On Relics

Quote from Letter 4,40 on the miracles of the apostles and relics of the saints, to the Empress Constantina. June 594.

But my most serene empress must know that it is not a custom for the Romans, when they give away relics of saints, to presume to touch anything of the body. Rather, a silk cloth is simply put in a small bod, which is placed near the very holy bodies of the saints. When lifted out, the box is deposited with due reverence in the church which is to be dedicated, and through it miracles occur, as great as if the saints' bodies were specially brought there.
From this it happened that in the time of Pope Leo of blessed memory, as is handed down by our ancestors, when some Greeks were in doubt about such relics, the above-mentioned pope brought in scissors and cut into this cloth, and blood flowed from the actual incision. For, in Roman areas and in all the Western parts, it is totally intolerable and sacrilegious if anyone should perhaps want to touch the bodies of the saints. If he presumes to do so, it is certain that this temerity will in no way remain unpunished.
For this reason we are greatly amazed at the custom of the Greeks, who say that they dig up the bones of saints, and we scarcely believe it.

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 310