Treasures From Our Tradition
When an altar is dedicated, the Rite of Dedication directs that, if possible, the relics of a martyr be mortared into the church floor under the mensa, or “altar table”. Up until this revised rite, the general practice was to include small relics of saints in an altar stone, a slab of marble that was normally set in the altar itself. Today’s rite states a clear preference for “martyr” and for a substantial part of the body, in accord with our tradition’s desire for substantial symbols. Martyr, of course, means “witness” in Greek, and was the title given early on to the people who by their death imaged the death of Christ.
From the beginning, there has never been a shortage of such people, although it took a while for the Church to develop a process to declare someone a martyr. Saint Augustine tells how it was done in the fifth century. By then, popular opinion didn’t count as much as an official tribunal set up by the bishop of the place where the martyr suffered. After the inquiry established that the person did indeed die for the faith, a metropolitan bishop had to ratify the decision before a shrine could be built or an altar set up over the martyr’s tomb. For the most part, the honor paid to a martyr ( called a “cult”) was restricted to that diocese, although the fame of some heroes spread so much that they were celebrated elsewhere. The age of the martyrs is now, and more people died for the faith in the twentieth century than ever before, witnessing to Christ to the end. Their sacrifice remains “the seed of the Church”.
-Rev. James Field, Copyright J. S. Poluck Co.