Opportunities to encounter the relics of just one saint, like recent visits to Philadelphia from Catholic groups sharing some relics of St. Bernadette and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, often draw thousands of pilgrims to area churches.
Holy Martyrs Parish in Oreland, Montgomery County is opening a room with a relic collection that dwarfs those recent tours, offering visitors and the opportunity to pray beside more than 200 relics as part of the parish’s celebration of both All Saints and All Souls days.
The collection spans from a relic of the true cross of Christ, to those of St. Andrew and St. Luke, to 21st-century saints, according to Holy Martyrs Parish Life Director Deacon Thomas Croke.
“We go right back to the beginning, the original apostles,” he said. “They span the apostolic age up to St. Pope John Paul II, and our most recent, St. Carlo Acutis.”
That sacred relics will be exposed Nov. 1, from the end of the parish’s 9 a.m. Mass until noon that day, and then on Nov. 2 from the end of the 8:30 a.m. Mass until noon and again from 4-7 p.m.
The late Father Jason Kulczynski, the pastor of Holy Martyrs who died in 2024, collected the relics throughout the final 50 years of his life.
“He spent hours and hours researching each of the relics, creating reliquaries and little displays for them, and then very carefully putting them out on tables,” said Deacon Croke. “They now occupy an entire room that is roughly the size of a classroom.”
He said Father Kulczynski began collecting the relics at 8 years old, an age when many kids were collecting baseball cards. His growing collection became a symbol of his strong growth in faith that led him to the priesthood.
After several years in formation with the Pauline priests at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, he eventually entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1989.
“He was a holy man dedicated to the Church and to the people of the Church,” Deacon Croke said. “Hence, it wasn’t just a question of collecting relics. It was a question of putting together the collection in such a way that it could be shared. He felt that that was important, and obviously, he did a great job at it.”
Terry Melanson, director of parish services at Holy Martyrs Parish, said that when Father Kulczynski became pastor, he brought the relics in boxes and set them up in a curio cabinet within his office, and the collection outgrew that cabinet.
“We would pack them up and take them over to church. The maintenance man would bring tables up from the basement, and we would line the back of the church with tables and have them open all week long, All Saints and All Souls days, one time during Lent, one time during Advent,” she said.
“It got to be too much to pack up, and that’s when this room that had been the school library (was) empty. We decided to make that into the relic room, and we put it together.”
The parish typically invites groups to arrange private pilgrimages to see the relics. Deacon Croke said that many groups visiting the Miraculous Medal Shrine in Philadelphia or the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa find out about the relics at Holy Martyrs and make a pivot in their plans to experience the hundreds of relics at the parish.
The power of a relic can be awe-inspiring, which Deacon Croke said was his experience encountering the relic of St. Catherine of Siena on a pilgrimage in Italy. Pilgrims can experience a similar encounter of God’s presence in visiting the resting places of St. Katharine Drexel at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia and St. John Newman at his shrine in the city’s Northern Liberties section.
But the walk into Hoy Martyrs’ room of 200 relics overwhelms people like a sacred tsunami, the deacon said.
“When I took the (call) as a parish life director, I had heard of the relics that were here, but I always thought it was a little closet (with) a couple of relics in it,” he said. “To walk into this room and see over 200 of them, it’ll blow you away.”
Deacon Croke said he is often more moved by the reaction of people experiencing the relics for the first time than by the relics themselves, since he now works near them on a daily basis.
“I can well imagine the look on my face the very first time was equal to what I see in others,” he said.
“The sense I have seen of reverence and of just almost shock by so many people to realize what it is that’s there on display in front of them is truly, truly amazing.”
Groups who wish to see the relics in a private visit are encouraged to call the parish 215-884-8575 or email hmrectory@holymartyrsparish.org.
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