Bones that continue the martyr's service
his dry bones could heal cities in pestilence
The bones are relics: bodily remains through which Christians believed divine healing and protection could continue after a saint's death. Ambrose's Letter 22 to Marcellina describes the discovery and ceremonial transfer of the remains attributed to Gervasius and Protasius in Milan. He reports a blind man's healing during the transfer (§2), further healings through contact with the relics (§9), and the deposition of the martyrs beneath the altar (§13). He presents them as defenders able to help the community (§10). These are Ambrose's religious claims, preserved in a contemporary participant's account, rather than independently established medical outcomes. Ambrose, Letter 22, §§2, 9–10, 13.
This background sharpens Chesterton's argument: the martyr's body remains a source of communal life, making the opposing image of contaminating bones especially violent. The passage does not name a saint or an epidemic, and the Milanese example should not be mistaken for identification of a particular allusion. Nor does its evidence establish the converse claim that another person's remains literally pollute fellow Christians.
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