The other kind of altars were detached from the wall, used as places of worship in the catacombs and in churches erected above ground after the time of Constantine. Those consisted of a slab of stone or marble resting on columns or on a masonry structure that enclosed relics of martyrs. 

 

In private oratories, the New Advent website adds, altars were sometimes made of wood on a wooden support and “within this support were placed the relics of martyrs, and in order to be able to expose them to view, folding doors were fixed in the front.”

 

It adds that for centuries “Mass may (have been) celebrated outside a sacred place, but never without an altar, or at least an altar stone. In ecclesiastical history we find only two exceptions: St. Lucian (312) is said to have celebrated Mass on his breast whilst in prison, and Theodore Bishop of Tyre on the hands of his deacons.”

 

An article by David Farley at slate.com and a Google site both note that relics became ingrained in Catholic Church orthodoxy at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 when Church authorities passed a law stating that every church should have a relic at its altar.

 

One description of the idea of altar stones comes from the Catholic Spirit website in an article by Susan Klemond. “Before Vatican II, the altar stone was really the altar,” she quotes Thomas Fisch, associate professor of sacramental theology and liturgy at St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul. He adds, “When you had a wooden table or a wooden altar against the wall, the altar stone was always consecrated. The priest would kiss the altar stone and place the gifts on it. Most people didn’t think about it that way, but fundamentally that’s what it was.”

 

Last century changes 

 

Farley’s article explains how “ever since the reforms of Vatican II in the early 1960s, relic veneration has virtually disappeared from the official landscape of Catholicism, particularly in the United States. 

 

“Relics weren’t actually mentioned during the three-year council, but Church leaders did address the way new churches should be designed. By the time Vatican II was over, iconography was out in favor of a lighter, more airy atmosphere, uncluttered by images and, apparently, relics. 

 

“In 1969, the Church officially laid to rest the 787 ruling at Nicaea by no longer requiring Catholic churches to possess a holy remnant at their altars.”

 

Farley rather humorous says, “Though holy relics may still have their place in modern spirituality, they represent a time when saints were posthumous medieval rock stars, pilgrims their devout groupies and monks their roadies…

 

“For the faithful, praying to a saint’s relic was like a direct line to saints who acted as intercessors for God, VIP residents of heaven who could cause miracles and help prayers be answered.”

 

In her article, Klemond notes that her source, Thomas Fisch, says that during Vatican II the Council fathers changed the requirement that altars contain relics or altar stones as they sought to preserve, improve and reform the Sacred Liturgy. They advocated for the altar to be viewed as a table and as a place of sacrifice. They retained the custom of placing relics under altars if their authenticity was verified. 

 

“The Council clarified, and said, yes, relics are important, we should honor them, and this is a noble custom, but it should be a recognizable part of the human body and not some dust that someone gathered out of a crypt in the catacombs,’” Fisch said.

 

The same article says that according to the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar, relics still play a role: “For it is altogether proper to erect altars over the burial place of martyrs and other saints or to deposit their relics beneath altars as a mark of respect and as a symbol of the truth that the sacrifice of the members has its source in the sacrifice of the Head (Jesus).” 

 

Relics galore

 

The Church has a system in place for classifying relics: A first-class relic is a body part of a saint; a second-class relic is a saint’s possession; a third-class relic is an object that had touched a first-class relic; and a fourth-class relic — the least valuable but the easiest to produce — is an object that had touched a second-class relic.

 

Relics have long been collected, sometime obsessively. Slate.com states: “There were also private relic collections in the Middle Ages. Charlemagne, as pious as he was powerful, had a vast collection of relics … Charles IV, the 14th-century Holy Roman emperor, held an annual relics show at his home base in Prague to show off his collection … A couple of centuries later, Renaissance Prince Albrecht of Brandenburg had a stock of saintly remains so huge that a tireless pilgrim could have accrued a remission from purgatory of 39,245,120 years.”

 

Relics, some of which do not include the evidence of their authenticity, can be found online. A quick search of the Internet also turned up a few altar stones for sale, mixed in with some ads for new age-y crystals and rocks.

 

One company in northern Idaho called St. Joseph’s Apprentice makes wooden altars and is a proponent of altar stones.

 

“Part of our mission statement here at St. Joseph’s Apprentice is to put as many altar stones back into the service of Our Lord as we can,” says the website. “Of the 300-plus altars I have built thus far, probably 95% have altar stones. Many of these stones are from the basements of churches or backrooms in rectories.”

 

It adds, “Because it was so hard to find suitable altar stones, with much discussion and encouragement of several priests, I started making simple altar stones with empty sepulchers. These altar stones are not consecrated, so a priest will either have to get permission from his Diocesan Offices (Bishop) to consecrate his own stone, or he will have to ask his Bishop to consecrate it himself. I am also willing to sell my altar stones to those priests who only want a stone, not a complete altar.”

 

An altar stone story

 

St. Joseph Church in Aurora recently devoted a full page of its bulletin to “The Relics in the Altar Stone of St. Joseph Church.”

 

It includes a brief description of the 1954 groundbreaking and of the April 11, 1957 consecration of the main altar by Bishop Loras T. Lane. Bishop Lane returned on May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, to dedicate the church and place the relics of St. Beata and St. Amadeo in the mensa (Latin for ‘table’) of the altar. It also explained that St. Beata of Ribnitz (died 1399) was a Poor Clare nun of the monastery in Mecklenburg, Germany. St. Amadeo was one of the Seven Founders of the Servants of Mary (Servites) in 1233, in Florence, Italy.