Please pray for the innocent suffering people of Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, and Iran.
Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
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I had arrived on Crete and was staying in Heraklion overnight. I got up early and went around the corner to the Church of Saint Titus to say my prayers. 
There, in a side chapel, was a beautiful round case containing his skull..
I don’t remember what year this was – I’d have to look it up – but I had been Orthodox long enough that I wasn’t startled at finding someone’s head all by itself in church. So I said my morning prayers, venerated his head, then went around another corner to Starbuck’s to get a cup of coffee.
Let’s go back. Why am I talking about this today? Because May 15 is the feast of the Return of the Skull of the Apostle Titus to Crete. I know, that’s next Friday, but I want to talk about something else then.
The Apostle Titus was from Crete. I’m sure you know much of his story. He was in Jerusalem during the time of Christ, heard Him and believed. After the Resurrection He was present at Pentecost and, by the miracle of the Holy Spirit, heard the Apostles speaking in his own Cretan language. Acts 2:11 Saint Paul ordained him Bishop for Crete and later wrote to him the Epistle which bears his name. “To Titus, my true son…” Titus 1:4 Apparently for a time he was a missionary to Dalmatia (modernday Montenegro and Croatia): “Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia” 2 Timothy 4:10 But he returned homw and died in peace in Gortyna, then the capital city of Crete (now a ruin) at about age 94 on August 25 sometime around the year 100. August 25 is his major commemoration.
Saint Titus’ relics lay there until the Turkish invasion and occupation. Since Crete had been under Venetian control, in September 1669 his head * was removed to Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Venice for safekeeping.
- What became of the rest of his body no one seems to know.
And so things remained for nearly 300 years. Finally, after more years than you would believe of negotiation with the Vatican – “Our head!”, “No, our head!” – Saint Titus’ skull was returned to Crete on May 15,1966. Many hundreds of Orthodox Christians met his relic at the boat, and there was a hierarchical Divine Liturgy as his skull was returned ro Aghios Titos Cathedral.
A major civic celebration is held each year on May 15, processing the Holy Head of Saint Titus through the streets. (This is Greece, brothers and sisters, not the United States!)
Here are some pictures from 2023.
Another story:
I used to spend a lot of time on Crete. Two young friends of mine were visiting Heraklion very briefly, so I picked them up at their hotel, we went to Divine Liturgy at the cathedral (the place was packed, as usual), and after breakfast we went exploring. I couldn’t find the monastery I was looking for, so we just headed west on the New National Road. *
- If you ever plan to drive that road, please be extremely careful. It varies without warning from wide to narrow. You just start to relax, when a Mercedes passes you by at 90 mph, or right in your lane is a farm truck going 10 mph. You have been warned!
Back to the story: Looking at his GPS, Nick said, “There’s another monastery down this road. Let’s try this one.” So we did and drove several miles inland on an increasingly narrow road. When we arrived there, to our surprise there were cars parked all over, many families picnicking on the lawn, and a long line of people waiting to get into the church. We joined them. When we got in, we saw people venerating a round, bejeweled case. Elizabeth asked “What’s that they’re kissing?” I said “It’s got to be somebody’s head.” “Whose?” “We’ll never know”, said I, adding confidently “I’m sure nobody speaks English back here.” So Elizabeth asked a monk who answered in perfect English: “The head of Saint Panteleimon.” His head was on tour, visiting various churches around the Aegean, and all those people had come to venerate him. * Now, really, what were the chances we’d drive down a back road and find one the major saints from the early Church? I’ve been attached to Saint Panteleimon, that great healer, ever since and often ask his prayers.
- To repeat, that was Greece: a Sunday afternoon with the family, picnicking and venerating somebody’s Holy Head. Does anything like that ever happen over here? Maybe that’s what’s wrong with us.
And there were more: At Karakallou Monastery on Mount Athos, I venerated the heads of the Apostle Bartholomew and Saint Christopher *.
- Some scholars contend Christopher didn’t exist. How odd then that he had a head.
And one more important one: my dear Saint Nektarios. At his monastery on Aegina (I don’t pretend to understand the reason for this) his head is kept in one chapel, and some of the rest of his body in another chapel to the right. Many relics of Saint Nektarios are now in churches all around the world, including one small portion in our own Saint Nicholas in Cedarburg, where it is brought out for veneration on his annual feast day and for other times as appropriate.
Now, when I was an Anglican, all of this would have seemed bizarre, morose, tasteless. Anglicans do preserve the bodies (the full relics, the bones) of certain saints in their churches. Khouria Dianna and I have visited the Venerable Bede (whom I love dearly) and Saint Cuthbert (and enclosed with him the head of Saint Oswald * ) at Durham Cathedral.
