I have yet to provide all links for bibliography or rewrite this page in my own words. For the mean time you may read my half assed notes , filled with typos, taken from 'The Two Babylons' by Alexander Hislop
Lets review the historical origins of ...
RELIC WORSHIP
Some of the Pagan Gods requiring this ritual: Isis, Osiris, Jupiter, Buddha,
Biblical requirement for this form of worship in regards to GOD: NONE
In Augustine's day, the formal " worship " of the relics was not yet established ; but the martyrs to whom they were supposed to have belonged were already invoked with prayers and supplications, and that with the high approval of the Bishop of Hippo,Oivitate, lib. xxii. cap. 8, vol. ix. p. 875, B and C.]
With this he meant to purchase wool, which his wife might spin, and make into a garment for him. When the cook cut up the fish, he found within its belly a ring of gold, which his conscience persuaded him to give to the poor man from whom he bought the fish. He did so, saying, at the same time, " Behold how the Twenty Martyrs have clothed you !" De Civitate, lib. xxii., cap. 8, vol. ii. pp. 874, 875. This story of the fish and
the ring is an old Egyptian story. (Wilkinson, vol. i. pp. 186, 187.)
Catosus, " the good Christian," was evidently a tool of the priests, who could afford to give him a ring to put into the fish's belly. The miracle would draw worshippers to the shrine of the Twenty Martyrs, and thus bring grist to their mill, and amply repay them.
In Greece, the superstitious regard to relics, and especially to the bones of the deified heroes, was a conspicuous part of the popular idolatry. The work of Pausanias, the learned Grecian antiquary, is full of reference to this superstition. Thus, of the shoulder-blade of Pelops, we read that, after passing through divers adventures, being appointed by the oracle of Delphi, as a divine means of delivering the Eleans from a
pestilence under which they suffered, it "was committed," as a sacred relic, " to the custody " of the man who had fished it out of the sea, and of his posterity after him.Pausanias, lib. v., Prior Eliaca, cap. 13, p. 408.
' Thebans, who inhabit the city of Cadmus, if you wish to reside in your country, blest with the possession of blameless wealth, bring the bones of Hector, the son of Priam, into your dominions from Asia, and reverence the hero agreeably to the mandate of Jupiter.' "Ibid. lib. ix., Baotica, cap. 18, p. 746.
Buddhism has been propped up by relics, that have wrought miracles at least as well vouched as those wrought by the relics of St. Stephen, or by the "Twenty Martyrs." In the " Mahawanso," one of the great standards of the Buddhist faith, reference is thus made to the enshrining of the relics of Buddha :
" The vanquisher of foes having perfected the works to be executed within the relic receptacle, convening an assembly of the priesthood, thus addressed them : ' The works that were to be executed by me, in the relic receptacle, are completed. To-morrow, I shall enshrine the relics. Lords, bear in mind the relics.'" Pococke's India in Greece, p. 307.
the Holy Coat of Treves, and its exhibition to the people ? From the following, the reader will see that there was an exactly similar exhibition of the Holy Coat of Buddha : " Thereupon (the nephew of the Naga Rajah) by his supernatural gift, springing up into the air to the height of seven palmyra trees, and stretching out his arm,
brought to the spot where he was poised, the Dupathupo (or shrine) in which the deess laid aside by Buddho, as Prince Siddhatto, on his entering the priesthood, was enshrined .... and exhibited it to the people." Ibid. pp. 307, 308.
the Pope presented to his beloved son, Francis Joseph of Austria, a "tooth" of "St. Peter," as a mark of his special favour and regard. J The teeth of Buddha are in equal request among his worshippers. "King of Devas," said a Buddhist missionary, who was sent to one of the principal courts of Ceylon to demand a relic or two from the Rajah, "King of Devas, thou possessest the right canine tooth relic (of Buddha), as well as the right collar bone of the divine teacher. Lord of Devas, demur not in matters involving the salvation of the land of Lanka." POCOOKE, p. 321.
Parinibanan or final emancipation {i.e., after his death), by means of a corporeal relic, performed infinite acts to the utmost perfection, for the spiritual comfort and mundane prosperity of mankind. Ibid. p. 321, and Note.
