Relics In Texas

 
Since I live in Texas, I thought to post this piece of information:

JASPER - Tucked in a wooden cabinet at St. Michael Church exists a little-known treasure whose history remains a partial mystery.

Sealed inside an ornate gold cross called a reliquary lie three slivers of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, according to church leaders here. Though holy relics can be found throughout Catholic churches worldwide, relics of the true cross usually are

granted to cathedrals or larger-sized churches.

So how this small church of about 250 families obtained the holy relic and when it arrived are part of the missing pieces of the puzzle that the Rev. Ron Foshage of St. Michael hopes to piece together someday.

"It's something that's very difficult to get, and it's a great blessing for a smaller church community to have it," Foshage said.

....

Foshage said the St. Michael's relic, authenticated by 1958 Vatican documents, might have been brought in during the 1950s when the church was designated a parish. But some ministers from that time who might have known its history have since moved away or died, he said.

Relics are categorized in three classes. A first-class relic is an actual part of a saint, such as a small piece of bone or strand of hair. A relic of the true cross is considered first class.

Second-class relics can be anything the saint wore, such as a piece of a shirt. Third-class relics include a piece of cloth touched by a saint; they also can be pieces of cloth that have touched a first- or second-class relic.

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Well, I never knew there were three different types of lerics. Now, I know :-)