DEVOTION / RELICS
Clothes and belongings of St. John Vianney
Summary
Second-class relics. St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, left a cassock, furniture, and other things he used in the parish where he heard confessions for decades. The 2001 Directory treats such personal objects as relics. They are second-class: they belonged to the saint, but they are not his body. At Ars they sit beside a different relic that often goes on pilgrimage, his heart, which is first-class. A church tour that shows "the Curé's relic" may be showing either. The class follows the object, not the fame of the saint. In both cases the honor is veneration, not worship, and the objects may not be sold.
Cassock, furnishings, and other objects the Curé of Ars used are second-class relics. His heart, which often travels, is first-class because it is part of his body. This entry is about the second-class objects, and names the heart so the two are not confused.
Sources
Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy 236
Personal objects and clothes of the saints are relics.
Relics in the Church, Authenticity and Preservation (8 December 2017), Introduction
The body or a notable part is a significant relic; objects that touched the person are non-significant relics.
Sanctuaire d'Ars
Shrine that keeps the Curé's body, heart, and personal effects.
Source fidelity
Moderate source match. The Church’s teaching stands on its own authority. This meter only grades how faithfully Catholic Context restates the cited source.
Uses Directory 236 on personal objects and the 2017 distinction between the body (significant) and objects of use (non-significant) to keep the heart and the cassock in different classes.
- Theological review pending.
Notes
Draft. If a visiting reliquary is announced as "the heart of the Curé of Ars," that object is first-class. The worn cassock in the Ars museum rooms is second-class.
Presence here does not imply completed theological review.
Related Context
Provenance
- Review state
- DRAFT — THEOLOGICAL REVIEW PENDING
- Reviewer
- Not yet assigned
- Review date
- Pending
- Canonical file
- context/devotion/relics/st-john-vianney.yaml ↗
- Revision history
- View on GitHub ↗