Contemporary Catholics on Traditional Devotions.

Looks at the Catholic devotions of novenas and relics. Religious implications of the novena, which are considered important; Perception that novenas help Catholics develop a sense of belonging to the religious world and of belonging to God; History of novenas; Location of a relic, the head of St. John the Baptist, in the cathedral church of Amiens, in Picardy; Perception that relics are not passive, but have a life of their own; Idea that relics give a continuity with the life of the saint; Opinion that the view of the dead is sanitized in the West, where the notion of exhibiting body parts or corpses is frowned upon.