RELICS OF THE ORIENTALS

The Orientals agree with us also in the discipline regarding sacred relics. These, with the Eastern churches, are often placed under the altar in a little box, and are held in the greatest veneration by the people. According to the Ritual of Russia, this little box is only placed there when the archbishop consecrates the church in person and not by deputy (Romanoff, 84). Without these relics the Nestorian Rituals forbid any altar whatever to be consecrated (Smith and Dwight, Travels in Armenia, ii. 236).