r/Catholicism • u/dab45de • 9h ago
Relics and Ashes. Why Does the Church Treat Them Differently?
The Church reverently preserves and venerates relics often portions of saints’ bodies across the world. At the same time, the Church teaches that cremated remains of the faithful must be kept together in one sacred place. How do we understand and reconcile this apparent difference in how the Church treats relics versus cremated remains?
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u/ersatz27 7h ago
I visited a local Catholic shrine the other day, where they keep a large collection of relics. Most of the relics, they were tiny pieces of bone fragments, you could barely even see them unless you leaned in close. But every tiny fragment was housed in its own little container, carefully labelled with the Saint's name, with a note about what kind of relic it was, a catalogue number for cross-referencing, and it was laid out in a silk-lined glass case. The containers themselves were made of ornately carved wood or mother-of-pearl. The relics were all housed inside a special chapel, which was kept under lock and key (you needed to contact the parish to get the key to visit).
Bear in mind, this was done for tiny fragments of bone. Not "big" relics like whole bones (though they had a few of those, too). Fragments, not much bigger than a grain of sand. But every one of them was specially housed, labelled to make sure the identity of the Saint was preserved, kept safe.
That's the kind of reverence that the Church shows human remains. Also, note that it's not random members of the public who are allowed to just go around chipping off bits of bone. There are formal processes for it to happen, because the Church wants to make sure that no pieces of the Saint's body are going to just "go missing" or be shown improper reverence.
Now, let's look at ashes. The Church teaches that, if people are cremated, their ashes need to be properly interred. Family members can't divvy the person's remains up amongst themselves, and the ashes can't be thrown away by scattering them.
Those rules are in fact very consistent with how the Church treats relics. Relics need to be properly housed in reliquaries, and can't just be kept in a secular location. Only authorised individuals are allowed to collect the relics. The relics can't just be thrown away or disposed of.
The only real difference is that the Church makes relics of canonised Saints, but not of deceased people more generally, and that's very deliberate. The reason that we have relics of Saints is because we recognise the value of being able to venerate those great Saints of the Church, people who lived lives of heroic virtue, and so it's fitting to collect relics for veneration in churches around the world where the faithful can have wide access to them. That's not true of deceased people more generally. They might have been nice people, they may be in Heaven, but they're only known to their friends and family. They're buried in one location, where those people who knew them can go to pay their respects to their earthly remains. Now, if at a later date, that person is canonised as a Saint, then the Church can decide to collect relics of them, because it now makes sense for their remains to be venerated in churches more widely.
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u/redshark16 9h ago
You have observed the difference here.
The Church reverently preserves and venerates relics often portions of saints’ bodies across the world.
Relics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMzc4xTQRGM
Cremation
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u/karenelissab 8h ago
Just watched an episode of Godsplaining on exactly this question: https://youtu.be/6U10Ror7tNk?is=TLQMcp-5KB_K3yMg
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u/triathlon2027 9h ago
Related question: why are remains even being cremated. I thought that was against the catholic doctrine.
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u/Crossed_Keys155 9h ago
Cremation is ok provided the ashes are interred in a sacred place like a cemetery, not scattered or kept up on your living room mantel or something.
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u/cappotto-marrone 9h ago
Not since 1963.
On July 5, 1963, the Holy Office issued Piam et Constantem. The Church permitted cremation when it was not chosen to deny Christian teachings. Catholics could receive the sacraments and Catholic funeral rites even if they had chosen cremation.
This was also reflected in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
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u/Adventurous-Test1161 8h ago
It has never been against doctrine. It has been forbidden in practice, but it isn’t a doctrinal thing. That’s why the practice was able to change.
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u/trulymablydeeply 8h ago
Cremation is now permitted as long as it’s not done in denial of the general resurrection and the ashes are properly buried or entombed.
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u/TheSilentPilgrims 9h ago edited 8h ago
Its more of a concession If one's body were to be in ashes. But the Church does not teach to cremate others.
Edit: The church permits the use of cremating others under strict circumstances.
CCC #2301
"The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body."
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u/trulymablydeeply 9h ago
The Church teaches that the human body must be treated with the utmost respect. When the Church collects first class relics from the bodies of Saints, she does so with exquisite care and reverence, making sure the relics are enclosed in reliquaries and always handled as sacred. The bodies are also given proper burial before being retrieved when a cause for canonization is opened.
When anyone dies, we must give them a proper funeral, treating their body with the respect it is due. Dividing up ashes to keep in various homes, keeping the all the ashes in one’s own home, or (worst of all) scattering the ashes does not accord the proper respect to the body. Nor is it reasonable to keep ashes and such to treat as relics without the proper procedures and permissions.