Dear Chris:

No it is not appropriate to collect "relics" of living people if you mean by relics the religious relics recognized by the Church.

To begin with, no matter how "saintly" the living person may seem, they may not qualify to be a canonized Saint. The only way we can know if a person is a Saint is after they are dead and the Church declares them to be a Saint.

You can certainly collect souvenirs of anyone, but these are not "relics" in the religious sense.

The term "relic" in the context of religion and saints is defined solely as stemming from canonized saints.

The formal definition of relic from Fr. Hardon's Catholic Dictionary is:

An object connected with a saint, e.g., part of the body or clothing or something the person had used or touched. Authentic relics are venerated with the Church's warm approbation. They may not be bought or sold. Those of a martyr are placed in the altar stone at the consecration of an altar. Relics are of three classes: the first is part of the saint's body and is the type placed in the altar stone; the second is part of the clothing or anything used during the saint's life; and the third is any other object, such as a piece of cloth, that has been touched to a first-class relic. (Etym. Latin religuiae, remains.)

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary