or an object closely connected to a saint, such as clothing. The Catechism lists "the veneration of relics" among the forms of popular piety that have grown up around the Church's sacramental life (CCC 1674). Such devotions "extend the liturgical life of the Church, but do not replace it" (CCC 1675).
The principle is the same one behind sacred images: "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and this honor is "a 'respectful veneration,' not the adoration due to God alone" (CCC 2132). Church law also keeps "the ancient tradition of placing relics of martyrs or other saints under a fixed altar" (Code of Canon Law, can. 1237 §2).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That relics are worshiped. Adoration belongs to God alone (CCC 2132).
- That relics work like magic. The Church calls it superstition "when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary" (CCC 2111). God acts. The relic is never the source.
- That every relic in history was genuine. Fakes and abuses happened. The Church forbids the trade outright: "It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics" (can. 1190 §1).
It all points to Christ. A saint is holy only because Christ made him so, and every miracle at a relic is the Lord's own work, as He promised: "whoever believes in me will do the works that I do" (John 14:12). By the same principle the Church teaches for images, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype" (CCC 2132): the honor given a relic passes to the saint, and through the saint to Jesus, the one mediator between God and the human race (1 Timothy 2:5). Relics are a witness to what Christ's grace can do in a human life.
The Biblical Case
1. God worked a miracle through a prophet's bones
"And so Elisha died and was buried." Later, some men burying a corpse panicked at the sight of raiders. "So they cast the man into the grave of Elisha, and everyone went off. But when the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and got to his feet" (2 Kings 13:20–21). Elisha was dead. He prayed no prayer and did no act. God simply chose to honor His prophet's body. Sirach (one of the books in Catholic Bibles) remembers it the same way: "from where he lay buried, his body prophesied. In life he performed wonders, and after death, marvelous deeds" (Sirach 48:13–14).
2. God worked through the clothing of His servants
After Elijah was taken up, Elisha "picked up the mantle which had fallen from Elijah," and "wielding the mantle ... he struck the water ... it divided, and he crossed over" (2 Kings 2:13–14). In the Gospels, people "begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed" (Matthew 14:36). In Acts, "So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them" (Acts 19:11–12). Even St. Peter's shadow was sought: "they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them" (Acts 5:15). Notice who acts: "God accomplished." That is exactly how Catholics understand relics.
3. Jesus praised faith that reached for His cloak
A woman who had suffered hemorrhages for twelve years "touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, 'If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.'" Jesus did not scold her for superstition. He said, "Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you" (Matthew 9:20–22). Her faith was in Him. The cloak was how she reached Him.
4. God's people treasured the bones of the holy
Joseph made Israel swear, "you must bring my bones up from this place" (Genesis 50:25), and "Moses also took Joseph’s bones with him" (Exodus 13:19). Hebrews counts this as faith: "By faith Joseph ... gave instructions about his bones" (Hebrews 11:22). Centuries later, King Josiah found a prophet's grave and ordered: "let no one move his bones" (2 Kings 23:18).
5. The body matters to God
"Your body is a temple of the holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19). That body "is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible" (1 Corinthians 15:42). A saint's body is not mere remains. It was the Spirit's temple, and it will rise in glory. St. John saw the martyrs' souls "underneath the altar" (Revelation 6:9), and the Church still places martyrs' relics under her altars.
Objections Answered
(a) "This is idolatry."
At its strongest: "You shall not make for yourself an idol ... you shall not bow down before them or serve them" (Exodus 20:4–5). "God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth" (John 4:24). Kissing bones and kneeling before reliquaries looks like giving creatures the devotion God forbids.
Answer: The commandment forbids worshiping created things as gods. Catholics agree completely, and so did the early Christians (see St. Jerome, below). Honoring a relic is like keeping a parent's letters or a hero's medal, but with a religious meaning: we honor what God made holy. The honor "passes to its prototype" (CCC 2132), and through the saint to God, who sanctified him. Scripture itself records God working through Elisha's bones and St. Paul's cloths. He would not do that through idols.
(b) "Hezekiah smashed the bronze serpent. Holy objects become idols."
At its strongest: Even an object God commanded was destroyed. Hezekiah "smashed the bronze serpent Moses had made, because up to that time the Israelites were burning incense to it" (2 Kings 18:4). Relics invite the same temptation.
Answer: This is the strongest objection, and the text shows its limits. God had commanded the serpent made, and those who looked at it "recovered" (Numbers 21:8–9). It was destroyed only when people began "burning incense to it," that is, worshiping it. The cure for abuse is right use, not a ban on what God used. The Church condemns superstition (CCC 2111) and bans the sale of relics (can. 1190 §1). Hezekiah's reform targeted worship of the object, which Catholics also reject.
(c) "God hid Moses' grave to stop this. And so many relics are fakes."
