A local family has donated a relic of St. Martha to the parish of the same name in Murrieta. It has been verified by the Diocesan Office of Archives as authentic, and the parish hopes to put the relic in the altar, as is often customary to do.
“We decided to donate the relic of St. Martha to our parish so that all of our church family may venerate her. We have such a connection to St. Martha’s parish,” said Martha Garvin, née LaCaze. “It brings comfort and joy to our family knowing that St. Martha herself, in the relic, will soon be placed in the altar at her namesake parish for all to venerate.”
The relic has been in the possession of Garvin’s family since the 1970s. Interestingly enough, the relic was donated to them by a priest who is on the first stage towards possible canonization as a saint, Servant of God Father Aloysius Ellacuria, CMF. Fr. Ellacuria, who died in 1981, was a well-known Claretian mystic in the Los Angeles area who was even said to be able to work miracles.
The family had a close relationship with Fr. Ellacuria; Garvin’s father Donald LaCaze would drive Fr. Ellacuria around since the priest did not drive, and Fr. Ellacuria also named, baptized and gave first communion to the three youngest of the family’s nine children, including Martha (which was Fr. Ellacuria’s mother’s name). Fr. Ellacuria was able to acquire a relic of St. Martha from Italy which he then gave to the family.
According to Office of Archives Director Arlene Gutierrez, the relic itself is in excellent condition. The relic is a bone fragment, so it is a first class relic (a body part of a saint such as bone, blood or flesh), and it is housed in a reliquary which has a red wax seal on the back. The wax seal is still intact with the red thread to show it has not been tampered with, and the relic is also accompanied with a letter of authentication from the Office of Postulator General of the Redemptorists, Father Nicolas Ferrante.
Father Carlos Martinez, Administrator of St. Martha parish, said that receiving the relic means so much to the parish community. “Receiving this relic and it being verified as belonging to our parish’s patroness is really a priceless gift and means the world to us here at St. Martha’s because we have no relic in our altar,” he said.
“It is my understanding that a small compartment had been built into our altar back when the new church was dedicated in 2005 … awaiting the day when a relic could be placed into it. Not only have we received a true relic, but it is from our parish’s namesake. This truly shows us the great providence of God and how he provides us with gifts beyond what we could have ever hoped for,” he added.
“To have a relic of someone who actually spoke to Jesus, as did St. Martha of Bethany, and who witnessed Jesus resurrect her brother Lazarus, is just absolutely overwhelming and a blessing beyond compare for our parish. I pray that through this relic, our parishioners will learn more about St. Martha and increase their devotion to her, and through her witness and intercession, lead more souls to Christ,” said Fr. Martinez.
Full story at Inland Catholic Byte.
how could st Martha’s have gone so long, since 2005, with absolutely no relic of any kind in the altar and apparently no urgency to acquire one? Has this become an optional item in the dedication of Churches?
Yes, it’s optional.
I do not know that the article says that there has been no relic.
I see the sentence that would make you think that and on first reading I had the same impression.
“Canon 1237 §2. The ancient tradition of placing relics of martyrs or other saints under a fixed altar is to be preserved, according to the norms given in the liturgical books.”
The Bishop’s Ceremonial is more detailed in No. 866:
“The tradition in the Roman liturgy of placing relics of martyrs or other saints beneath the altar should be preserved, if possible. But the following should be noted.
“a) Such relics should be of a size sufficient for them to be recognizable as parts of human bodies. Hence excessively small relics of one or more saints must not be placed beneath an altar;
“b) The greatest care must be taken to determine whether the relics in question are authentic. It is better for an altar to be dedicated without relics than to have relics of doubtful authenticity placed beneath it;
“c) A reliquary must not be placed on the altar or set into the table of the altar, but placed beneath the table of the altar, as the design of the altar permits.”
Therefore it would be understood that relics to be placed under an altar would need to be of certain significance.
The above norm also explicitly excludes the practice customary in recent centuries of inserting relics into a specially created cavity within the table (the mensa) of an altar or altar stone. Of course, it does not require their removal if already there.
The norms also mean that It is no longer permissible to place the relics of saints in the base of a movable altar.
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/altars-dedications-and-relics-4906