One of the things that strikes you when you start learning the various aspects of the Catholic Faith is how physical it is. There is an emphasis on God working through physical items and actions that is largely missing from most Protestant circles. The emphasis in many Protestant circles tends to be on the spiritual and intellectual side of the faith. The Catholic Faith includes those aspects of the Christian faith as well.
One such physical area that God works through are relics of the saints such as articles which belonged to them or bones of the saints, etc. One's initial reaction is often "Where is that in the Bible?!!"
Interestingly enough it was an evangelical Protestant/Charismatic pastor who gave me the first Scripture reference as I was on my journey towards the Catholic Church.
He was talking about "thin" places, where the residual power of the Holy Spirit remains on or with items. He acknowledged that miracles had happened in connection with relics throughout the history of Israel and the Church. The biblical reference he gave in his message was 2 Kings 13:20-21. In this passage, a dead man about to be buried come back to life after his body comes into contact with the bones of Elisha the prophet. Here is the passage from the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition of the Bible.
2 Kings 13
20 So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. 21 And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood on his feet.
There is also at least one New Testament example in Acts 19:11-12.
Acts 19
11 And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. RSVCE
So in the first case, the miracle was associated with the bones of a holy person and in the second case, it was items which had touched the body of a holy person who was alive at the time of contact. There may be more examples. I just haven't researched them yet. That pastor may have mentioned this passage as well in his message and probably did. I just don't remember for sure.
All for now.
