At the Basilica San Antonio, people were queuing up just to touch the side of Saint Anthony's tomb. There in a special chapel, displayed in jewelled glass cases were his preserved tongue and the cartilage from his larynx.
St Anthony is the patron saint of lost things so I may have appealed to him myself on the odd occasion, but this reverence for earthly remains is foreign to me.
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| A no-entry sign ensuring that people approach the tomb of St Anthony from the correct direction. |
Then we went next door to the Oratorio San Giorgio and I saw something else that challenged my perspective. The vivid fifteenth century frescoes showed the lives of St George (beheaded for his faith), St Catherine (beheaded following torture on a wheel), and St Lucia (also tortured before being stabbed to death by a madman).
Some theologians today point to Jesus as the wellspring of earthly wealth and health. But that certainly was not the deal that early Christians were signing up to. No doubt, anybody who took up the Christian faith was confident they would spend eternity with their God in Heaven. However, they faced up enormously bravely to torture and death in this world.
I still find no comfort in revering the corpses of saints, but I admire utterly the courage and faith of those early martyrs.
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| Basilica San Antonio, left. Oratorio San Giorgio, right. |
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