A very comprehensive and fascinating response, packmule, thank you.

I find relics fascinating from a historical perspective - even if they're pig's knuckles.

But then, as an atheist, it matters less to me that these items are real as to how they came to be. The fact that tests surmised that the Turin Shroud is probably medieval in no way lessoned its historical fascination for me, it just raises more interesting questions (e.g. who created it? How? When? Where?)

Andalusia and packmule, I found your insightful (and sensitive) answers most thought-provoking, thank you. It was most instructive to be reminded that merely because some people of yore went overboard about holy relics, did not mean that all of them did - anymore than most modern people are unable to keep perspective about autographed baseballs, etc. Such objects are generally held to be reminders of the real thing - not a substitute.

If you go to Bruges, Belgium, you can visit the Chapel of The Holy Blood in "Burg Square". There at Friday morning mass you can see on display a crystal tube that has a sealed cloth soaked with the blood of Christ washed from his body after his death. It was brought to Bruges after the second crusade. Many people believe it to be authentic and of course many do not. A few years ago I attended the mass and touched the Holy Blood and I am glad that I did.

Larry J

Thank you, everyone, for such thoughtful answers. We're traveling to Italy in a month with [Presbyterian] children ages 15, 13 and 10. Your answers will help me figure out what to tell the kids about relics before we step into church and encounter them.

Re: Bruges Holy Blood
And this blood is said to congeal itself once a year i think during the Festival of the Holy Blood, an elaborate most colorful parade of townspeople dressed in medieval guard - the long long procession also has the vial of Holy Blood being paraded thru the streets.
I think most experts pooh-pooh the fact that the blood congeals miraculously each year, but that is proof to some that the relic is really holy.

missypie: On your thread about churches in Rome, I recommended Margaret Visser's "The Geometry of Love". If you have managed to get it, she has quite an interesting discussion on relics in Chapter 9: their origins, the lurid abuses, and their meaning in a modern world which sees them as ridiculous. She points out that today we venerate secular relics, from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, to Marilyn Monroe's shoes, to Graceland.