Parishioners flock to reliquary of sainted ‘companion on journey’

KENDALL PARK — St. Augustine of Canterbury Church has added a beautiful new addition to its Chapel of the Saints — a reliquary containing an amazingly lifelike replica of St. John Paul II.

Father Robert G. Lynam, pastor, St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish, detailed the origins of the months-long project that began this summer. Viewing a YouTube video of a Mass in honor of Pope John Paul II in the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico, he was moved by the procession of cardinals and bishops honoring the late pontiff.

“It was magnificent,” he said with a smile, recalling the grand procession of clergy into the shrine. “When he was beatified, all the bishops who attended received a first-class relic. The postulator [Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, Poland] came to us [May 17, 2014] and presented to the parish the first-class relic: a piece of cloth dipped into [the pope’s] blood.”

Inspired by the reliquary he saw in the Mexican procession, Father Lynam contacted artist Andrew Csatari for his assistance. Csatari had completed many murals within St. Augustine of Canterbury, as well as portraits of the diocese’s bishops for the Pastoral Center. Father Lynam approved the artist’s design and work was begun.

The ambitious project was fully funded by parishioners, Father Lynam noted, and plaques inscribed with donor names are mounted on the sanctuary walls. “The parish paid no money for it,” its pastor hastened to add. “People came forward [to help]. They needed to see this.”

The reliquary, a glass-topped enclosure resting upon a faux-marble altar, was installed in time for the Oct. 22 feast day of the late pope. The custom-made, life-size figure of St. John Paul II is painstakingly realistic and includes human hair. The body, vested in white, is in deep repose, its eyes closed and hands folded on its chest.

To ensure the papal vestments were accurate, Father Lynam called the tailor shop in Rome that had outfitted the late pope.

“I contacted a store called Gammarelli, which takes care of all the popes, to get the dimensions of his cassock, socks, shoes and zucchetto,” he said. “They also sent the gold chain he is wearing, and a replica of the papal cross and ring.”

The reliquary altar is inscribed with the words “Sanctvs Ioannes Pavlvs PP.II” (St. John Paul II) and the saint’s papal coat of arms. Filling the sanctuary of the church’s “Chapel of the Saints,” it is nestled between two stained glass windows, one depicting Mary’s visitation by the angel Gabriel, the other of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“About three o’clock in the afternoon these days,” Father Lynam said, “the sun shines through the window, the red [window of the] agony in the garden, and illuminates the [papal] ring. It is so beautiful.”

The congregation has flocked to the reliquary, he noted, praying in the small chapel after daily Mass and stopping into the church throughout the day.

“Some gasp when they see it and some break down in tears,” he said. “At first, some were nervous it was so realistic. People are overwhelmed. In America we really don’t have relics like this, but in Italy, there are many.”

The reliquary joins other remembrances of the late pope displayed at St. Augustine of Canterbury Church, including pictures, signed papal blessings and St. John Paul II’s zucchetto. Father Lynam’s spiritual connection with the pope is strong; over the course of his pontificate, he had attended five Masses in the private papal chapel, and later was present for the pontiff’s funeral, beatification and canonization Masses.

In August 2015, Father Lynam was appointed a canon of the Church for his dedication and honor to the life of St. John Paul II, and assigned to the Basilica of St. Florian in Krakow, Poland; “I was installed on Nov. 4, John Paul II’s feast day, and St. Florian was [the pope’s] second parish as a young priest,” he said.

Father Lynam concluded, “Saints are our companions on the journey. Their lives speak to us. John Paul is my companion on the journey… I am on fire with John Paul II.”