Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: A stand that looks a bit like an award plaque with a tiny vestibule containing the supposed remains of Saint Charles Borromeo

My friend Gerriann is an Italian art/art historian blogger who is thinking about writing a book about relics. As part of her research, she discovered that there is a church in Saint Paul that has several saints' relics which they display at certain times of the year, The Nativity of Our Lord.

I don't know about you, but I find this sort of thing deeply fascinating. I grew up Catholic adjacent (my grandparents were very devout Roman Catholics) and, as many of you know having read my Archangel Protocol series, I was very affected by being an insider outsider to this culture/religion. In particular because I also spent my formative years (4th through 6th grade) at a Catholic middle school, where as part of the end of the year celebration we received our report cards at the altar at a Mass during communion (this may have only happened the year that my Catholic colleagues were doing first confession, but it was memorable). Regardless, imagine if you will, a very smol Lyda going up with the other students to receive the body of Christ, having to say 'uh, sorry, no thank you, I'm not Catholic," to the priest and then scurry over guilty in order to get my report card. I remember going back to the pew while my friends and colleagues prayed looking to see how I'd done in religion. As a non-Christian Unitarian, I was very confused by the "A" I saw there. Didn't this Christian God know that I was a heathen?  Apparently not. Or, perhaps, they liked me anyway.... which, oddly, fit with my Unitarian Universalism belief that all religions are shards of one Higher Power, if you will.

So, don't think that I attended this church merely to mock the practice of worshipping the bones of saints. When I say that I find this fascinating, I mean totally, respectfully FASCINATING. 

The thing that struck me about the relics at The Nativity of Our Lord was how many they seemed to be in possession of.


Image: A kneeler in front f a display case full of SIX different saints' bones in their odd, award trophy like cases.

Except for the height that they were placed on the wall (these obviously being placed so that you could view them while you knelt), this display case really reminded me of a high school's trophy case. The image above was only one side of this little room. There were at least another half dozen on the other side. That makes for at least a dozen saints' bits... and all of these were only the saints that were being displayed in November, for their feast days. There will be a whole new set on display in December. They have a whole list of the relics and when they are on display here: https://nativitystpaul.org/relics

Today the little reliquary room was open because it is the feast day of Saint Charles Borromeo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Borromeo.  A fascinating dude, who is, in fact, related to the Medici (the Milan branch, at any rate). The House of Medici are, of course, (in)famous for their connection to Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince. So, I feel like if you're a Machiavelli fan or a fan of Ada Palmer's Papal Election LARP, it might be worth a detour to come check out Charles' Borromeo's bones, as it were.

The room the relics were in had a heavy iron gate that looked locked, but the church had very helpfully put up a sign that said, "This door is open. You're welcome to go inside." Otherwise, I might not have felt like it was okay. There is no donation box at the door to the reliquary, but Gerriann and I took a moment to light a candle in front of the side altar to the Virgin Mary and you can make a cash donation there, if you like. The candles are a dollar a piece, so we left two bucks? Obviously, it's not required, but since we were strangers to this church and were taking pictures, it felt like the decent thing to do. I say this in case this seems like something you might like to see for yourself but feel weird about the idea of going into someone else's holy place when you might not be a believer. 

The church itself is also worth a visit. It's gorgeous and just celebrated it's hundred year anniversary. 


Image: The exterior of the Nativity of Our Lord on a grey and overcast November day.


Image: Interior shot--A view down the main chapel walkway towards the altar, there is very pretty blue stained glass windows visible on the right.

Ger and I wandered around the church a bit to admire the architecture both inside and out. It was a fun little excision. There is another church over in Minneapolis that also has relics on display, so, if we get the chance, we will also check those out and I will report back.