Sacred Vessels
Reliquaries
Reliquaries hold and honor the relics of the saints with fitting dignity, for veneration in church, chapel or oratory.
About this collection
About Reliquaries
A reliquary keeps a relic safe and lets the faithful venerate it. This collection offers reliquaries in polished and lacquered brass, most with a glass front, from small French-style reliquaries about six inches tall to Gothic relic shrines for larger or multiple relics. There are figural and angel designs, cross reliquaries, wall-hanging models, and pieces finished in gold or silver plate.
What to check
Compare the window or compartment size with the relic and its theca, and decide whether the reliquary will stand on an altar, rest in a shrine or hang on a wall. Most listings give the height, base and glass opening. For a relic that will be carried in procession or exposed on the altar, a larger shrine may be easier to see.
Listed prices currently run from about $140 to $3,795. Call or request a quote if you need help matching a reliquary to a relic. Freight is billed separately. See also our monstrances and luna custodials.
Reliquaries
In the Sacred Liturgy
A reliquary is a vessel made to hold a relic of a saint. A first-class relic is part of the saint's body, such as a fragment of bone; a second-class relic is something the saint owned or used; a third-class relic is an object touched to a first- or second-class relic. The faithful venerate relics but never worship them. They honor the saints, whose bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit, and ask for their prayers.
The veneration of relics goes back to the early Church, when Christians gathered at the tombs of the martyrs and celebrated Mass over them. A reliquary keeps a relic safe and displays it with honor, usually behind glass in a small sealed case called a theca. Relics may be exposed on an altar on the saint's feast day, or offered to the faithful to venerate.
Reliquaries take many forms: vessels on a stem like a small monstrance, Gothic shrines with spires and figures, crosses and caskets. Most are made of gilded or silvered metal.
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
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