What Does “Relic” Mean in the Bible?
What remains of a saint’s body, or something the saint used. It is kept with respect, not worshiped.
It can mean
- Two kinds: the body of a saint or a part of it, and the things the saint used.
- In the altar: it is the custom to place relics of saints beneath an altar that is being dedicated.
- In the Bible: a dead man came back to life when he touched the bones of the prophet Elisha. And cloths that Paul had touched healed the sick.
Where it appears in the Bible
2 Kings 13:21; Acts 19:12
What the Bible says
2 Kings 13:21
And some that were burying a man, saw the rovers, and cast the body into the sepulchre of Eliseus. And when it had touched the bones of Eliseus, the man came to life, and stood upon his feet.
Acts 19:12
So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catechism 1674; Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, 236-237; RAE, “reliquia”