On 25th August we celebrated the feastday of our patron saint, I’ve heard that he was a martyr for his beliefs and had lived and died in the second century, that’s a very long time ago. No wonder we were in awe to hear our parish church had a relic of St. Eusebius, his skull and shoulders and some other bones, all neatly hidden in a silver headreliquarium, a relic container in the form of a head and shoulders.
It shows a fixed looking face, surrounded by lightly curled hair. A tight necklace with four buttons in the front separate the head from the smoothly polished shoulders.
We were thrilled to bits when ‘kapelaan’ curate Pierik told us we deserved a special treat for the great work we’ve done as altar boys. He was going to show us not only the silver bust, but if we can keep a secret, he was going to open it and disclose the contents of the ancient relic. The tight shaped feature was unlocked and lifted, where upon our eyes fastened on a dark grey-brown wrinkled skin covered skull. An eager finger reached out for a daring touch, upon curate Pierik quickly closed the relic with a brisk ‘that’s it boys’.