The following comes from a Feb. 26 story in the OC Catholic.
Christ Cathedral’s stone altar will be home to the relics of martyrs and saints who reflect the diversity of the Diocese of Orange.
“The relics of the saints which will be enclosed beneath the altar in Christ Cathedral – St. Serra, St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc, St. Andrew Kim Taegon, the North American Martyrs and St. Rafael Guízar y Valencia – connect us directly with the witness and life of the early martyrs of the Church whose remains were placed in the Roman Catacombs,” said Most Rev. Kevin Vann, Bishop of Orange.
St. Junípero Serra
“St. Serra brought faith to our state and specifically here in our county,” Truxaw said.
St. Serra was canonized by Pope Francis in 2015, and his relic interred at Christ Cathedral is a bone fragment that was donated to the Diocese.
St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc
St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc was a Vietnamese priest in the 19th century who was persecuted and killed for his spiritual beliefs. He was among 117 Catholics martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862.
The relic – a bone from the saint’s hand – was gifted to the Diocese of Orange by Pierre Cardinal Nguyên VănNhon of the Archdiocese of Hanoi. The remains of St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc, including his skull, are on display behind glass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hanoi.
St. Andrew Kim Taegon
The first native-born Korean priest, St. Andrew Kim Taegon is among the most prominent saints in east Asia. He was among thousands of Korean Catholics who were persecuted and killed in the 19th Century for following their faith. He was killed in 1846, at the age of 25, on the banks of the Han River near Seoul.
A delegation from the Archdiocese of Seoul travelled to Orange County in December, delivering the relic of St. Andrew Kim Taegon to Auxiliary Bishop Tim Freyer, who accepted it on behalf of Bishop Vann and the Diocese of Orange. A member of the four-person delegation stayed with the relic at all times while en route.
The relic is a bone from the upper cervical vertebrae.
North American Martyrs
St. John de Brébeuf, St. Charles Garnier and St. Gabriel Lalemant were French Jesuit priests who lived and worked among the Native American tribes in Canada and upstate New York in the 17th Century. They were killed during conflict between the warring tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy. They were canonized as martyrs by Pope Pius XI in 1930. Along with 5 other Jesuit missionaries killed in Canada and upstate New York between 1642 and 1649, they are known collectively as the North American Martyrs.
Their relics were obtained by Msgr. Stephen Doktorczyk, vicar general for the Diocese of Orange, who corresponded with officials from the Jesuits USA Northeast Province, based in New York City.
St. Rafael Guízar y Valencia
St. Rafael Guízar y Valencia was a Mexican Catholic bishop who lived in the late 19th and early 10th Century. He was known for caring for the sick and wounded during the Mexican Revolution.
During the revolution, he continued his work as a priest despite facing intense persecution and was forced to flee to Cuba. After the revolution he returned to Mexico, and continued his ministry to the poor and infirmed until his death in 1938.
The relic was gifted to the Diocese and Bishop Vann by Rev. Al Baca.
I wish the Church would stop this.
It is wrong to mutilate a human body, especially a profoundly holy person’s body.
In the medieval days, the Church made a fortune selling body parts that they claim belonged to a saint or Mary.
If you look on the Internet, people are still selling human body parts–“relics”–they claim belonged to saints.
It is wonderful that this tradition is being continued. From what I have read some Catholic churches no longer encase relics in their altars any more.
It is horrifying to say, but many of the bodies of the saints were not in one piece when Christians found them. When the tomb of St. Peter was found, his feet were missing, probably because the Roman hacked him down from the cross where he was crucified up side down and threw away his feet. Christians honored and do honor their saints the best way they can. Often pieces were sent to different churches because they knew that their enemies destroyed churches.
Please read my other explanatory posts. Everything is misused by someone, but that should not stop us from honoring our dead saints the best way we can. Selling relics is outlawed by the Church, but some people still do it Even if someone gets a hold of false relic through no fault of their own, God looks at the heart and the intentions. Honoring relics is as old as the Bible. You can read about it in the Catholic Encyclopedia..