The Athens News Agency reports that the men were also charged with drug offenses and trafficking in protected ancient coins.

I doubt that the relics are genuine. But the mere fact that they have a market value suggests that religiosity is a live and well in Europe.

Dana,

You are always so diligent and resourceful when it comes to tracking original sources for stores posted here.

I have a question: since the civil authorities cannot / will not accord any spiritual/religious value to these "relics," how will they be assigned value in a court of law? Unless they are stolen property.... If they are fraudulent "relics," then they are worthless rubbish and the charges will be more along the lines of fraud, no? Surely it isn't illegal to carry perfumed goat bones in your luggage? Weird, maybe...but not illegal.

Of course, the matter of the coins and drugs are another matter altogether.

Come on LaRocca,
You're nuts--religiosity is alive and well in Europe? Capitalism is alive and well, in socialistic Europe--the collectors may be hoping to turn a bigger buck in the hope that value will accrue to any skull or bone fragment from the past. Add a century or two to any object, label it an antique or say it is from antiquity, religious or not, it will attain that special aroma that will bring saliva to the mouth of collectors dreaming, one day soon, they can take in for an appraisal and hear the sweet words, it is worth a bundle more than what they paid for it-- not religiosity my fellow blogger-- greed may be the primary motivator or are the two--greed and religiosity- indistinguishable?
Ravensfan Anon

This is a fascinating case! And it is especially good, from my perspective that it is NOT a Roman Catholic, because it provides a great mirror for Westerners thereby. When I was a kid I was given by my grandmother some relics which she had obtained during her deeply Catholic phase when she was raising eleven children. It was the bones of five beatified Jesuits from India, in an exquisite little case. It came with a certificate from a Bishop in India. I don't know what happened to them, perhaps they are somewhere in my parents house. So I feel having owned a really good example of relics I have some mojo to comment on this.

I well remember praying, staring at the bone fragments of the beatified Jesuits from India. I can say that at the time I felt that this brought me closer to God. So while this practice may seem very foreign to those outside certain Church traditions, I can vouch for the fact that it had some coherence in a lived spiritual practice.

The person that this brings to mind more than any other on the Catholic scene is the biblical gadfly Dr. Scott Hahn. Let me hasten to add that "gadfly" sounds worse than I mean it. This guy has an impressive grasp of the scriptures and I have listened to his discussions on EWTN with real appreciation. But like many converts to Catholicism he glories a bit too much in all the "material culture" of that faith. I have been really entertained listening to him give long scriptural exegesis to support the idea of relics and holy water and other Catholic goodies. He does an impressive job as I said, until you step back from his biblical showmanship and remember what he is actually talking about. Then the whole thing does not pass the smell test, no matter how well he glosses on the biblical support for the use of incense! But he is great example of how these relic issues, which many just would assume Catholics how have more or less left in its medieval past, are still being hotly defended by biblical mavens with a flair for the dramatic.

So this brings us full circle to this funny case. The first thing to notice is that there must be MONEY in this stuff still. Both Romans and Orthodox will certainly be drawn to Incarnational theology to show the valuable nature of honoring relics. They never tire in rehashing the supposedly great gulf that separates Catholic types from mere Protestants who don't honor the deep theology of Christ's embodied nature by using "physical" signs to do so. There is a big existential (to say nothing of the conceptual) jump in there somewhere. I have no problem with anyone having whatever religious practice they like, as long as it doesn't directly hurt others. But no matter how many times Dr. Scott Hahn performs his dramatic hand gestures it will still not be anything but clear that in the hierarchy of human religious practices this one is pretty low.
Somewhat akin to smearing dung on your face. But its persistence is clearly tied more to money than anything else. The same Dr. Scott Hahn who is the valiant champion of relics also recently encouraged the faithful to give more money to the Church by giving impressive biblical support for tithing. I was really amazed that such a bright guy actually used the following words, which I believe I am quoting exactly. He spoke of "using money to get closer to God". Well Scott has a lot of company of course for this kind of rhetoric, a lot of sleazy company. They include my former friend Joe Tyson whose sermon I heard online encouraging a parish in Bellingham, Washington to make a "covenant" by giving money. And then of course there are the endless supply of evangelicals who shamelessly are involved in this. My broader point is that relics should primarily be see as involved in this matrix. Even if there is a real spirituality that can be gleaned from relics or money, we should have the good sense to realize that it is not one of the better ones. Surely after thousands of years of religions, humans can start to make some basic choices based on quality, as we do in other activities when going to the grocery store. But even having said that, I would like to get those relics of the beaitified Jesuits back, for old time's sake!

Bankstreet: I think Greece is more concerned with antiquities export than the spiritual provenance of the relics. Drug and fraud charges are likely similar to what we do here in Baltimore when we add illegal firearm possession to a murder charge. Leave no wiggle room. Throw the book at 'em – or the scroll in this case. I was an antique dealer in one of my former roles. This sort of thing makes honest merchants look bad.

The seller was a twenty four year old kid. Not likely that he was well connected to serious antiquities dealers.

In Greece the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs has jurisdiction. If approved by the Antiquities Council finds may be exported. But approval is extremely rare. Greece has ratified the Hague Convention and First Protocol, the 1970 UNESCO cultural property convention, and the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

R-anon: I think in this case “that special aroma that will bring saliva to the mouth of collectors” was the drug induced fantasy of easy money coming from the hash pipe of the kid that was busted.

There LaRocca,
Your sense of humor is delicious.
Ravensfan Anon