Catawiki auction limits the sale of relics
The relic of Saint Devote arrives at the Cathedral of Monaco on the second day of the traditional festivities of St. Devote, in Monaco, 27 January 2022. Photo EPA, Sebastien Nogier
Western Europe
It is no longer possible to buy a hair of Saint Paul or a piece of bone from Saint Lucia on the online auction Catawiki. The website has banned the sale of relics containing fragments of saints' bodies.
It did so after a request from the Dutch bishop Jan Hendriks and his communication officer Jan-Willem Wits. Until last Tuesday, any user of Catawiki could buy bodily remains of saints on the website. According to Wits, the search term 'relics' resulted in twenty to thirty results with physical remains of Saints.
The relics often consist of a holder with a piece of bone or even a whole bone. These body parts can be of any Saint declared holy by the Roman Catholic Church. The relics often come with a Church certificate to verify their authenticity.
According to Wits, the sale of relics hurts the feelings of Roman Catholic believers. Relics are meaningful to them. The items are the object of reverence and worship, his bishop, Jan Hendriks, explains. The Roman Catholic Church has forbidden the sale of relics already since the Middle Ages. "The objects are holy", Wits says. "You don't make people pay for the Eucharist or consecrated wafers, do you? The Church forbids the connection between the holy and the commercial."
In addition, the sale of relics violates the dignity of the human body, as they sometimes consist of human remains, the bishop writes in his letter to Catawiki. That is even more ethically debatable than selling pieces of wood from the cross of Jesus. However, the Church would rather see a ban on both sorts of items.
After receiving the letter from bishop Hendriks, Catawiki responded that the company had already stopped the sale of relics that consisted of bodily remains. Yet, Wits says to have seen them on the website until last Monday. However, on Wednesday, the specific relics were nowhere to be found on Catawiki anymore.
At the same time, that does not mean that there is no trade of relics with body parts anymore. Joannes Peters, the founder of the company Fluminalis, which sells complete interiors of church buildings and monasteries, says that he can sell all sorts of relics to whom he wants. According to him, there has always been a trade in relics, also by the Church itself. "Of course, the Church sells them too; how would they get to the market otherwise?"
Related Articles
