“The martyrs were considered by the Church as their heavenly patrons and protectors, as men and women now so close to God that they could exercise a powerful ministry of intercession…  Relics—i.e. remains of the martyrs or objects used by them and that had come into contact with them—were treasured as sources of spiritual power.   Note that this cult of the martyrs was flourishing in the mid-second century—well before the canon of the New Testament writings was fixed.  The reliance upon the martyrs’ prayers and devotion to them and their relics thus belongs to the earliest stratum of the Church’s life. “
(Fr Lawrence Farley, ‘No Other Foundation’ blog)