Last year, about 35,000 people visited Pittsburgh’s St. Anthony Chapel, one of five churches grouped recently under the Catholic diocese’s Shrines of Pittsburgh designation. The chapel houses some 5,000 relics — the largest number outside the Vatican, by its count — including what it claims are splinters of the true cross and a barb from Jesus’ crown of thorns.
Many congregants who come to mass at the shrine have told Rev. James Orr, the shrine’s co-director, they crave physical signs of faith during the pandemic.
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