As I mentioned below, this day is special to me. At Notre Dame University, in the Basilica, there is a relic of the True Cross which we would honour today on the patronal feast of the order.
Today, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Church where I attended Mass has a relic of the True Cross. The congregation honoured this after Mass by going up and kissing the fantastically beautiful reliquary.
I did not get a very detailed look at the three relics which are in the smallish hand-held reliquary, but three different pieces of something are there. Only one has a label and that was the small piece of the Cross. The other two relics, beneath one another in the gold and silver cross which is about twelve inches long and maybe eight across, did not have label that I could see, but one was not wood.
I wish I could have examined it longer.
The sacristan told me the Oblates of St. Charles, who built the Church and were the order of secular priests, (which included Cardinal Vaughan and earlier, one of the founders, Cardinal Manning), given the relics.
The original donor of the church, an English woman, first had the small chapel on the right hand side built as a chapel to St. Helena. That little chapel is beautiful, with symbols of the Crucifixion, carved angels, and two windows, one of St. Mary Magdalene and one of St. Helena. The donor, I was told, wanted the entire church to be dedicated to St. Helena, but it was dedicated to St. Mary of the Angels instead. The little chapel is a mishmash of foci, which is disconcerting to one with an aesthetic eye. There are two non-matching statues which are life-size of St. Joan of Arc and St. Therese of Lisieux and a large cheap poster of the Divine Mercy. On the side in a large niche, is a little statue of The Infant of Prague. The entire thing needs to be re-done.
The donor is buried in the church in the Lady Chapel in the left aisle. I have not seen the archives, but some parishioners talked to me about the history.
How wonderful that such things are in England, the Dowry of Mary. May Mary bring this country back to the one, true religion, through the Cross of Christ, to Rome.