Neumann Year Relic Tour to start in two Philadelphia-area parishes

St. Paul Church in Norristown, PA, and St. Katherine of Siena Parish in Philadelphia will welcome a relic of St. John Neumann to their communities in the coming weeks to celebrate the bicentennial of his birth.

St. Paul will hold a parish mission March 13-16, and the relic will be part of the mission’s closing celebration on March 16. St. Katherine of Siena will host the relic March 21 as part of an evening of reflection.

During the Neumann Year, the Redemptorists are inviting parishes to host a special traveling relic of St. John Neumann. The ornate wooden reliquary houses several second- and third-class relics of the saint, as well as a first-class relic — a piece of Neumann’s vertebra — encased in the reliquary’s lid.

These two Philadelphia-area parishes have the distinction of being the first to host the relic during the Neumann Year.

“As a bishop, Neumann built more than 90 churches and traveled all over his diocese. Since his death in 1860, his people have come to his grave at St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia to ask for his prayers. With this relic tour, Bishop Neumann can once again be among his people to pray with them and feed their souls,” said Rev. Richard Boever, a Redemptorist and an expert on St. John Neumann who will be preaching during much of the relic tour.

A visit by the Neumann relic includes a presentation on the life and spirituality of St. John Neumann, and a prayer service during which participants are offered the opportunity to venerate the relic of the only male American saint.

For more information about the Neumann Year, visit redemptorists.net/neumann.