Vatican Returns Saints' Relics to Orthodox.

The article reports that the earthly remains of Saint Gregory Nazianzen and Saint John Chrysostom have been returned to the Orthodox church. After hundreds of years, Orthodox faithful once again will be able to pray before the earthly remains of two of their greatest saints, theologians and patriarchs, Nazianzen and Chrysostom. Pope John Paul II consigned part of the relics of the two fourth-century doctors of the church to Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople during a prayer service in Saint Peter's Basilica. The portions of the relics retained by the Vatican will continue to be venerated in the basilica. The Orthodox believe the relics were stolen from Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey, in 1204, when mercenaries participating in the Fourth Crusade to the Holy Land sacked the city. While Vatican and Orthodox officials differed over the events that brought the bones to Saint Peter's Basilica, the prayer service focused on the fact that both saints, famed theologians, lived and preached at a time when Christians of the East and West were still united.