By Catholic Ecology
Thanks to 21st century crowd sourcing, a relic of a 17th century saint can now come home.
It took only ten days for a unique GoFundMe campaign to make history with the rescue of a precious reliquary that—it appears—holds a priceless first-class relic of St. Kateri Tekakwitha—patroness of ecology and the environment, people in exile, and Native Americans.
The wildly successful #BringKateriHome campaign was the brainchild of my friend Bill Jacobs, President of the Board of the St. Kateri Tekakwitha Conservation Center, on which I also serve.
“I am extremely grateful and humbled—overwhelmed really—by the tremendous response we have had in such a short period of time,” said Jacobs earlier this evening. “I am also deeply moved by the demonstration of love and honor that so many have shown for our beloved Saint Kateri.”
St. Kateri was canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. She is the first Native North American saint.
The reliquary comes with supporting documentation signed and stamped by Édouard-Charles Fabre, Archbishop of Montreal in 1893. With its rescue assured as of today, Jacobs said, the next task will be to reclaim it from the seller so that it can be authenticated.
Jacobs was also clear that the total donation amount at the GoFundMe campaign was intended only to recover the cost of the reliquary. “The relic inside [a piece of bone] is priceless, and would be acquired as a gift,” he said in the campaign’s website.
to the authenticity of the contents
of the reliquary.
“It is the reliquary, the ‘container’ of the relic, which is being purchased to preserve this precious relic.”
Church law allows the purchase of a reliquary to “rescue” the relic inside from mistreatment. “The goal of the Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Conservation Center is to protect this sacred relic from desecration and profanation,” Jacobs said, “to return it to the Church. “