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The Cult of Relics1

MATTHEW DUCKETT

HERE WE are in 2014 – well into the 21st century and the third millen-
nium, in a society that many describe as secular, post modern or even
post Christian. But in this society, this year as every year, on the Satur-
day nearest to St Alban’s day, thousands of people will descend on St
Albans for the festival of the patron saint, the ?rst martyr of England.
There will be pageantry in the streets, puppets, wonderful music, and
celebration all round. And one of the highlights of the day will come at
choral evensong – nothing could be more Anglican! – when a silver reli-
quary containing a shoulder blade of Saint Alban will be placed on the
altar, censed and venerated, and then carried in a triumphant procession
to the shrine where the saint had been buried more than 1700 years be-
fore. This great Christian festival and pilgrimage, in modern England,
centres around the veneration of a grave and the celebration of a human
bone. The militant atheists must be fuming.

And this is not all. In this post-modern world relics are still
enormously popular. A few years ago some of the relics of St Therese of
Lisieux were sent on tour round the world, drawing large crowds wher-
ever they went. And relics from Mount Athos, such as the gifts of the
Magi and the belt of the Mother of God, have toured the Orthodox
world in recent times.

But, we might ask, where did all this begin? How did it develop?
Does it have a proper foundation in Christian doctrine?

I suppose I would argue that it all began in Nazareth. The crypt
beneath the church there is one of the traditional sites associated with
the annunciation, the place where the Virgin Mary received the message
from the Angel Gabriel that she was to be the Mother of the Lord. In

1 Adapted from a talk given to the London Branch of the Fellowship of St Alban & St Sergius at St
James’s Church, Paddington, on 19th February 2014

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