Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!husc6!ut-sally!seismo!umcp-cs!prometheus!pmk
From: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M Koloc)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: the passion vs. the teachings
Message-ID: <254@prometheus.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 20-Sep-86 03:58:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: promethe.254
Posted: Sat Sep 20 03:58:06 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Sep-86 02:25:01 EDT
References: <1082@hoptoad.uucp> <27800002@uicsrd>
Reply-To: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M Koloc)
Organization: Prometheus II, Ltd., College Park, MD 20740-0222
Lines: 27

In article <27800002@uicsrd> sguarna@uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU writes:
>
>Just an inquiry....when and where does the practice of "corpse worship"
>occur in the Catholic tradition?
>sue
The tradition is the ONLY GOD is worshiped but  Saints are
"honored", something like we honor the unknown soldier.  The 
Catholics used to practice their religion in the sewers of Rome 
because of persecution and would bury their dead there as well.  
Then the churches were built over the top of this "underground 
catacombs" and they continued to bury bodies in the "basement of 
the church".

Some of these early Saints really had some terrific power so they
when they died people still thought that "touching" their dead 
bodies might still have healing power for them.  Of course, some were
healed (maybe from the mold) and so the next thing that happened
is that everybody wanted to touch a piece of that particular set
of bones.  So to keep them from being lost and "rubbed out" of 
existence they were embedded in stone, and stored in the safest 
place which was the holy sanctuary of the altar.  

Soon  Churches with a particular Saint's name had to have a piece
of that Saint in its alter stone and then to make sure that there
wasn't a slip up, they included the relics from a number of other
Saints just to make sure they had some body's bones whose soul
had made the transformation to "harp player".