- hurriedly taken there in the Ninth Century to preserve it from the Vikings
Likewise Saint Alban’s body in Saint Alban’s Cathedral, and Saint David’s, enshrined with beautiful icons behind it in Saint David’s Cathedral in the far west of Wales.
Now, maybe we just hit the wrong days, but at all three Church of England saints’ shrines, there was almost nobody around and even they didn’t seem to be praying. I think in one case, one could light a candle. Devotion to the saints – seeking their intercssions – is not part of the Anglican tradition.
By the way, I read that Martin Luther’s body is buried appropriately in front of the pulpit in All Saints’ Church (Schlosskirche) in Wittenberg, Germany, but Lutherans follow his teaching that devotion to the saints is idolatrous.
Anyway, Anglicans and Lutherans most definitely do not parade the heads of their holy ones around town!
Why are Orthodox so interested in relics of saints?
Let me tell you that as I first moved towards the Orthodox Church, I found this very strange. I had long believed in the intercession of the saints. But why this odd fascination with “pieces” of the saints? (Forgive me, but that’s how it seemed to me at the time.) When I became Orthodox, I knew that venerating relics was just part of Orthodoxy so I accepted it, but still it seemed foreign to me.
Now, Orthodox people grow up taking relics for granted. For example, I’ve seen a necklace with a relic of Saint I-don’t remember Who, and a tiny piece of the True Cross. As we were organizing our Saint Nicholas Church, Father Thomas Hopko (+ of thrice- blessed memory) sent us an icon of Saint Nicholas containing a small relic of Saint Nicholas. * A good priest-friend found for us that relic of Saint Nektarios.
- These are taken once a year from the body of Saint Nicholas, which lies in the crypt of San Nicola Basilica in Bari, Italy.
Why the Orthodox interest in relics? Some relics are said to be “miracle-working”. Pieces of bones don’t do healings, of course. God does healings. But just as He works through modern medicines, so also sometimes He works through relics of saints. I’ve wondered if some relics are “genuine”. * My conclusion: It doesn’t make any difference. God’s power isn’t limited. True devotion to the saint is passed through them, genuine or not.
- Believe it or not, there are sites online which sell “genuine” relics. Don’t go there.
Most important, relics also give us a physical connection with the saints. They were not shadowy figures from the past. They were real, are real. Here’s the bodily evidence.
In past Posts I’ve told you about my experiences with Saint Nektarios and Saint Nicholas, and how they became real and present to me. Of how Saint Nicholas founded our Saint Nicholas Church, Cedarburg, called it into being, and how he is our ever-present patron. We didn’t choose him. He chose us. That’s why, even in dark days, I’ve never worried – have not been able to worry – about the place. And in many ways he seems to have come through when we turned to him. One of our former treasurers coined the term “the Saint Nicholas factor” to explain why money just shows up when we need it, why we’ve never had an unpaid bill.
And how Saint Nektarios… well, that’s a long, rather funny story with a wonderful ending.
If you’re new to the Blog and don’t know about these stories, let me know.
I should add that the bodies (some incorrupt) of a number of Orthodox saints (North American and others) are venerated in places around this continent, with their small relics placed in most churches. For out altar table to be consecrated, we needed a little box embedded just beneath the surface containing a relic of Saint Nicholas, and there it was, already provided by Father Hopko.
Oh, I almost missed mentioning an important negative purpose of relics. We know that there are relics of almost all the saints of the earliest Church scattered about in many places. (Look up for yourself “relics of the apostles”.) Now, Jesus Christ was a human being. Almost no one doubts that. Some say His bodily Resurrection and Ascension were a myth. So… where (forgive me for even saying this) are the relics of Jesus’ Body? Of course, there are none – because He rose and ascended. And where are the relics of the Virgin Mary? One would think these would be preserved and venerated more than any other. But there are none, never have been. Evidence that she was taken bodily into Heaven.
Speaking for myself again, the veneration of relics (even of holy heads) has come to seem natural to me, helpful, a physical connection with the reality of the past, with the present reality of the saints in Heaven. When I think about that relic of Saint Nicholas within the altar table at our Saint Nicholas Church… there I stand, and within a few inches of me is Saint Nicholas himself. It makes me feel close to him, and grateful.
I guess I’m Orthodox now.
Next Week and the Week after Next: A repeat (slightly improved) of two Posts from nine years ago: The Story of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council