Eric Lavin inside Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in front of a case holding numerous holy relics.
To be in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the Ironbound section of Newark is to be surrounded by relics of the holy men and women of the Catholic Church.
These relics include a fragment of a veil once worn by Mary, mother of Jesus, bones of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Gregory, a piece of Mother Cabrini’s heart, and a sliver of the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified. In all, there are more than 600 relics inside the church.
The curator of this collection is Eric Lavin, a 30-year-old, recently engaged, public school Italian teacher.
Lavin, who lives in nearby North Arlington and teaches at James Caldwell High School, has been a lifelong parishioner at Mount Carmel. His parents and brothers and sisters are not particularly religious but his grandmother was and when he was young his favorite thing to do was visit her and her favorite thing to do was to go to church.
There was a monsignor in charge of the church at the time who was interested in relics and that seems to have sparked his interest.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel was built in 1955 to serve the city’s expanding population of Italian immigrants. It was built in the Lombard style, which is an architectural style from Northern Italy characterized by thick walls, small windows, and the use of Lombard bands, or rhythmic ornamental blind arches, on the exterior. It emerged in the 10th and 11th centuries and is recognized by its robust structure and a lack of exterior sculpture, often featuring richly painted frescoes inside.
“The parish still has an Italian mass,” Lavin said. “We still maintain that custom, those traditions.”
Lavin, who serves as a pastoral associate and financial manager of the church, is an expert on relics and he acquired almost all that are in the church.
There are three types or relics:
• A first-class relic is a part of a saint’s body, such as a bone or hair.
• A second-class relic is something the saint owned or frequently used, like a piece of clothing or a book.
• A third-class relic is an object that has been touched to a first or second-class relic.
The piece of the veil that Mary wore comes from a larger piece that is located in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres, located in the city of Chartres, France. This relic, also known as the Sancta Camisia, is considered one of the cathedral’s most precious items.
Another relic belonged to Edith Stein, a woman who was born Jewish, became a scholar, served for a time as a nurse during World War I, before converting to Catholicism, becoming an advocate for women’s issues and a Carmelite nun. She was however arrested by the Gestapo in Germany, sent to Auschwitz and killed. Because of the means of her death, there are only second and third class relics.
Canon law, which is the rules or laws that govern the Roman Catholic Church, dictates how relics should be treated. They can not be bought or sold and should definitely not be stolen.
“It is a great sin to sell a relic,” Lavin said.
Lavin acquires the relics by contacting the keepers of the whole relic and often asks friends to help transport the items. He will send a small donation to the organization in thanks for a relic, he said.
There are fake relics out there and Lavin has become good at sniffing them out.
“For as long as there have been relics, there have been frauds,” he said.
Legitimate relics come with certificates of authenticity.
“You can track their provenance, from where their relic is from,” he said.
Relics are not to be hoarded, nor are they to be displayed in private homes.
“They should be on display for devotion, according to Canon Law,” Lavin said. “Mount Carmel has given me a chance to display them because they should not be hoarded.”
The relics are kept in reliquaries, which protect, display, and honor them. The reliquaries are displayed around the church, many in cabinets, with accompanying information about them. Lavin plans to put up QR codes that will allow the faithful to find out more about the person behind the relic.
“It brings knowledge, awareness and devotion,” he said. “Displaying them gives a chance to tell the story, to learn about the individual.”
Relics are a way of keeping a connection with another person.
“I’m sure some people keep their grandfather’s chair, or something, to keep that connection,” Lavin said.
Lavin occasionally loans out some of the collection to people going through a hard time.
“It gives people a spiritual crutch to get through a hard time,” he said.
Among the saints with relics in the church are:
• St. Gerard, who is the patron of expectant mothers. Born in 1726 in Muro, Italy, he is credited with several miracles including restoring a boy’s life after he fell from a high cliff; blessing a poor farmer’s crops, ridding them of mice; blessing a poor family’s supply of wheat, causing it to last until the next harvest; and he multiplied bread for the poor on several occasions.
• St. Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary.
• St. Gregory the Great, who wrote “Pastoral Care,” and is venerated for his contributions to church music, particularly in promoting the form of liturgical chant that bears his name, “Gregorian Chant.” He is the patron saint of singers and musicians, which is particularly noteworthy as Mount Carmel was the first parish of the singer Connie Francis, who is known for her strong Catholic faith.
• There’s a piece of the coffin of Saint Damian of Hawaii, also known as Saint Damian de Veuster, who was a Belgian Catholic priest who devoted his life to caring for people with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) in the leper colony in Kalaupapa, Molokai. He eventually died of the disease in 1889. He is the patron saint of the Diocese of Honolulu and the state of Hawaii.
• There’s a piece of Mother Cabrini’s heart and bone. She personally visited the parish, though at its Ferry Street location, in 1899. She opened the first parochial school in New Jersey and ministered and educated Italian Americans.
• There’s also a piece of St. Rita of Cascia, who lived in the 1400s and is known as the patron saint of the impossible and absurd.
• There’s a piece of John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene and also a piece of the purple cloak that Jesus wore when he was mocked before his crucifixion.
• A bone of St. Anthony of Padua.
• A bone of St. Theressa.
• An entire skull cap worn by Pope Pius IX in the 1800s.
• There is a piece of cloth with the blood of Padre Pio, who is the most prayed to saint in Italy. Padre Pio was a priest. He was hearing confessions one day when he felt pain in his hands and feet and noticed the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, appearing on his hands and feet. The experience was painful and bleeding occurred but the wounds were said to smell of roses and while they continued to bleed, they never became infected and had a perfect round shape.
The stigmata appeared in 1916 and Padre Pio became popular with the people he encountered and soon they began to attribute supernatural occurrences to him. For example, he was said to levitate, and able to perform miracles. His popularity became a source of concern for the Church and so his activities were restricted until the 1930s when he was allowed to preach again. In 1947, Fr. Karol Wojtyla visited Padre Pio and was told by Padre Pio that he would rise to the highest post in the Church. Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II in 1978. Padre Pio died in 1968.
“It’s really a hidden jewel,” said Sean Quinn, a spokesman for the Diocese. “People should come see them on display.”
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