Thursday, December 03, 2009

Feast of St. Francis Xavier - Dec. 3

On today's feast it's only right to show you a picture of one of the coolest relics in Rome. I give you....

THE RIGHT ARM AND HAND OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER

The picture comes from the website for the Church of the Gesù in Rome. In fact, if you click HERE, they have a few pictures from the San Francesco Saverio capella, to the right of the main altar and directly across from the St. Ignatius Loyola chapel. The arm was brought to Rome in 1614.

How many times had that hand held the Host at Mass? How many times was it raised to absolve sinners? To anoint the dying? To anoint during baptism?

1 comment:

NCSue said...

I admit I don't know quite how to respond to relics like this. Sometimes it seems to be difficult to discern the difference between revering the relic of a saint and desecrating a body. I don'g mean to be hypercritical: I just don't know where the line is drawn.