The relics of St. John Bosco are being carried into the towns and villages, where the Gospel is announced among the young and the poor today.  The pilgrimage of Don Bosco’s casket is a special occasion which provides individuals with an opportunity to study the life and mission of Don Bosco.  Learning Don Bosco’s way will provide individuals with information necessary to imitate his faith and love of the Lord as well as his passion for all people, especially the young and the poor.

The relic of Don Bosco is a renewed call to the Salesian Family to form that community of faith called by Christ to holiness, a family that desires to follow the way of the Gospel traced out by Jesus after the example of Don Bosco.

In great honor of this pilgrimage, Pope Benedict XVI has agreed, at the request of Father Pascual Chavez Villanueva, to grant plenary indulgences to those who make a pilgrimage to see and pray before the casket around the world.

WHY RELICS?

A relic is an object of religious veneration.  It can be anything from the bones of a saint to an object which touched a martyr during his or her lifetime. 

Acts 19:11-12 emphasizes the importance of relics: “Meanwhile, God worked extraordinary miracles at the hands of Paul.  When handkerchiefs or cloths which had touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases were cured and evil spirits departed from them.”  Relics do not contain magical powers but they symbolize how God works through the saints even after they have died.   The saints helped draw people closer to God, and after they ceased, the relics continued to inspire individuals to become more devoted to God.

The Church honors God through the relics of the bodies of the saints, the things they used, and the lives they touched.  The relic of Don Bosco is being brought to the United States so Christians may honor him as a servant of God and view him as a source of inspiration for those still living. 

WHY THIS DEVOTION TO SAINTS?

It is important to respect and pray to saints for they are role models which all Christians should strive to imitate.  Saints were born with original sin, the same way all individuals, excluding the Blessed Mother, are born with original sin.  They experienced the same weaknesses and temptations but became saints because they were able to overcome their weaknesses with their God-given graces, the same graces God gives to each and every individual.  The lives of the saints serve as examples for individuals to follow so they may join the saints and enter into the kingdom of heaven.  Overall, devotion to a saint provides hope and encourages individuals to ask the saints to intercede for them before God.

THE VENERATION OF RELICS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

The veneration of relics is as old as the church itself.  The earliest reference of relics is found in the Old Testament of the bible.  2Kings 13:20-21 reads: “Elisha died and was buried.  Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring.  Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb.  When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.”

                There are several passages in the New Testament that emphasize the importance of respecting and honoring the body of a saint.  For example, when St. John the Baptist was martyred, his followers recovered his remains and took them to a safe place to be honored.  Likewise, in the second century, Bishop Polycarp was burned at the stake for his religious views.  Polycarp’s followers gathered his bones and put them in a tomb where they gathered to celebrate mass.  During the years of religious persecution church members buried the remnants of martyrs in the catacombs of ancient Rome in which they gathered to secretly celebrate mass.  It then became tradition for several years to place a small relic in the altar of each church.

                Relics are present to remind individuals of the holiness of a saint and the fulfillment of God’s work through the saint.  They inspire individuals to ask for prayers from the saints and for God to grant them the ability to live the same faith-filled life.