For centuries, the Holy Roman Catholic Church has released relics to the faithful for private veneration. This was always combined with the sale of a reliquary, which was a way to finance the high expenses of a beatification/canonization process or to raise funds for a charity. You still find reliquaries with relics for sale e.g. at the gift shop of the Passionist Fathers at the Scala Santa, which, although at the Lateran, officially belongs to the Vatican State territory. Also until a few years ago, reliquaries with relics were given out at the Convent of St. Lucy in the Via di Selci near the Colosseum. The prices ranged from about 30 Dollars for a simple up to 250 Dollars for an elaborate reliquary. In Rome, the Pope's city, antique reliquaries are sold e.g. on the Via del Coronari, the old pilgrim's way to St. Peter's, without any objection from the Church officials. Actually several shops are regularly frequented by priests and bishops who buy pieces for their private collection and often established a long friendship with the antique dealers.

I personally consulted a Doctor of the Canon Law who advised the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (Holy Office), since there is some misunderstanding re. § 1190 of the CIC: "It is forbidden to sell Holy Relics." This, according to all experts on the Canon Law he asked, neither forbids the sale of reliquaries which already are on the profane market, nor does it forbid anyone to buy a reliquary with the intention to protect the relic inside from any further profanization, which actually would be nothing but a good deed.

No paragraph, no statement in the canon law forbids the possession and veneration of relics by the faithful or states that the faithful should not own or buy relics or reliquaries. Therefore, it is definitely NOT prohibited by the Canon Law to buy a reliquary or even a relic. Indeed, even a saint like King Louis IX of France ("Saint Louis") bought all relics he housed in the Sainte Chapelle of Paris from the Emperor of Constantinople and neither he nor the Emperor were ever critizised for this by the Church. It was understood by everyone that the Emperor was in need and took care that the relics were transferred to a worthy person, and actually bishops even handled the transaction, which took place with their full consent and blessing.

If a dealer points out that he just offers an antique reliquary and if he gives the relic inside for free (as a gift), he does not act against the Canon Law, since the financial transaction refers exclusively to the reliquary, the "container" of the relic.

Even more confusing is the use of the term "Simony" by certain lays who critizise the sale of reliquaries on Ebay. "Simony" is defined as "the exchange of supernatural treasures for temporal advantages" (Catholic Encyclopedia), but a reliquary is, of course, a material, temporal object and therefore can be sold "for temporal advantages". E.g. you can sell a Papal Blessing just as a document or as an autograph of a historical personality; the blessing itself, of course, cannot be sold. (Actually everyone who visits Rome can buy a document in one of the gift shops around the Vatican, and the shop owner arranges that it becomes an official Papal blessing, sealed and signed by Archbishop Rizzato, The "Elemosynarius Apostolicus" on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Of course the document was sold, the blessing is for free! In the Canon Law, usually "simony" is defined in the relation between clergy and laiety, therefore it is questionable if a lay (e.g. an antique dealer) can be guilty of simony at all; most experts in Canon Law I spoke to flatly deny this. The principle behind it is that "what was received for free should be given for free"; therefore e.g. it is wrong to sell freely distributed relic cards or Papal rosaries. But reliquaries are generally sold, even by the Church, are pieces of art and craft, some of them historical treasures, and most of them were already on the antique market when your Ebay seller finds them, buys them and sells them to his customers - most certainly none of them was "received for free". To retrieve them from flea markets and the humid dark vaults of closed-down religious houses to make them available for the faithful and inspire private devotion to Our Lord, Our Lady and the Saints is certainly something good and laudable. On the other hand, the misinformation of the faithful and the spread of doubt and guilt certainly is a grave sin.

Actually KLUX 89.5 FM, an American Catholic Radio Station run by the Diocese of Corpus Christi, was asked by a listener who saw a reliquary on Ebay and was worried if he commits a sin when he buys it. This is what their expert on Canon Law, a Padre, replied:

"What you are really bidding on is the art work that the relic is contained in not the relic itself. Pieces of saints really have no resale value in the secular world, where as antique boxes and reliquaries do. The prohibition in canon law is to prevent unscrupulous clerics from selling sacred relics for personal gain - which sadly has happened over the centuries.

When it comes to relics of Saints what is being offered for sale is usually the reliquary not the relic itself. Among collectors the value of the sale is the container not the relic itself. I have a personal friend who for years has been "rescuing" religious relics and altar pieces which often times include the altar stone and relic contained there in. Some he keeps for his own personal devotion others he donates to churches and other places of public worship.

Since you have no intention of selling the relic for personal gain and are not acquiring it for the same you commit no sin. And there is no sin in buying a beautiful box or reliquary."

Still, the self-acclaimed "International Crusade for Holy Relics USA" called even for a boycott of Ebay, just because here, as on every Antique Market in Europe, reliquaries are sold, mostly with the original relics still inside. Unfortunately many who listened to the ICHRusa statements ignore that this campaign is in no way officially affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.  It´s a private initiative of a private person, Mr. Thomas Serafin, who is not even a priest or a religious, but a layman. He has, of course, any right to believe or to do or to claim in whatever he wants, but he does not act as a representive of the Church.

When he claims on his website that his initiative  "awarded (him) the honor of being Knighted in; the Order of Immaculate Conception of Vila Vicosa, Knight Commander of St. Michael of the Wing by HRH Dom Duarte Braganca, and the Imperial Order of the Dragon of Annam as Liasion to HIH Prince Buu Chanh of Vietnam for Relics of Vietnamese Catholic Saints" we are impressed on the first view, but we have to remember that none of these is a chivalric order recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Only his "Apostolate of Holy Relics" with the intention to educate the faithful on the history and veneration of relics, was recognized as a private initiative ("Apostolate") by the Archdiocesis of Los Angeles. And according to his own "confession", Mr. Serafin is a relic collector himself and exhibitis "relics from his private collection". I wonder how he received them, if he did not himself buy, at least, the reliquaries.

I certainly agree with Mr. Serafin that it is, by all means, necessary to ensure a responsible handling of, in general, the trade with religious items and to ensure that spiritual objects find the proper veneration. Indeed, to sell a reliquary with a relic inside to a devoted person very often is a way to prevent further profanization; many reliquaries were taken out of the store rooms of closed down monasteries or the hands of heirs who do not care for them at all and found, via Ebay, new appreciation and a revitalized veneration. If you see how reliquaries can often be found, together with hundreds of profane objects, in the boxes of dealers on European flee markets, the way how they are offered on Ebay, with detailed descriptions to ensure that the buyer gets an idea that indeed he just won a spiritual treasure, is the far better alternative. Ebay is a way to SAVE relics from further profanisation.

I would only like to remind all Ebay sellers who offer reliquaries to make sure that they just offer the reliquaries, not the relics, to handle them with respect, ensure that they cme into the hands of devout Catholics and use at least a great part of their profit for a charity. They deserve integrity, respect and veneration - but certainly no hysterical crusade!

Michael Hesemann, CSC

Historian, Author