Catholics everywhere will be able to venerate a physical and spiritual piece of Mount Calvary in Jerusalem starting on Good Friday, April 18, when Our Lady of Mercy (OLM) Parish in Whippany publicly unveils a recently rediscovered first-class relic: wood splinters from the True Cross of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The faithful are invited to pray before the relic at OLM at the Mass of the Lord’s Passion at 3 p.m. in the church. The two small cross splinters are encased in a new regal-looking gold-colored reliquary on a pedestal and protected behind two layers of glass.
People are encouraged to touch or kiss the reliquary. They also are permitted to bring their devotional items, such as rosaries and holy cards, and pictures of ill friends and family members, which they can touch to the reliquary as a means of intercessory prayer.
Before Palm Sunday, a Vatican-appointed expert on relics emailed Father Michal Rybinski, OLM’s pastor, with news that Rome had confirmed the relic’s authenticity following a thorough two-year investigation.
“These few splinters of the cross will help us deepen our faith. Isn’t it uplifting that God chooses to remind us of his presence?” Father Rybinski said. “With the relic, we have wood from the Cross of Christ. It’s the real thing — not a symbol. We have a piece of Calvary. It takes us back to the first Good Friday. We can travel back with Jesus and be with him.”
The relic of unknown origin at OLM was found in 2023 during renovations to the church, which was completed in 1954. It was sitting in the vestibule inside an older reliquary shaped like a cross. The two splinters were between the intersection of the reliquary’s two beams. Workers also found large statues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph sealed behind a chapel wall for decades.
After the Holy Week celebrations, the relic of the cross splinters will be placed in OLM’s renovated chapel, which was built in 1854. A new altar, expected soon, will house the relic inside a transparent bullet-proof case so people can venerate it.
In the chapel, the cross splinters will join two other first-class relics of Polish saints: one with blood drops from St. Pope John Paul II and another with a piece of the religious habit of St. Faustina Kowalska. The religious sister and mystic witnessed apparitions of Jesus that inspired the Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy, observed on the Sunday after Easter, said Father Rybinski, also a Polish native.
“The relic helps reveal the true meaning of the cross,” Father Rybinski said.
