Relic facts for kids

Some of the Roman Catholics relics are two thousand years old

A relic is an object, especially a piece of the body or a personal item of someone of religious importance, that was carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a memorial that you can touch. Relics are an important aspect of Buddhism, some denominations of Christianity, Hinduism, shamanism, and many other personal belief systems.

The word relic comes from the Latin reliquiae ('remains'). A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more relics.

Some well-known religious relics include the Tooth of Buddha, the Holy Grail, the Crown of Thorns, the True Cross of Jesus, the Staff of Moses, and the Sword of Mohammed.

Images for kids

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  Reliquary and skull of Saint Ivo of Kermartin (St. Yves or St. Ives) (1253–1303), in Tréguier, Brittany, France

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  Buddha relics from Kanishka's stupa in Peshawar, Pakistan, now in Mandalay, Burma (2005)

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  Reliquary at Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in the United States, with relics of St. James, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. Simon, St. Thomas, St. Stephen and other saints.

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  Relic from the shrine of Saint Boniface of Dokkum in the hermit-church of Warfhuizen: bone fragment in middle is from Saint Boniface; little folded papers on the left and right contain bone fragments of Saint Benedict of Nursia and Bernard of Clairvaux

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  St. Francis Xavier's humerus, St. Joseph's Church, Macau

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  Second-class relic (soil) from the grave of Marie Rose Ferron

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  Grapevine cross of Saint Nino of Georgia (Sioni Cathedral, Tbilisi, Georgia)

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  Relics of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified in the Catholicon of Mar Saba Monastery in the Kidron Valley

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  Reliquaries in the Church of San Pedro, in Ayerbe, Spain

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  The Seamless robe of Jesus in Trier Cathedral

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  Detail of the Girdle of Mary in the Basilica of Our Lady in Maastricht

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  The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral

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  Footprint of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, preserved in the türbe (funerary mausoleum) in Eyüp, Istanbul

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  Third-class relic (cloth) of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

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  St. Peter's chains, preserved in San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, a second-class relic

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  Main Altar of St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa, containing the remains of Saint Cessianus, a boy martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution

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  Relics of St. Demetrius in the cathedral of Thessalonika, Greece

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  Relic of the True Cross, Decani Monastery, Serbia

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  Relic of Pope John Paul II, declared a saint in 2014, in the Hong Kong Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

See also

In Spanish: Reliquia para niños