Catholic faithful take a 'walk with the saints' in Freehold exhibition of relics

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - The faithful gathered at the Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine here last week to touch holiness in the form of a traveling exhibition of more than 150 sacred relics, including one purported to be wood from the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified.

The exhibition, called "Treasures of the Church," features a variety of relics connected with various Roman Catholic saints. It is organized by the Rev. Carlos Martins of Detroit, who gave a lecture on the objects Wednesday evening before encouraging attendees to take a "walk with the saints" in the church's Dentici Hall, where the relics were on display.

In Catholic tradition, according to the exhibition's website, relics come in three classes. "First-class relics are the body or fragments of the body of a saint, such as pieces of bone or flesh. Second-class relics are something that a saint personally owned, such as a shirt or book (or fragments of those items)," the website said. "Third-class relics are those items that a saint touched or that have been touched to a first-, second- or another third-class relic of a saint.

Catholics believe God can act through relics, such as to heal illness, which is why they are venerated, although the power is believed to come from God, not the objects themselves.

In addition to the piece of wood believed to be from what is called the True Cross, other objects in the exhibition came from a piece of the veil purported to belong to Jesus' mother Mary, a fragment from the Crown of Thorns used to mock Jesus before his crucifixion and pieces of bone from various saints.

The relics included connections to two millennia of church history, right up to the present day, such as relics connected with St. John Paul II, the former pope who died in 2005 and was canonized in 2014.

The exhibit is expected to return to New Jersey at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Gianna Beretta Molla Church in Northfield, Atlantic County. To learn more about the schedule and how to request an exhibition, visit treasuresofthechurch.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Catholics take a 'walk with the saints' in Freehold relic exhibition