A Thinking Man

The relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century Roman Catholic nun, have arrived in Britain for a month-long tour of England and Wales.  A casket containing some of her bodily remains, which were preserved after her death from tuberculosis at 24 in 1897, has arrived in Kent.

For four weeks from 16 September, Thérèse’s hearse will criss-cross Britain, travelling from Portsmouth to Plymouth, from Manchester to Middlesbrough, from Leeds to Lancaster. At each venue – and there are 22 in all, including Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London – there will be services, and opportunities for both believers and the merely curious to pay their respects.

St Thérèse’s bodily remains are apparently top-notch! The word relic comes from the Latin reliquaiae, meaning remains. According to Church teaching, relics are classified according to how closely associated they were to a holy person: Thérèse’s relics, since they are body parts, are “first-class” relics. An item that a saint wore or used, such as a glove or veil, is a second-class relic, while an item he or she merely touched is a third-class relic.

St Thérèse was known for introducing the concept of The Little Way. She taught that a person did not need to execute acts of heroic virtue to lead a saintly life.

It’s this mixture of suffering and doubt, tragedy and difficulty, that make Thérèse a saint for our times, according to Father Michael McGoldrick, head of the Carmelite order in England and one of those who’ll be travelling the country with Thérèse’s remains next month. “I think she appeals to people because of her sheer normality. She was the product of a dysfunctional family, she had a tough time growing up, she found much of her life hard-going, and she had huge doubts. A lot of people relate to all that. She isn’t a saccharine saint, although I do think she’s been portrayed as one over the years. But now she’s being reassessed, and when the sugar coating is off people find they rather like Thérèse.”

I can understand why an apparently simple and ‘holy’ life in an ordinary person can appeal to religious types and why they may be interested in St Thérèse of Lisieux.  I can understand why some may wish to visit her place of birth and look at her memorabilia in a museum in an attempt to get closer to her reality.

What I simply cannot get my head round is why thousands will flock to touch the casket containing her remains, light candles, and say prayers, and why this story is being treated with seriousness and reverence which it doesn’t appear to merit.  Surely it deserves to be relegated to the ‘wacky’ and placed alongside stories about crop circles and pronouncements of the flat-earth society or holocaust deniers?

I can see two major problems with her magical mystery tour - one theological, and one rational.  The theological objections stem from the fact that the Protestant church has largely objected to the veneration of objects and images ever since they discovered the text of the 10 commandments prohibiting the worship of anyone or anything other than Yahweh.

In the Middle Ages and later it was the norm for pilgrims to travel to visit relics, which were highly lucrative for the institutions that possessed them and greatly sought after. I suppose that a church which venerates Mary to the extent that it does would have little trouble in bending the theology to accommodate the veneration of a box of bones.

My second problem is rational.  As I have said, I can understand an interest in a life, but why candles and prayers and the holy paraphernalia?  Will touching the box have any spiritual effect?  Will the candles achieve anything?  Will the prayers be any less ineffective because of being prayed to (very dodgy theologically) or in the presence of the box of bones?

Visiting Graceland because of an interest in Elvis Presley seems perfectly understandable.  Flocking to a casket said to contain his bones and expecting something supernatural to happen should be critically challenged by all sane people - not least if the vast expense of the tour could be spent much more effectively in promoting a cause.

I leave the final word to Matthew Parris who said it far more entertainingly and forcefully than I ever could:

For pity’s sake, closet atheists of Britain, come out! Don’t “respect” this credulous folly! Don’t let the madnesses of these faith minorities go by default! Stop our politicians kowtowing to nutters! Cease the embarrassed muttering about being “don’t knows” on religion, and shout it out. We do know! It isn’t true! All that is necessary for the triumph of religion is that disbelievers should do nothing. God speed to this ludicrous casket of bones; they have reminded me of an eternal truth: agnosticism is not enough.

Tags: agnosticism, atheism, Caremlite, Lancaster, Leeds, Lisieux, Manchester, Mary, Matthew Parris, Michael McGoldrick, Middlesborough, Plymouth, Protestant, relic, Roman Catholic, saint, St Thérèse, The Little Way, tuberculosis, veneration