By Lisa Benoit

The two lines of people went down the center aisle and outside the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu, wrapping around the church. The crowd was there on the evening of Feb. 16 for the opportunity to spend a few minutes kneeling in prayer in front of ornate reliquaries and Plexiglass boxes.

The display, titled “The Relics from the Passion of the Lord,” was a traveling collection of relics, replicas and renditions of items related to Jesus’ passion and death.

The collection was brought to Hawaii by the Apostolate for Holy Relics of Los Angeles for a weeklong tour, Feb. 9-16, to 10 churches on Oahu, Kauai, the Big Island and Maui.

In addition to the lines, the church itself was packed with about 600 people.

The big turnout was not unusual, said Andrew Walther, vice president of the Apostolate for Holy Relics who was there traveling with the tour. He estimated close to 10,000 people visited the relics during their week in Hawaii. The co-cathedral was the tour’s last island stop.

“The response has been great,” he said. “All the island churches were full.”

Walther said that in some of the places, the wait in line was as long as two hours.

On display was a piece of wood taken from the true cross said to have been discovered by St. Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother, who brought it to Rome in the first century.

There was also a splinter claimed to be from the Crown of Thorns and a replica of one of the nails used to crucify Christ. Also included were relics of the Shroud of Turin, of the column at which Christ was scourged, of St. Longinus, named as the centurion who pierced the side of Christ, and a copy of a rendition of Veronica’s veil.

Also on display was a small piece said to be from the table of the Last Supper and a small piece of stone identified as being from Jesus’ tomb.

Walther said the relics came from a variety of sources. Some are owned by the Apostolic for Holy Relics, some are from Walther’s personal collection, and some belong Thomas Pereira, director of Honolulu’s St. Michael Center for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the local promoter of the tour.

He said that some of the relics, and relics like them, have been venerated for centuries in churches in Europe.

“It is like bringing the pilgrimage to (the people) rather than bringing them to the pilgrimage,” Walter said. “It is a tangible link to something 2000 years ago.”

The evening began with a Mass celebrated by associate pastor Father Anthony Rosario.

“Our church is a church of signs and symbols,” he said, which should all lead to Christ himself.

He said that the tangible items on display “remind us of the suffering of Jesus Christ … the ultimate expression of love from God to us.”

He said that faith means looking beyond the physical evidence of Christ’s suffering, to looking for Christ “in our lives.”

“If we close our eyes, wherever we are, we continue to see these things,” he said. “In our brothers and sisters, we continue to see Jesus Christ.”

Michael Lum, a baptized Catholic who had been attending Central Union Church, was there to see the relics. He said he came back to the church last year, after acute respiratory distress syndrome put him in a coma for a month.

While at St. Francis Hospital, he was moved by the visit from a priest from St. Patrick Parish in Kaimuki. Lum said he believes God is giving him a second chance.

“I’m getting back to church to give back,” Lum said. “I wasn’t a practicing Catholic, but after the ordeal, I feel that God saved me for something and I don’t know what it is. Hopefully, by attending church, he will show me what to do.”

Co-cathedral parishioners Pat and Madrienne Crow waited on the church lanai after Mass for the lines to shorten.

“It was wonderful that they went out of their way to bring it all the way out to Hawaii,” Madrienne said. “It was nice that we are able to see it.”

For Abigail Fevella, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Ewa Beach, seeing the relics was worth the drive and the crowd.

“I couldn’t miss it,” she said. “He died for our sins. He was nailed to the cross. And when I went up there, I thought — He is here.”

Jo Baldovino, also an Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishioner, said that she “felt really good” after venerating the relics.

“We felt lifted,” she said. “We didn’t get the nails through the hand, but we all have a cross.”

For more information about the relics, visit the Apostolate for Holy Relics website at www.relictour.org.