Apostolic Traditions or small 't' traditions?

ArmyMatt said:

no, the relics are from the saint. I was given some from St Alexis Toth when his reliquary was opened.

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That's not exactly what she said. When I was at Hermitage of the Holy Cross I saw a couple different ways of recieving relics. One is through other clergy, one is through lay donation. Another is taking them off the hands of Roman Catholic parishes. Oftentimes RCC parishes and Anglican will donate relics to such places on their parish closure. How are we to know if the RCC's relics are 100% legitimate, or the layersons.

☦Marius☦ said:

That's not exactly what she said. When I was at Hermitage of the Holy Cross I saw a couple different ways of recieving relics. One is through other clergy, one is through lay donation. Another is taking them off the hands of Roman Catholic parishes. Oftentimes RCC parishes and Anglican will donate relics to such places on their parish closure. How are we to know if the RCC's relics are 100% legitimate, or the layersons.

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what reason is there to doubt their authenticity?

trulytheone said:

Some of the Roman Catholic Church's relics include two "Holy Prepuces". This fact made me ask if the Easter. Orthodox has the same conundrum.

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I’ve never heard of that before now (the Holy Prepuces). I am not aware of a similar situation in Orthodoxy.

A side note - Honestly, I would have a hard time venerating prepuces...

ArmyMatt said:

what reason is there to doubt their authenticity?

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It just depends on the person. Some people have skeptical personalities and are likely to have doubts eats them about everything. It helps if they don't get told that they aren't being Orthodox just because they have some doubts about the authenticity of 100% of Church relics.

I myself don't really worry about things like that anymore ,but it doesn't mean when I see a splinter from the True Cross I get a little doubtful. How many splinters can their possibly be in the world? Etc.. However I just venerate prayerfully and move on with my day.

trulytheone said:

Does an Eastern Orthodox have to believe that the belt puportedly from the Virgin really came from the Virgin?

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Given the constant stream of miracles associated with it, I don't see a reason to doubt it.

trulytheone said:

Some of the Roman Catholic Church's relics include two "Holy Prepuces". This fact made me ask if the Eastern Orthodox has the same conundrum.

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well, something like that is Rome's problem. just because they have wacky relics doesn't mean that we do.

☦Marius☦ said:

It just depends on the person. Some people have skeptical personalities and are likely to have doubts eats them about everything. It helps if they don't get told that they aren't being Orthodox just because they have some doubts about the authenticity of 100% of Church relics.

I myself don't really worry about things like that anymore ,but it doesn't mean when I see a splinter from the True Cross I get a little doubtful. How many splinters can their possibly be in the world? Etc.. However I just venerate prayerfully and move on with my day.

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well, typically relics of something like the true cross come with healings and miracles, and have for centuries.

and if folks have doubts, so what? doubt isn't a bad thing because it can lead to deeper faith. let them doubt, prayerfully venerate, and move on. nothing wrong about that.

trulytheone said:

So, if a scholarly researcher were to disprove a relic, concluding that the relic couldn't possibly be from the saint it's purportedly from because the age is off for many centuries, do the Eastern Orthodox have to lose sleep over it? Or could they defend its veneration by stating that the object treated as a relic still is one of the means by which God works His miracles and that the object could be treated like an icon, instead of a relic?

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probably all of the above. would we lose sleep? probably not. would it still be venerated as an unknown saint? maybe.

If God does miracles through a relic ... then it seems to me it could still be venerated as obviously the relic of A Saint. We might not know which Saint. Aren't there relics that were discovered to be miraculous without knowing who they were from? And it didn't matter, but I understand sometimes it was revealed in a dream.

The identity in human terms isn't what matters most though, is it? It is through the miracles after a person's death that someone is identified as a Saint, so isn't what really matters the grace of God? Everything about the Saints from the Theotokos to the least known of them - or unknown ones - points us to God ... so isn't the grace and miracles of God what matters, not quibbling over whether we've got them rightly identified?

All4Christ said:

I’ve never heard of that before now (the Holy Prepuces). I am not aware of a similar situation in Orthodoxy.

A side note - Honestly, I would have a hard time venerating prepuces...

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Agreed on all counts.

ArmyMatt said:

well, typically relics of something like the true cross come with healings and miracles, and have for centuries.

and if folks have doubts, so what? doubt isn't a bad thing because it can lead to deeper faith. let them doubt, prayerfully venerate, and move on. nothing wrong about that.

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Thats pretty much exactly what I said father

trulytheone said:

So, if a scholarly researcher were to disprove a relic, concluding that the relic couldn't possibly be from the saint it's purportedly from because the age is off for many centuries, do the Eastern Orthodox have to lose sleep over it? Or could they defend its veneration by stating that the object treated as a relic still is one of the means by which God works His miracles and that the object could be treated like an icon, instead of a relic?

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Usually the research is done early on. The Church has specialized people for this, same as miracle working Icons, etc.