Saint Oscar Romero

On March 24th 1980 Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was assassinated while he  was celebrating Mass. This was the culmination of years of violence and intimidation by the government and military of El Salvador against the majority of poor peasant farmers who were attempting to stand up for themselves. Thousands of people had been killed in the 1970s, then priests too were murdered. For three years Romero stood for and with his people. On the day before his death Romero gave an impassioned radio broadcast calling on the military to disobey orders when they were unjust, including the order to shoot unarmed civilians. There was a massacre even at his funeral.

When he was shot, the nuns in attendance at the Mass grabbed cloths to staunch his wound and mop up his blood, including the altar linen. These nuns then saved these cloths, knowing then what the whole Church now recognises; Oscar Romero is a saint, a man of heroic holiness and virtue, even before he was killed. He will be canonised on October 14th this year.

These blood stained cloths have become relics, distributed around El Salvador and around the world. My teacher  at  Creighton Dr Damian Zynda received a small piece of this cloth, and on the final day of class showed us this relic (about the size of a fingernail) and allowed each of us to have a moment to pray with it.. It was an incredibly moving experience. So many relics of saints are body parts which have been removed post-mortem which seems so undignified to do to anyone, let alone at saint! St Therese of Lisieux's right arm has travelled to Australia as a relic. I find this rather macabre. But this little piece of blood saturated cloth, created when people were trying to save his life seems so much more significant. But more important that this or any relic is whether I and everyone who hears Romero's story are willing to stand up and speak for justice like he did.