The Strangest Christian Relics: From Severed Heads to Holy Foreskin

Key facts

• The head of St. Oliver Plunkett is kept at St. Peter's Church in Drogheda, Ireland, which became the National Shrine to the Saint in 1995.
• St. Clare's hair and fingernail clippings are displayed in the Basilica di Santa Chiara in Assisi, Italy.
• The relics of St. Datian were donated to the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Manhattan in 1892 by a wealthy Italian woman.
• The blood of St. Januarius in Naples Cathedral is known for liquefaction events, typically three times a year, but failed to liquefy on December 16, 2016.
• The Holy Foreskin was claimed by at least 18 churches in Europe, with the last known trace disappearing from Calcata, Italy, in 1983.
• The intact skeleton of St. Boniface of Tarsus is in the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Warsaw, Poland.
• The Milk Grotto in Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories, is a pilgrimage site associated with Virgin Mary's breast milk.
• Heads of St. John the Baptist are claimed at Amiens Cathedral, the Basilica of Saint Sylvester the First in Rome, the Residenz Museum in Munich, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
• St. Catherine of Siena's severed head is in the Church of San Domenico in Siena, Italy.
• The tongue and jaw of St. Anthony of Padua are in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, Italy; the tongue toured New York City churches in 2013.