Relics don’t need to be authentic in order to work; most of them, probably, are not. Unless, of course, St John the Baptist had lived five times, since there are five different heads around the world that are worshipped as if they were once part of his body.

Imagine what would happen if the body of St Mark, in San Marco’s Cathedral in Venice, was not actually St Mark’s body, but, rather, Alexander the Great’s. According to some, this is actually the case.

It is generally known that in a glass case, even a deer appendage can bear miracles to the faithful. A relic purported to be St Anthony’s arm relic was found to be nothing less than that.

In piazza Sordello, in front of a crowded audience, Mauro Orletti, author of Venerabili Resti dove into the stories of the Christian saints and what has derived from these tales. Objects left to posterity. Relics. A huge number of relics, each one stranger and more bogus than the previous one. His research moves around stories which, even if they are completely absurd, have been the subject of the faith of many.

(caricamento...)

With a healthy amount of cynicism and disillusionment, Mauro Orletti seeks to understand how this phenomenon, that discloses itself in the trade of relics, has been, and still is, a reality. In conclusion he found himself agreeing with Learco Pignagnoli, “Jesus Christ said: those who will believe in me, will never die. And so, in his time, he succeeded in making many believers. But if he had said: those who will believe in me, will die, of his believers he wouldn’t have had not a single one.”