Twin brothers Peter Baut and James Baut, who represent a fourth generation of craftsmen to work at The Baut Studios in Swoyersville, pose near a recently completed reliquary that will be a resting place for a First Class Relic of St. John Paul II.
                                 Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

Twin brothers Peter Baut and James Baut, who represent a fourth generation of craftsmen to work at The Baut Studios in Swoyersville, pose near a recently completed reliquary that will be a resting place for a First Class Relic of St. John Paul II.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

<p>The reliquary, which craftsmen at The Baut Studios in Swoyersville fashioned from a repurposed altar component, will display a First Class Relic of St. John Paul II at a church in Royersford, Montgomery County.</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

The reliquary, which craftsmen at The Baut Studios in Swoyersville fashioned from a repurposed altar component, will display a First Class Relic of St. John Paul II at a church in Royersford, Montgomery County.

Submitted photo

<p>The Bauts paid great attention to detail as they worked on the reliquary.</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

The Bauts paid great attention to detail as they worked on the reliquary.

Submitted photo

<p>The inside of the reliquary is lined with an embroidered white cloth.</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

The inside of the reliquary is lined with an embroidered white cloth.

Submitted photo

<p>Susan Ciabattoni from Sacred Heart Church in Royersford marvels over a First Class Relic of St. John Paul II, which a delegation from her church traveled to Poland to pick up. The relic will be displayed at Sacred Heart Church in a reliquary fashioned by the craftsmen at The Baut Studios in Swoyersville.</p>
                                 <p>Submitted photo</p>

Susan Ciabattoni from Sacred Heart Church in Royersford marvels over a First Class Relic of St. John Paul II, which a delegation from her church traveled to Poland to pick up. The relic will be displayed at Sacred Heart Church in a reliquary fashioned by the craftsmen at The Baut Studios in Swoyersville.

Submitted photo

Sixteen months ago, a small delegation from Sacred Heart Church in Royersford traveled to a monastery in the Bialoleka district of Warsaw.

Susan Ciabattoni, the church’s business manager, knew the group was there to pick up a First Class Relic of St. John Paul II — but she didn’t realize that one evening, without rehearsal, someone would simply hand the relic to her during a Polish Mass.

“It was surreal,” she said, noting she felt a sense of wonder, and had to make an effort to stay composed as she found herself holding a small box that contained a strand of hair of the late pope, a native of Poland who was canonized in 2014.

For centuries devout Catholics have treasured relics of saints, which could be a fragment of clothing, a bit of bone or a drop of blood — some tangible reminder of a holy person that can seem like a link to heaven and to God.

During a 10 a.m. Mass on May 16, Sacred Heart parish will welcome Archbishop Nelson J. Perez of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to officially install the relic at their church in Montgomery County. Of course, before they arranged that Mass, church officials knew they needed a special place to keep and display the relic.

Church pastor the Rev. Tadeusz Gorka turned to The Baut Studios Inc., a family-owned business in Swoyersville that specializes in stained glass windows, church doors and all sorts of ecclesiastical art, and commissioned them to craft a reliquary.

“It is very, very nice,” Father Gorka said of the reliquary, which the Bauts fashioned by adding glass and copper, an aluminum frame and gleaming LED lights to a repurposed altar component that at one time held consecrated communion hosts.

“It’s a piece of history,” Conrad Baut, noting the altar component came from a church that had closed. “And it will be used for history.”

The Bauts are scheduled to deliver the reliquary, which is decorated with a hand-carved image of an angel and lined with embroidered fabric, to the church this week.

Conrad Baut, who is part of the third generation of craftsmen to work at the studio that his grandfather, Stanley, founded in 1927, said it was an honor to work on the project with his 24-year-old twin sons, Peter and James.

“A lot of it’s because of our ethnic heritage — Polish and Tyrolean,” Conrad Baut said, “and seeing what Saint John Paul II brought to the world, even when he was Archbishop Karol Wojtyla in Krakow. It’s in our blood.”

“My mother met him three times,” Baut added. “My father met him twice.”

“Many people pray to St. John Paul II,” Father Gorka said. “They pray for healing, they pray to have a child, they pray for all sorts of intentions.”

The priest, who plans to set up a kneeler and a table with prayer cards and perhaps religious medals near the reliquary, said the relic will be on permanent display at Sacred Heart Church, where he hopes it will inspire people.

Father Gorka met St. John Paul II in Krakow and in Rome, and is pleased to share a common Polish heritage with the late pontiff. He considers St. John Paul II to be someone who can help others draw closer to God.

“Every day I pray to him for his intercession,” Father Gorka said. “I hope St. John Paul will help us to be better people, to help each other the way he helped people, to have zeal and to have hope.”

St. John Paul II was noted for taking a stand against Communism, for traveling to 129 countries during his time as pope, and for surviving an assassination attempt in May 1981, After he recovered, he visited an Italian prison to tell his would-be assassin that he forgave him.

The reliquary, which represents months of work at The Baut Studios, contains some components that date back at least to the 1920s.

The angel facing was carved by hand close to a century ago and is certainly a focal point, said Peter Baut, who took on the recent task of polishing it. “You can’t beat the craftsmanship in terms of the level of detail,” he said. “Especially when you consider the primitive nature of their tools.”

“Somebody put a lot of time into that angel,” he added with a smile. “And now it’s going to be seen again.”