The statement is this : " The bones or limbs of Buddha were scattered all over the world, like those of Osiris and Jupiter Zagreus.duty of his descendants and followers, and then to entomb them. Out of filial piety, the remembrance of this mournful search was yearly kept up by a fictitious one, with all possible marks of grief
and sorrow till a priest announced that the sacred relics were at last found. This is practised to this day by several Tartarian tribes of the religion of Buddha; and the expression of the bones of the Son of the Spirit of Heaven is peculiar to the Chinese and some tribes in Tartary." Asiatic Researches, vol. x. pp. 128, 129.
to commemorate the tragic death of Osiris or Nimrod, who, as the reader may remember, was divided into fourteen pieces, which were sent into so many different regions Being acquainted
with this event [viz., the dismemberment of Osiris], Isis set out once more in search of the scattered members of her husband's body, using a boat made of the papyrus rush, in order more easily to pass through the lower and fenny parts of the country. . . . And one reason assigned for the different sepulchres of Osiris shown in Egypt is, that wherever any one of his scattered limbs was discovered, she buried it on the spot ; though others suppose that it was owing to an artifice of the queen, who presented each of those cities with an image of her husband, in order that, if Typho should overcome Horus in the approaching contest, he might be unable to
find the real sepulchre. Isis succeeded in recovering all the different members, with the exception of one, which had been devoured by the Lepidotus, the Phagrus, and the Oxyrynchus, for which reason these fish are held in abhorrence by the Egyptians. To make amends, she consecrated the Phallus, and instituted a solemn festival to its memory."Plutabch, vol. ii. p. 358, A.
Not only does this show the real origin of relic worship; it shows also that the multiplication of relics can pretend to the most venerable antiquity. If, therefore, Eome can boast that she has sixteen
or twenty holy coats, seven or eight arms of St. Matthew, two or three heads of St. Peter, this is nothing more than Egypt could do in regard to the relics of Osiris. Egypt was covered with sepulchres of its martyred god ; and many a leg and arm and skull, all vouched to be genuine, were exhibited in the rival burying-places for the
adoration of the Egyptian faithful. Nay, not only were these Egyptian relics sacred themselves, they conseceated the veky ground in which they were entombed. This fact is brought out by Wilkinson, from a statement of Plutarch :Ibid. sect. 20, vol. ii. p. 359 A.
" was also particularly honoured, and so holy was the place considered by the Egyptians, that persons living at some distance from it sought, and perhaps with difficulty obtained, permission to possess a sepulchre within its Necropolis, in order that, after death, they might repose in ground hallowed by the tomb of
this great and mysterious deity." Wilkinson, vol. iv. p. 346.
what merit Rome attaches to such pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, and how, in the Middle Ages, one of the most favourite ways of washing away sin was to undertake a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Jago di Compostella in Spain, or to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.! Now, in the Scripture there is not the slightest trace of any such thing Evangelical Christendom, Ann. 1855, vol. ix. p. 201.
Wilkinson thus refers to a similar pilgrimage to Philae : " Besides the celebration of the great mysteries which took place at Philae, a grand ceremony was performed at a particular time, when the priests, in solemn procession, visited his tomb, and crowned it with flowers. § Plutarch even pretends that all access to the island was forbidden at every other period, and that no bird would fly over it, or fish swim near this consecrated ground."|| This seems not to have been a procession merely of the priests in the immediate neighbourhood of the tomb, but a truly national pilgrimage; for, says Diodorus, " the sepulchre of Osiris at Philae is revered by
all the priests throughout Egypt." Diodoeus, lib. i. p. 13.
accordingly, we learn from Ovid, that the " Busta Nini/' or " Tomb of Nimis," long ages thereafter,
was one of the monuments of Babylon, Metamorphoses, lib. iv. 1. 88, vol. ii. p. 278.
of the relics of the saints; and now the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul, of St. Thomas A'Beckett and St. Lawrence O'Toole, occupy the very same place in the worship of the Papacy as the relics of Osiris in Egypt, or of Zoroaster in Babylon.
By learning to decipher the symbolic language of ritual you understand who or what it is you are adoring. The god's don't care what you call them as long as you call them. Names change but rituals stay the same. Discover who is really being worshiped.
