Francine Laura
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St. Anthony’s Chapel was built by Fr. Suitbert Mollinger in 1880 in the Troy Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
The chapel houses approximately 5,000 religious relics, making it the largest collection of relics outside the Vatican.
Some of the highlights of the collection include a splinter of the True Cross, a thorn from the Crown of Thorns, a piece of the stone from the Holy Sepulcher and a relic for each of the 12 apostles.
In addition to the relics, there are life-sized Stations of the Cross carved from wood.
The relics were acquired by Fr. Mollinger with his own funds from inherited family money. His primary goal was to protect the relics during times of political upheaval in Europe.
We were very fortunate to meet Steve McCauley at Mass. His wife Sue is one of the docents and he has learned a lot of from her; he was kind enough to take us on a private tour of the chapel!