Localized Grace: The “Linger Effect” and “Spiritually Charged” Relics

Stories of miracles associated with religious relics and holy locations often smack of medieval superstition and pious credulity. Bones of saints, fragments of the “true cross,” and shrines of saints all have a reputation as fonts of the miraculous, particularly within Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox popular piety. Many of us might be prone to dismiss such reports—dramatic healings being the most common—as little more than placebo effects underwritten by wish-fulfillment.

Others, more familia...