Priest captivated by churchgoer’s saintly memorial (5)
I believe the answer is:
relic
'saintly memorial' is the definition.
'relic' can be an answer for 'memorial' (object kept to remember a holy person). I'm not sure about the 'saintly' bit.
'priest captivated by churchgoer's' is the wordplay.
'priest' becomes 'eli' (biblical figure).
'captivated by' is an insertion indicator.
'churchgoer' becomes 'rc' (abbreviation for Roman Catholic).
'eli' placed inside 'rc' is 'RELIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for relic that I've seen before include "Object that has survived from the past" , "Object surviving from earlier times" , "Piece left over" , "item of historic interest" , "Keepsake, of a saint say" .)