Did a Catholic Relic Help Save a Baby?

April 21, 2005 — -- Christopher Ian Frederic Chadwick looks like any other 5-year-old today.

But in 1999, his mother, Jill Chadwick, went into labor four months early, and she fears things might have turned out differently if her mother hadn't brought her a medallion and locket from a blessed French Canadian priest.

The items came from tiny St. Anthony's chapel in a working-class neighborhood on Harpster Street in Pittsburgh, which is home to more than 2,500 sacred Catholic relics -- second only to the Vatican.

The faithful believe these actual pieces of bones, drops of blood or preserved organs carry divine power.

When doctors at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh started administering emergency medication to Chadwick in order to delay delivery, Chadwick's mother, Gerry Kovalchick, visited St. Anthony's to pray for her pregnant daughter.

After she got there, the Rev. David Schorr, the pastor, gave her a relic to take back to the hospital. He'd never done that for anyone else before, but he said, "I think there are things that happen sometimes you just feel it's just the right thing to do at a particular moment."

What appeared to be a jewelry box held a medallion and a locket, containing strands of white hair from a French Canadian priest, blessed Frederic Janssoone. It had just arrived the previous week.

Kovalchick said she was "overwhelmed because nothing leaves this chapel ever." She said she didn't know what it would do, but she added, "I just really felt this was going to help Jill."

Sacred Things

Most of St. Anthony's collection was brought over in the 19th century by a German priest. At the time, relics had fallen out of favor in Europe so he was able to rescue thousands of them, including:

slivers of bones believed to be from each of the apostles

a piece of cloth said to have been worn by the Virgin Mary

splinters supposedly from the actual cross carried by Jesus

and up on the altar, a small piece of wood said to be from the table from the Last Supper.

Nearly every item is certified by the church as real.

Schorr says he had no doubt the items are legitimate, but he adds, "That doesn't mean I would stake my faith or my life on that object. My life is not about an object."

People who don't believe in the power of these items might think it's almost macabre to imagine skulls and body parts are part of the altar, but Schorr said he just sees them as "sacred things."

Was It a Miracle?

When Kovalchick returned, her daughter remembers thinking her mom had gone too far.

"I'm thinking, 'I'm having a baby here, we don't know what's going to happen and here she is messing with a medal,' " Chadwick said.

But that night, Chadwick had a change of mind. She says she said, "I don't know who you are, but I was told you could help. I'm asking for whatever you can do, because this baby is too little."

She says she rubbed the relic on her belly and said "please help us." But she says no one knew she did it. And when the delivery finally began, Chadwick says she had a vision -- she felt like someone was holding her hand. She says she saw a man with white hair in the delivery room.

Christopher Ian Frederic Chadwick was soon born, weighing just 1 pound, 10 ounces and only 12 inches long.

He was so premature his eyes were still fused shut. Though infants so small often survive, rarely do they escape early childhood without some serious medical complications. Christopher had none.

Dr. Nilima Karamchandani, who headed up the neonatal team, said, "Little Chris did amazingly well, he just sailed right through. I indeed believe that this was a miracle!"

The Catholic Church has begun a formal investigation.