Reliquary

This article is about containers for relics. For the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child novel, see Reliquary (novel).

Reliquary Shrine, French, c. 1325–50, The Cloisters, New York

Inside the shrine of St. Boniface of Dokkum in the hermit-church of Warfhuizen in the Netherlands. The little folded paper on the left contains a bone fragment of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the folded paper on the right a piece of the habit of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The large bone in the middle (about 5 cm in length) is the actual relic of St. Boniface.

A reliquary (also referred to as a shrine, chasse, or phylactery) is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a feretory. A brooch-like container for a very small relic may be called a "theca".

Relics may be the purported or actual physical remains of saints, and may comprise bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or with other religious figures. Objects owned or touched by the figure may be called "contact relics". The authenticity of any given relic is often a matter of debate; for that reason, some churches require documentation of a relic's provenance.

Relics have long been important to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, and to followers of many other religions. These cultures often display reliquaries in shrines, churches, or temples to which the faithful make pilgrimages to gain blessings.

The term is sometimes used in a looser sense to mean a container for the remains of any important figure, even non-religious ones. In particular, the kings of France often specified that their hearts and sometimes other organs be buried in a different location from their body.