The Vatican has been overwhelmed by requests for ‘second class relics’ offered to anyone who makes contact with the Vicariate of Rome.

A tiny shred of one of the white robes belonging to the late Pope Jean Paul II is being offered free to anyone who visits the Vatican’s website or makes contact via fax or letter.

The relic also includes a prayer card, which thanks God for “having given Pope John Paul II to the Church and for having made the tenderness of your paternity, the glory of Christ’s cross and the splendour of the Holy Spirit shine within him”.

The items were offered after it was discovered that tourists were buying fake relics in St Peter’s Square.

The relics are referred to as second class because John Paul has not yet been sainted. A first class relic is usually as piece of a saint’s skeleton.

Spokesman Monsignor Marco Fibbi said: “We heard people were rubbing pieces of material on the Holy Father’s tomb and them selling them as holy. We decided we would give out pieces of his robe for free.

“We did not know it would be so popular.”