The relic of St. Camillus de Lellis at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. CDN Digital photo | Tonee Despojo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The visit of the 404-year-old incorrupt heart relic of St. Camillus de Lellis in Cebu in time with the observance of Ash Wednesday should be a reminder that something greater will happen if sinners bend their hearts towards conversion.
Catholic Church’s Military Bishop Oscar Jaime Florencio said the timing of the relic’s visit is appropriate to remind the faithful of the time when they will have to leave the world and surrender their hearts to the Creator.
“When we venerate the relic, it serves as a reminder for us that we will have to leave this world one day,” Florencio said in a press conference for the arrival of the relic on Wednesday, March 6, 2019.
“But when we look at it, we realize that there is something greater that will take place in us if there will be conversion of our hearts,” he added.
The incorrupt heart of St. Camillus, enclosed in a crystal heart-shaped glass, arrived at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral shortly before 11 a.m. on Wednesday and will stay until Friday evening, March 7, 2019.
A pontifical Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Jose Palma tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral.
St. Camillus, the patron saint of the sick, and health workers, was a mercenary and a gambler before he converted and joined the ministry.
Having a never-healing wound on his leg from being a mercenary, St. Camillus founded the Ministers of the Sick, a religious congregation dedicated for the care of the sick.
On Friday, the relic will be brought to the St. Joseph Cathedral in Tagbilaran City, Bohol.
The relic has been brought to the different archdioceses in the country since February 2, 2019. It will return to its home at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome on March 31, 2019.
This is the second time that the holy relic visited the country. The first visit was in February to March in 2013. /bmjo