Relics

Pope Leo XIV knelt in prayer at the tomb of St. Augustine June 20, returning to the basilica where he once guided the late Pope Benedict XVI as the leader of the Augustinian order, only this time as the first Augustinian pope in history.

In Winnipeg, relics are stepping back into the spotlight of Catholic life through the apostolate Sacra: Relics of the Saints, an initiative helping parishioners rediscover one of the Catholic faith’s most powerful, often-neglected treasures.

For the first time in eight centuries, the mortal remains of St. Francis of Assisi are being exposed for an extended period of public veneration, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world to pray before "the Little Poor Man of Assisi."

Fr. Elissandro Marcelo Caldas, the pastor of Toronto's St. Norbert’s Parish, received the unexpected honour to accompany a holy relic of St. Carlo Acutis from Assisi, Italy, to St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica.

Volunteers watching over the relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati gently placed items from the faithful on top of his casket to make a third-class relic for the visitors to the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, near Rome's Pantheon, one afternoon during the Jubilee of Youth.

Along one of Rome's busiest streets, Via del Corso, traffic moves slowly as hundreds of pilgrims crisscross traffic on foot to get to their destination.

The relics of two saints-to-be — Blesseds Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis — will be in Rome for veneration during the Jubilee of Youth July 28-Aug. 3, according to worldyouthday.com.

The Church of England is weighing plans to exhume and enshrine the head of St. Thomas More , the patron saint of statesmen and politicians, in time for the 500th anniversary of his 1535 martyrdom.

Their names may have faded from history books, but on May 31, the Church officially remembered them forever. In a solemn ceremony in Braniewo, northeastern Poland, 15 nuns from the Congregation of St. Catherine Virgin and Martyr, were beatified.

As Carlo Acutis completes his journey to canonization (postponsed from April 25-27 weekend due to the death of Pope Francis), a relic from the first millennial saint, and a display of his Eucharistic Miracles of the World exhibit, will be present in the Archdiocese of Toronto.