Article 6. Whether any kind of veneration is due to the relics of the saints?
Objection 1. It would seem that the relics of the saints are not to be venerated at all. For we should avoid doing what may be the occasion of error. But to venerate the relics of the dead seems to savor of the error of the Gentiles, who gave honor to dead men. Therefore the relics of the saints are not to be honored. Objection 2. Further, it seems absurd to venerate what is insensible. But the relics of the saints are insensible. Therefore it is absurd to venerate them. Objection 3. Further, a dead body is not of the same species as a living body: consequently it does not seem to be identical with it. Therefore, after a saint’s death, it seems that his body should not be venerated. On the contrary, It is written (De Eccles. Dogm. xl): “We believe that the bodies of the saints, above all the relics of the blessed martyrs, as being the members of Christ, should be venerated in all sincerity”: and further on: “If anyone holds a contrary opinion, he is not accounted a Christian, but a fol
