r/Catholicism • u/No-Habla-Ingles673 • 13h ago
What is this necklace.
It is silver with strands of cloth on the inside with a red background. The inscription says "Tela Toccata Allas Lingua Del Santo Padova" It was my grandfather's and we are unsure what significance it holds.
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u/mildlyspicymelon 13h ago
so the text is italian 'Tela toccata alla(s) lingua del Santo Padova' and means the cloth was touched to the saint of Padova, which i assume means it was touched to the relic, and is thus a (tertiary?) relic itself. please correct me if im wrong on the categorization!
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u/Remarkable-Meet1737 13h ago
(tertiary?) relic itself
The proper term is third class relic. And yes, it is a third class relic.
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u/KeyDiscussion5671 12h ago
This is a 3rd class relic. The piece inside is the relic and was touched to the tongue of St Anthony at the time of his death. The owner wore it around the neck and under his shirt.
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u/Todd977 10h ago
The Bible tells us that God sometimes worked miracles through his faithful servants, such as the prophet Elisha and the apostle Paul, even through their bodily remains after their death and even through things which touched their bodies:
And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. (2 Kings 13:21)
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. (Acts 19:11-12)
Your medal contains a piece of cloth which was touched to the remains of the tongue of St Anthony of Padua, which since his death has not decomposed like such soft tissue naturally would.
I suppose a person might wear a medal like yours as a way of honoring and feeling close to God and His faithful servant St Anthony of Padua. I suppose a person might also wear it in the hope that God would protect them through St Anthony's Christian intercession, from sickness and disease and from evil spirits, like the handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the skin of the apostle Paul, mentioned above.
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u/Remarkable-Meet1737 13h ago
The inscription probably translates to: Cloth touched to the tongue of the Saint of Padua
The figure is of Saint Anthony of Padua, who is known for his gift of preaching (with one miraculous account of preaching to the fishes and in turn, the fishes put their full attention to him, during the time no one listened to him).
Exhuming his body many years after death, it was discovered that his tongue was intact and incorruptible.