A few years ago I dropped by one of my favorite places in Edmonton, the Antique Mall.
When you live in a young country, and you had been raised in an old one, you crave even the very touch of objects that carry at least 200 years on their back. Visit to the Antique Mall is like a cure for inevitable nostalgia of an aging European.
The big store has its furniture section with lovely old tables and oak beds, full dining room sets and bedrooms, followed by a section where small objects are offered – from china cups and silverware, to pictures, old colonial fans, embroidered tablecloths, and a medley of odds and ends. Most are nicely labeled and dated.
As I was browsing through these, I noticed three small decorated oval containers. I picked one and had a closer look. I could not believe my eyes – these were reliquaries removed from their stands. One contained a fragment of a bone of Pope Gregory the Great, Pastor Pastorum, the other of St Boniface…
I sought out the attendant and asked where these unusual objects came from..
“‘Fluminalis’ in Netherlands sells these” – said the lady. They sell stuff from the churches which are being closed in Western Europe. Some Dutch art, some French, mostly 19th century. Altars, monstrances, chalices, statues, kneelers..you name it.
-Also reliquaries with remains of saints like these – and even fragments of true Cross. Most are certified.
You, my reader can check the truth of my words if you go on the Fuminalis.com website. Check it out, weep and pray.
I may have committed a sin buying these three small containers on that day, but I could not leave them in the store. It would have been worse than leaving remains of my own mother in a MacDonalds on the table.
It hurt too much. Later, I gave them to our bishop into his safekeeping.
I still think about those great saints whose relicts I held in my hands on that day – one who saved ancient Rome, the other who evangelized Europe. I studied their lives and now I know what we miss… what we have lost.
Many generations came to the churches which were now dark and empty – if they stand at all – to venerate their relics, now homeless. Many graces were granted through these saints’ intercession. Holiness of the great saints of Europe protected the continent from evil, I have no doubt of it.
For years, whenever I read the words of Jesus: “And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God” I was sure He was speaking about us, coming to Him – versus the Chosen People who rejected Him.
Now I know the tragic story is repeating itself on our very eyes.
Now I beg that He has mercy on our lack of faith, our historic betrayal of continent’s baptismal promises.. and guides the blind and sinful Europe.
“… strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed”.
Maria Kozakiewicz