St. Francis Xavier's severed arm to visit Calgary in relic pilgrimage

The severed arm of Catholic saint St. Francis Xavier will reach two Calgary churches this weekend as part of a 15-city Canadian tour to allow the faithful to get close to a relic of holiness.

"Not everyone can visit a place where a saint might be buried," Peter Manseau told The Homestretch on Thursday.

"In those cases, the remains of a saint can go wherever those who wish to be near them, happen to be."

Manseau is an American writer and religion curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

"In the Catholic tradition, relics are the physical remains of saints, of people who were acknowledged as holy in their life and then were canonized through a process through official Catholic channels leading up to the Vatican. What it means to refer to the remains of saints, includes not only the physical remains of their bodies, such as the case of St. Francis Xavier's arm, but also things they owned and even things that were put in contact with both the remains of their bodies and things that they owned."

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The 465-year-old right hand and forearm istouring Canadian citiesduring January. The tourendsin Ottawa on Feb. 2.

It will be at St. Albert the Great Church in McKenzie Towne on Sunday and St. Michael Catholic Community in West Springs on Monday.

Manseau says this relic pilgrimage is significant.

"St. Francis Xavier was in many ways the first global saint," he said.

"Born in Europe in the 16th century, but had most of his career as a missionary, someone who is trying to spread the gospel around the world."

Authenticity not always possible, or the point

Not all relics are verifiable, Manseau says, but that's not always the point.

"It's known where it's been through the centuries since his death," Manseau said of St. Francis Xavier's arm.

"But it is the case with many relics that it simply cannot be known. The first relic I saw in person was purported to be the finger of St. John the Baptist, for example, and there was no way of tracing a relic to the first century. I think what is more important about them is not necessarily their authenticity, but recognizing that real or not, they have been the focus of people's faith for centuries."

Relics found in other faiths

And relics are not unique to the Catholic faith.

"You can find relics in Buddhism and Islam," Manseau explained.

"During my travels for my book Rag and Bone, I visited sites where they thought they had whiskers from the hair of the Prophet Mohammed's beard for example. This idea that you can hold onto the physical remains of holy people is very powerful and it really transcends individual religious traditions."

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With files from The Homestretch