At its strongest: Moses "was buried in a valley in the land of Moab ... to this day no one knows the place of his burial" (Deuteronomy 34:6). Many think God did this to prevent a cult. And history is full of fake relics and of abuses that the Reformers attacked, often with good reason.
Answer: The text doesn't say why Moses' grave is unknown. That reason is a guess. What Scripture does say is that Joseph's bones were carried "by faith" (Hebrews 11:22). As for fakes: there were many, and the abuses were real. Catholics should admit that plainly. But counterfeit money doesn't make real money worthless. A forged relic proves only that genuine ones were valued.
(d) "Those were one-time miracles. Scripture never tells us to venerate relics."
At its strongest: No verse commands Christians to keep, enshrine or kiss the remains of saints. Elisha's bones were never put on display. The miracles through cloths and shadows were signs confirming the apostles' preaching, not a pattern for later centuries.
Answer: It is true that no verse commands relic veneration. But Scripture shows a consistent pattern, not a one-off: God works through Elijah's mantle, Elisha's bones, Christ's cloak, St. Peter's shadow and St. Paul's cloths, across both Testaments. Scripture also praises the reverent keeping of holy bones as an act of "faith" (Hebrews 11:22), and nowhere says the pattern would end. Jesus promised the opposite: "whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these" (John 14:12). And the Church that received the apostles' teaching was keeping martyrs' bones within a lifetime of St. John, as the next section shows. The objection asks for a command Scripture never needed to give, since it already shows God doing it.
The Early Church Agrees
The earliest Christians did exactly what Scripture shows, and drew the same line between honor and worship.
- The Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. AD 155–160, the church of Smyrna's account of its bishop St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John): After the bishop's body was burned, the Christians "took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place," where "the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom" (ch. 18). They also drew the line: "For Him indeed, as being the Son of God, we adore; but the martyrs, as disciples and followers of the Lord, we worthily love" (ch. 17). (newadvent.org)
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lecture 18.16, c. AD 350) cites Elisha's bones, saying God acted so "that it might be believed that in the bodies also of the just there lies a power." (newadvent.org)
- St. Jerome (Letter 109 1, AD 404): "We, it is true, refuse to worship or adore, I say not the relics of the martyrs, but even the sun and moon ... Still we honour the relics of the martyrs, that we may adore Him whose martyrs they are." (newadvent.org) Two years later, answering Vigilantius, who mocked Christians for kissing "a bit of powder wrapped up in a costly cloth," he replied: "Who ever thought man was God?" (Against Vigilantius 4–5).
- St. Augustine (Confessions 9.7.16, written c. AD 397) was in Milan in 386 when St. Ambrose found the bodies of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. A blind man "begged to be permitted to touch with his handkerchief the bier of Your saints," and "When he had done this, and put it to his eyes, they were immediately opened" (newadvent.org). The handkerchief of Acts 19, again.
- St. John of Damascus (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith IV.15, eighth century): "The Master Christ made the remains of the saints to be fountains of salvation to us." (newadvent.org)
Conclusion
Relics are not a medieval add-on. They come from a biblical conviction: God sanctifies whole persons, body and soul, and He sometimes chooses to work through what belonged to His saints. Elisha's bones, Our Lord's cloak, and St. Paul's handkerchiefs all point the same way.
If you are Protestant, you likely already honor objects that carry a story: a grandparent's Bible, a fallen soldier's flag. Catholics do the same with the saints, and give the glory to God. (See also Do Catholics Worship Statues? and Is Praying to Saints Biblical?)
Come home. Christians have honored the relics of the saints since the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, and that honor continues today in the Catholic Church. Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Do Catholics pray to relics? No. Catholics may ask the saint to pray for them, and they worship God alone. The relic is a reminder and a sign of God's work, not a recipient of prayer.
What are first-, second-, and third-class relics? These are customary categories. A first-class relic is part of a saint's body; a second-class relic is something the saint owned or used; a third-class relic is an object touched to a first-class relic.
Can relics be bought and sold? No. "It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics" (can. 1190 §1).
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Genesis 50:25; Exodus 13:19; Exodus 20:4–5; Numbers 21:8–9; Deuteronomy 34:6; 2 Kings 2:13–14; 2 Kings 13:20–21; 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 23:18; Sirach 48:13–14; Matthew 9:20–22; Matthew 14:36; Matthew 16:18; John 4:24; John 14:12; Acts 5:15; Acts 19:11–12; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 15:42; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 11:22; Revelation 6:9.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 816, 838; 1674, 1675; 2111; 2132.
Code of Canon Law (vatican.va): can. 1190 §1; can. 1237 §2.
Church Fathers (newadvent.org): The Martyrdom of Polycarp 17–18; St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 18.16; St. Jerome, Letter 109 (To Riparius) 1 and Against Vigilantius 4–5; St. Augustine, Confessions 9.7.16; St. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith IV.15.