Archives at the Vatican are currently being scoured after the recent discovery in a secondary school in north Dublin of what is believed to be the relic of a 2nd- or 3rd-century saint.
The discovery last week at St Vincent's Secondary School in Glasnevin has gripped the imaginations of all involved – from the students and teachers at the school, to their families at home. It has also gripped the imagination of Fr William Purcell, a local relic expert known as “the Bone Collector”, who is now in Rome attempting to trace and verify the relic.
“The excitement comes from both the ‘Indiana Jones’ element and the religious importance too,” Máire Quinn, the school’s principal and a historian, told the <em>Catholic Herald</em>.
“We live in a time in which there is not a lot of wonder. For the students to have found something like this has generated so much excitement and questions: What is it? Who put it there? How did it come to be here in the school?”
She explains that the way in which the relic was discovered means the students have formed a strong bond with it.
The surprise discovery of a vial of blood believed to be that of St Hilary was made by a group of students as they helped with preparations for their graduation.
The fifth-year students were moving the school's wooden altar from an upstairs room to the gym hall for the graduation ceremony, as happens every year, when, during one particular manoeuvre during its transition, a small piece of wood fell off the altar.
“They were worried,” Quinn explains, “and thought: ‘Mrs Quinn is going to kill us!’”
When one of the boys peered more closely to see from where the wood had fallen away, and if it could be put back, he realised the altar was hollow at that point, with a false bottom, and there was something contained within.
The students brought a large parcel wrapped in paper, which had a handwritten label in Latin on the top, along with the date 1787, to the principal's office, <mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><a href="https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2025/0522/1514234-dublin-school-relic/">reports </a></mark>Ireland's national broadcaster<em> RTÉ</em>, which covered the original discovery.<br><br>A quick translation of the text by staff suggested that the visibly old and well-sealed package contained the remains of a saint.
“The students feel a particular attachment, as the altar had been moved many times over the years, but it [the discovery] happened to them,” Quinn tells the <em>Herald.</em>
“They feel it is linked to their graduation and so acts as an anchor of that important experience, but also of their faith – it’s given them pause for thought, which is lovely to see.”
She says that while the school has students from different faiths, or who are not affiliated to a faith, the vast majority of the student body are Catholic.
After the discovery, Quinn got in touch with the archives of the Edmund Rice Trust of which the former Christian Brothers school is a part of. All indications were that the relic was legitimate and so the school called on the services of the Catholic Church's expert in this area, Fr William Purcell, <em>RTÉ</em> reports.
On arrival at the school, Fr William, who is based in Kilkenny and the owner of more than 2,000 relics, took out a toolkit before advising the principal to carefully cut off the paper wrapping, ensuring she preserve the written note on top.
Its removal revealed a wooden box with the letters GA and a number of lines of text, suggesting the container originated in Nantes, France. The box was firmly nailed shut, so Fr William prised the lid open and as the first piece came away, he took a sharp intake of breath as staff and students watched.
When the lid was fully removed it revealed an ornate green and red box with a number of red wax seals and in the window of the box sat another envelope, this time with English writing on it.
Fr William opened the envelope and unfurled a printed certificate with an embossed stamp on the bottom left corner and read the words "Reverend John Augustine Grace, authentication of the body of St Hilary martyr, 1878 from Rome".
He looked at the group with a smile, <em>RTÉ </em>reports. "This is the guaranteed proof with the wax seals, that this is a first-class genuine relic of the martyr Hilary," Fr William said.
Closer examination revealed the vial of blood was visible through the window of the wax sealed box. It was decided to leave this box closed, in order to not further disturb the precious objects inside.
Consultation with the Edmund Rice Trust suggested that the altar came to St Vincent's in Glasnevin from O'Connell's School in the city centre more than 30 years ago, but nobody appeared to be aware that it contained this relic.
Fr William said the discovery of a relic in a school is unusual and that while all altars are said to contain a relic, many do not come with documentary evidence to back up its veracity.
One of the things that Fr William is trying to confirm through the Vatican archives is which St Hilary the relic comes from, as there are various saints with that name from the same period (it is not Hilary of Poitiers, a Doctor of the Church, as the relic comes from a pre-congregation saint, which means that he was declared a saint before the Congregation of Saints was established).
Fr William believes the relic dates from the 2nd or 3rd century and that the vial of blood would have been removed from the Roman catacombs and sent to Dublin at the request of the Christian Brothers around the 1700s.
"There is this very little known about him," Fr William said of the saint who has now become entwined with the school. "All we know is that he is a pre-congregation saint."
Though Fr William added that this pre-congregation detail is significant in its own way.
"So the people acclaimed him, which was very beautiful, because it was the people who saw in the life of this person, and saw in his death, that he was a man who gave his life for Christ, and in doing so, then they acclaimed him as a martyr and a saint."
Quinn says that part of the enthusiastic response of the students has been fueled by the reactions of their families, with everyone from grandmothers to parents interested to know more about the discovery of the relic and what happens next.
While the Catholic Faith has been through plenty of challenges in contemporary Ireland, it is still “alive and well”, Quinn says, adding that the students are “very respectful of faith”. She notes that based on the rules that govern relics, due to this one being discovered at the school, St Vincent's is entitled to retain the relic.
“We are so delighted to have found it,” Quinn says. “We feel it’s in the right place and right hands, where it will be looked after and be able to become part of the faith formation of the students.”
<em>Photo: A child receiving first holy communion, 29 January 2024 (IStock, credits to Romrodinka).</em>
<em>The school has established an email for anyone who may have more information about the relic and its associated history and who wishes to contact the school to help its investigations: <strong>relic@stvincentsd11.ie</strong>; it has also set up a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/preservation-and-display-of-st-hilariis-relic?attribution_id=sl:c61d9e64-3719-4617-ab63-78bec667958d&lang=en_GB&ts=1747920621&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_content=amp13_t1-amp14_t2&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&v=amp14_t2"><strong><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">fundraising page</mark></strong></a> to raise money to enable the school to display the relic at the school. </em>
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