Often priests will be given old religious articles, Bibles, or sacramentals to be destroyed. These items need to be either buried or burned, due to their blessing.
But sometimes there are hidden "gems" that can be restored, instead of being buried underground.
Such was the case with an old communion pyx entrusted to Fr. Patrick Hyde, OP.
He posted on X the work he did to rescue a beautiful pyx that still had some life left in it.
What is a pyx?
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The word pyx (Lat., pyxis, which transliterates the Greek, pyxis, box-wood receptacle, from pyxos, box-tree) was formerly applied in a wide and general sense to all vessels used to contain the Blessed Eucharist.“
Eventually the pyx became associated chiefly with the small, usually golden, receptacle that is used to carry the consecrated hosts to the sick or homebound.
The next time you rummage through old religious articles, you might have something that can still be used with a little elbow grease!
