From the outside, St. Anthony's Chapel appears to be a typical yet beautiful brick church with a statue of St. Anthony standing between two towering steeples. However, once you step inside this chapel you will discover there is nothing typical about this church. St. Anthony's Chapel has more than 4200 relics contained in 800 different cases. Outside the Vatican, no other church contains this many relics. There were relics from the twelve apostles, a piece of wood form the true cross, a piece of wood from the table of the last supper. There were bones, skulls, remnants of clothing from hundreds of saints including St. John the Baptist, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Anthony, St. Lawrence, St. Stephen, St. Catherine, St. Nicholas, St. Sebastian, St. Frances, St. Phillip Neri, and the list goes on and on.
My children were taken back. Their previous exposure to relics was very limited. My son asked, "Why would someone take a saint's bone? "
I explained that the Church has a long history of venerating sacred objects from the saints. The relics remind us to pray for the intercession of that saint. We remember their example of living out the Gospel and they inspire us to do the same.
Then my son said very quietly, "I'm not sure if I can believe these relics are real."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because if these are all real, how come this church isn't filled with people? Why wouldn't everyone want to see this?"
"That's a good question," I said. "The streets sure were crowded back by our hotel with everyone going to the Pirates baseball game."
This church shouldn't be packed just to see the relics, though, the church should be packed in order to spend time with Christ in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Our actions always speak volumes of what we hold dear. As I looked around at the hundreds and hundreds of relics from so many different saints, I wondered if this wasn't a small taste of heaven. In heaven we will be together amidst all the saints worshipping God. As I knelt down to pray I couldn't help but smile when I imagined how incredible that day will be.
-Susan
