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An institution's > ability to > present concrete objects - bones, clothing, bodily fluids (well, > maybe > that's not technically concrete, but anyway), hair, instruments of > torture, > and the like - which related to these very important and (for the > believers) > very real events enhanced the religious experience and served to > increase > the power of the devotion. And, more important, they contain (let us use the present tense) 'virtue' - (Virtus, Gk. dynamis). See my posting of a year or two ago on this subject. Relics not only enhance the religious experience, they cure people, or are believed to do so. Someone with a painful or incurable illness does not venerate a relic merely to enhance his or her religious experience or devotion; such a person wishes to be healed. Oriens. ____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%