"We need them more than we ever have. Saints are people who lived contrary lives; they don't march to the tune of society. That contrary point of view makes for a remarkable life," he said. "Ultimately, that's what God is calling us to do."

Juan Diego Catholic High School students are a lot like other Utah teens, whipping out cell phones as soon as they exit the building, playing loud hip-hop from their car stereos while cruising out of the parking lot. Ask them whether saints have anything to do with their everyday travels, and they might surprise you.

"My patron saint is St. Anthony," said D'Ambrosio, the Salt Lake senior. He misplaces things, and often turns to Anthony, known as the patron saint of lost causes. One weekend in mid-October, D'Ambrosio lost his wallet. With no idea where it could have gone, he said prayers Saturday, followed them with more on Sunday, and went to school empty-pocketed on Monday.

"Someone found my wallet in the parking lot," he said. "I was stoked."

St. Cecelia, the patron saint of music, inspires Rosa Stahla, another Juan Diego senior. "I saw her relics in Rome, and they moved me so much." A pianist and singer, Stahla considers Cecelia a kind of role model. Standing close to pieces of the saint's harp was an experience like no other, she said.

Members of the public, Catholic or not, are invited to venerate Juan Diego's tilma between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Nov. 7, and between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Nov. 8. To venerate means to "pause and contemplate prayerfully," Colosimo explained. "It does not mean to worship," since relics are only a symbol of God's presence, not God themselves.

In learning and thinking about Juan Diego's life, people have an opportunity to explore some spiritual questions, he added. Those might include "How does the relic move me in my faith life? When I pause and consider Juan Diego's journey, what value does it have in my life today?"

Relics and other symbols of faith link people across the borders of time and space, added Monsignor Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general of the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese. People make pilgrimages to churches containing relics, he said, for much the same reason they keep pictures of their late grandparents on their desks. "These images are reminders, keeping us connected."

As people research their family trees, some also find themselves interested in the lives of the saints, he said. "They are our ancestors in faith."

Catholics believe in the "Communion of saints," an all-embracing family of hope. "So even though I'm in Salt Lake City, Utah, I'm connected to Assisi," where St. Francis walked, "and to the Guadalupe" of St. Juan Diego.

Colosimo emphasized that one need not be Catholic or of any particular ethnicity to visit the school and find out about the tilma. In fact, 23 percent of Juan Diego High's students aren't Catholic. Marcus Eldridge, 17, is part of that minority. While the tilma's arrival "is not a huge spiritual thing" to him, he's looking forward to the commotion. "I think it's a good event," he said, "because it brings people together."