<img src='https://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/2402/8ccbd616a755485e5443.jpeg' width='720' height='378'> A five-day exhibition at The Arts Centre in Christchurch will invite people into a journey through centuries of .
Workers have been gradually deconstructing the remaining building and its ruins, but in the process unearthed a number of treasures that the church had previously thought could be lost. Items and artifacts recovered include altar stones, a decapitated nativity scene, and a charity collection box with out-of-circulation coins.
Christchurch diocese archivist, Triona Doocey, said they knew the location of the relics, and had expected to recover them during demolition. But she said it was âvery surprisingâ that they were housed in such unexpected vessels.
A safe containing coffee jars filled with holy relics and bones from Christchurchâs Catholic Cathedral, uncovered during demolition work. Photograph: Cathedral House
‘Only in New Zealand!’: Relics found in coffee jars in rubble of Christchurch cathedral Tess McClure in Auckland
It might seem like an inauspicious end for a saint, being laid to rest in a Greggs coffee jar.
But for the holy relics buried beneath Christchurch’s destroyed Catholic cathedral, those repurposed containers have housed them safely through more than 40 years and two enormous earthquakes, until they were finally unearthed by demolition teams this week.
The relics – purported to be the bones of saints and apostles – are just the latest treasures salvaged from the rubble of Christchurch’s Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, which was badly damaged in the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.
CHRIS SKELTON
Catholic Diocese of Christchurch archivist Triona Doocey goes through some of the relics unearthed during demolition of the Catholic cathedral.
Demolition workers at Christchurch’s Catholic cathedral have unearthed ancient holy relics and bones stored in two Greggs coffee jars that have remained undisturbed beneath the historic building for more than 40 years. The holy relics, which include bones purportedly from saints and apostles of Jesus, were placed in coffee jars, put in a metal container and then buried beneath an inch of concrete in the cathedral in April 1975. The relics were purchased in the 19th century by Bishop John Grimes, Christchurch’s first Catholic bishop, during his travels in Europe to raise money for a new cathedral.