By J1 Reporter Brianna Wessling

Sister Jackie Thorn is on a mission.

Though she’s no stranger to the Marian community, she’s a new face to the students, and she’s already determined to learn more about the school.

“Every altar that’s in the Catholic Church, or in our chapel or the altar we use for masses, has an altar stone in it,” Sr. Jackie said. “There’s a relic of some saint in there.”

The only problem? No one seems to know what relics are in Marian’s chapel altar. The altar is located in Marian’s chapel behind the front office. The altar is made from light brown wood and the altar stone is located towards the center of the altar and is cut from white stone.

However, Ms. Kathy Tocco, former religion teacher, shed some light on the subject. In 2007, after the smoke from a fire in Room 313 damaged her class room and every other room on third floor, Tocco started teaching in the chapel. During that time one of her students had asked about the relics in the altar.

“A good teacher always says to students ‘Oh, that’s a good question see if you can find out’, so that’s what I said. I directed her to the historical archives in the motherhouse. Sister Adolorata was the archivist, and she kept very accurate records, and she found them from her, but since then she’s died,” Tocco said. Tocco cannot remember the name of this curious student, or what the student discovered, but that was eight years ago.

Putting relics in altars is a long held tradition in the church. According to the Catholic Education Resource Center, Catholics began keeping relics in altars in 155 A.D., and it quickly began gaining popularity. At the Second Council of Nicea it was even decided that all new churches were required to have relics of saints in their altars. But these relics are not just past traditions. During his September visit to the U.S. the Huffington Post reported that when Pope Francis canonized Saint Junipero Serra, a cross containing the new saint’s bones was placed in the altar.

Most of the time the relics have to do with the saint that the church is named for. This means that Marian would have relics from the Virgin Mary. However, both Tocco and Sister Jackie agree that it seems unlikely that the altar holds a relic from Mary. The relics are usually either the bones of a saint, a piece of their clothing, or something that they touched when they were alive. Relics like these involving Mary are rare. Tocco guessed that the relics probably have to do with a female saint since Marian was created as a school for girls by the servants of Mary.

Attempts to find records at the archdiocese have also come up empty. Conversations with Patrick Slattery, the Superintendent of the Catholic Schools Office, Brother William Woeger, of the Chancery in the Worship Office, and Randy Grosse, Editor and General Manager of the Catholic Voice simply lead to dead ends. School founding and dedication documents should have this information, they say. But Marian’s school archives don’t have any answers.

As of right now, the relics remain a mystery, but Sister Jackie won’t let anything slow her down.

“The information has to be out there, and we just have to find it,” she said.