By Leslie Ann G. Aquino
A vial of the liquid blood relic of St. Pope John Paul II, one of seven enshrined in seven churches around the world, was unveiled yesterday at the Pope Francis Hall of the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila.
Fr. Reginald Malicdem, rector of the Manila Cathedral, said they wrote a letter to the Vatican requesting relics of three important Popes who were recently beatified and canonized and closely connected to the cathedral.
One of them was St. Pope John Paull II.
Malicdem said Cardinal Stanislaw Dzowisz, former secretary of St. Pope John Paul II, sent a relic of the Pontiff’s blood. “We did not expect that Cardinal Stanislaw Dzowisz, former secretary of the Pope, would send us the relic of his still liquified blood,” Malicdem said.
Dzowisz, Malicdem said, sent the vial through Sister Nancy Banares, a Filipina nun of the Sisters of the Visitation, who is the superior of the community in Bolechowise, Poland. It came with a personal letter to Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal G. Tagle and an authentication certificate of the relic.
Malicdem said the blood which doctors extracted blood in case of an emergency transfusion was taken towards the end of the life of St. Pope John Paul II who had complications from Parkinson’s disease.
