VATICAN CITY -- As Advent approached, Pope Francis gave a small fragment of Jesus' crib back to Catholics in the Holy Land.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis said giving fragments of St. Peter's bones to the head of the church founded by Peter's brother, St. Andrew, was meant to be a reminder and encouragement of the journey toward Christian unity.

A major relic of St. Brother André is making its first appearance outside Quebec later this month as a precursor to a major tour planned for the 10th anniversary of the canonization of the Canadian saint.

VATICAN CITY -- In what Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople described as a "brave and bold" gesture, Pope Francis gave the patriarch a famous reliquary containing bone fragments believed to belong to St. Peter.

VATICAN – Pope Francis and many people attending the canonization Mass in St. Peter's Square were alive when St. Paul VI and St. Oscar Romero were alive, but the new saints' relics and those of five other people canonized Oct. 14 still were present at the Mass as reminders that the saints were flesh-and-blood people who lived holy lives.

Fr. Louis Mousseau was a 21-year-old seminarian with the Capuchin Friars when he met 81-year-old St. Padre Pio in 1968, just three months before the death of the legendary priest. 

LONDON, England – London waste company discovers relic of St Clement in the trash

The London diocese calls it “relicmania.”

VATICAN – Only relics that have been certified as authentic can be exposed for veneration by the faithful, said a new Vatican instruction.

Fr. Carlos Martins has seen it all.

BERGAMO, Italy – The Diocese of Bergamo announced yesterday that next year the body of St. John XXIII will return to the city, his native diocese, for a visit expected to last about two weeks.

VATICAN CITY – Common veneration of relics is one of the tools Pope Francis is using to foster ecumenical relations with the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

VICTORIA, British Columbia – When Father Marinaldo Batista asked for relics of Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the three children to whom Mary appeared in Fatima in 1917, he had no idea they would be canonized in 2017. He simply thought it would be a fitting way for the parish he pastors, Our Lady of Fatima in Victoria, to commemorate the centennial of the Marian apparitions.

While Pope Francis and countless thousands of Catholics flock to Portugal this week to celebrate one of the most famous Marian devotions in the world, a little piece of Fatima can be found in the Archdiocese of Toronto.

BURLINGTON, ONT. - It can be dangerous to say so, but there is no real proof that the Shroud of Turin is authentic. Even the Vatican has never pronounced itself on the authenticity of the world’s most famous piece of linen.

There’s no historical record of it before 1390. Skeptics ask what are the odds that for more than 1,000 years Christians ignored the existence of an image that accurately records Jesus’ likeness at the time of His crucifixion?

In the 14th century there was an enormous industry which produced, bought and sold relics. There were, of course, genuine relics. But the real thing could never possibly satisfy demand for ever more, and ever more dramatic, remembrances of holiness. A shroud somehow recovered from the empty tomb of Jesus — like all the vials of precious blood, and the many, many nails from Jesus’ cross — would surely have been a money maker.