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In the East however the cult of relics continued much as it always
had, with no reformation or counter-reformation to cause any distur-
bance. Eastern churches to this day generally don’t have permanent dis-
plays of relics. The everyday devotional focus is the iconostasis, and the
relics tend to be brought out and venerated on their feast days, a living
tradition that can be seen on Mount Athos, and in many other places
such as Corfu, where the body of St Spyridon is taken in procession
round the streets on his feats day.

To overstate somewhat, it could be said that in the West relics
were about proving a point – they showed that you weren’t Protestants,
and that you were keeping the rules of Trent. In the East it was much
more about the devotion of the faithful, their communion with the
saint. Relics were places where heaven came close to earth and the
saints were available as intercessors and protectors. Unlike the more
cerebral approach in the West, the East had no problem in talking
about the grace that inhabited relics, and in expecting the miraculous24.
Devotion to relics was less controlled, more spontaneous, and perhaps a
bit more down to earth.

A remarkable example of the spontaneity that was still possible in
the East is St Evdokimos25. In 1840 a crack was noticed in a wall in the
Vatopaidi monastery on Mount Athos, and behind it was found a for-
gotten ossuary, full of the bones of monks from former times. But in the
middle of all these decayed bones there was one body that was intact
and incorrupt, kneeling upright with his hands crossed on his breast,
and exuding a sweet fragrance. It was decided that this monk must have
been a saint, but had been so humble that he had not been noticed
while he was alive. Only now, unknown ages after his death, was God
revealing his sanctity by the miracle of incorruption. As no one knew
his name, he was called Evdokimos, meaning “pleasing to God”, and

24 Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (trans), James Clarke & Co, 1957, p 191
25 Story related on the Mystagogy blog,
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/10/saint-evdokimos-newly-revealed-of.html

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