Relic Mystery Solved!

 

In March of 2020 two staff members were packing up file cabinets in the pastor's office in preparation for the staff moving into new offices. At one point one of the employees found a simple white envelope in a hanging folder that had not been looked at in at least twenty years. Written in pencil on the envelope was one simple word: “Relics.”  They looked at one another wondering if the envelope might contain the answer to a long-time mystery in the parish.

 

In the early 2000s when the current church was being built the relics from the original church’s altar were removed. They contained no information on what saint it was! We searched for documentation. The Archdiocese was drafted to help. No one could find out what saint was in the altar at OLA.

 

When the new church was dedicated, the unknown saint was placed in the base of the altar directly under the cross that you see below. A relic of Marist Saint Peter Chanel, courtesy of former pastor Father Jim Duffy, SM, was placed in the altar as well.

 

They just may have been holding their breath in anticipate when they opened the envelope. Inside they found a small, laminated piece of paper with Latin text. Neither is a Latin scholar but they were able to make out that OLA’s first pastor celebrated a rite at the altar and mentioned “Martyrum Aucti et Lucentis.” Could this be the answer they had been looking for all of these years?!

 

Father Jim enlisted the help of a fellow Marist, Father Tom Ellerman, in translating the Latin for us. It reads:

 

“On the 24th day of the month of October 1952, I, the Most Reverend Joseph E. Moylan, PA, rightly delegated, consecrated this altar in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and I have enclosed in it the relics of these martyrs Auctus and Lucens and grant by delegation or commission to each of the faithful of Christ, visiting it for one year from today, and on the anniversary of this consecration, the usual indulgence of forty whole days.”

 

The mystery was solved!  The martyrs Auctus and Lucens are in our altar with Saint Peter Chanel. It appears that both saints are ‘pre-congregation’ saints, meaning they were named saints by their local bishops prior to the Catholic Church instituting formal canonization procedures. If the dates of canonization were ever recorded they are long lost, along with detailed information on the lives of the saints.

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We have not been able to locate any information on a Martyr named Lucens or Lucentis, but we will keep looking!

 

It is believed that Saint Auctus lived in Amphipolis (now Kavala) in ancient Greece in the late third or early fourth century under the reign of Diocletian. Diocletian is well known for his persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.

 

Legend tells us that there was a holy young woman named, Thessalonica, who was the daughter of a pagan priest named Cleon. Cleon beat Thessalonica and threw her out of the family home when he learned that she had converted to Christianity. Auctus and another man named Taurion attempted to reason with her father who then denounced them as Christians.  They were tortured and beheaded. Thessalonica was also killed. And that is the story of our Saint Auctus

of Amphipolis!

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Saints Auctus and Lucentis, pray for us.