Table Of ContentRelics, Shrines and Pilgrimages
Since Late Antiquity, relics have provided a privileged spiritual bond between
life and death, between human beings and divinity. Royalty, nobility, and
clergy all tried to obtain the most prestigious remains of sacred bodies, since
they granted influence and fame and allowed the cult around them to be
used as a means of sacralization, power, and propaganda. This volume traces
the development of the veneration of relics in Europe and how these objects
were often catalysts for the establishment of major pilgrimage sites that are
still in use today.
T he book features an international panel of contributors taking a wide-
ranging look at relic worship across Europe, from Late Antiquity until the
present day. The book begins with a focus on the role of relics in Jacobean
pilgrimage, before looking at the link between relics and their shrines more
generally. The focus then shifts to two major issues in the study of relics: the
stealing of relics (furta sacra) and their modern-day scientific examination
and authentication. These topics demonstrate not only symbolic importance
of relics but also their role as physical historical objects in material religious
expression.
T his is a fascinating collection, featuring the latest scholarship on relics
and pilgrimage across Europe. It will therefore be of great interested to
academics working in pilgrimage, religious history, material religion and
religious studies as well as anthropology, archaeology, art and cultural studies.
T his book has been undertaken within the framework of the research
project of the Spanish Government entitled “Las peregrinaciones a Santiago
de Compostela en la España de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX: entre
tradición y modernidad en el contexto europeo”. MINEICO, Programa
Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia,
Subprograma Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento, 2015–2017, IP:
Dr. Antón M. Pazos (CSIC), HAR2014–58753.
A ntón M. Pazos is currently a member of the Pontifical Committee of
Historical Sciences and Vice President of the International Commission for
History and Studies of Christianity (CIHEC). He is also Deputy Director
of the Instituto de Estudios Gallegos Padre Sarmiento (IEGPS), Spanish
National Research Council (CSIC) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and
a member of the editorial committees of the journals Hispania Sacra and
C uadernos de Estudios Gallegos. At the IEGPS he is the coordinator of
a line of research into pilgrimage, which has been the driving force behind
several research projects, especially in the organization of the International
Colloquia Compostela.
Relics, Shrines and Pilgrimages
Sanctity in Europe from Late Antiquity
Edited by Antón M. Pazos
F irst published 2020
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Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
Contributors ix
Introduction: relics, holiness, and devotion 1
ANTÓN M. PAZOS
1 Relics as historical objects: overview, methods, and prospects 11
PHILIPPE GEORGE
PART 1
The relics of St James in Europe 39
2 Relics and pilgrimages of St James the Greater in France 41
ADELINE RUCQUOI
3 Keeping the Angevin peace: the hand of St James in England 63
SIMON YARROW
4 Roncesvalles as a reliquary on the way to Santiago 78
JOSÉ ANDRÉS-GALLEGO, MERCEDES UNZU, MARÍA PERÉX,
CARLOS ZUZA, NICOLÁS ZUAZÚA, AND MARÍA
GARCÍA-BARBERENA
5 Visiting the Apostle Santiago: pilgrimages to Santiago
de Compostela in the 16th to 19th centuries 92
OFELIA REY CASTELAO
6 The course and consequences of the reinventio of the relics
of St James in 1879 109
ANTÓN M. PAZOS
vi Contents
PART 2
Furta sacra 129
7 The theft of relics in the Middle Ages: arguments, typology,
and legitimacy 131
EDINA BOZOKY
8 Furta sacra in southern Italy in the Middle Ages 146
AMALIA GALDI
9 The Three Magi: places of worship in Cologne Cathedral 164
KLAUS HARDERING
PART 3
The resilience of relics and shrines 179
10 Mobile martyrs and forgotten shrines: the translation
and domestication of relics in post-reformation England 181
ALEXANDRA WALSHAM
11 The life of dry bones: pilgrimage to relic shrines in Soviet
Russia 203
STELLA ROCK
PART 4
Relics and science 223
12 The relics of the True Cross: an interdisciplinary approach 225
GEORGES KAZAN AND THOMAS HIGHAM
13 The relics of St John in the monastery on the island
of Sveti Ivan near Sozopol, Bulgaria: archaeological
and scientific research 247
KAZIMIR POPKONSTANTINOV AND ROSSINA KOSTOVA
Index 263
Figures
4.1 The archaeological site of Ibañeta 84
9.1 Shrine of the Three Magi, Cologne Cathedral 167
1 0.1 The shrine of Thomas Becket prior to demolition 185
1 0.2 “The Pedlar’s Chest” 193
11.1 St Simeon of Verkhoturye’s sarcophagus, 1910 206
11.2 “Bless you!” 209
12.1 Proposed layout of major relics of the Wood
at Constantinople in c . 680 232
13.1 The marble reliquary 251
Tables
5.1 Patient admissions to Santiago Royal Hospital 101
5.2 Patient admissions to different hospitals 102
Contributors
José Andrés-Gallego , PhD in Philosophy and Letters (University of Navarra).
Emeritus Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in
the Instituto de Historia (Madrid). Former President of the Catholic Uni-
versity of Ávila.
Edina Bozoky , Emeritus Professor at the University of Poitiers. Member of
the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilization Médiévale. She works
on medieval religion, in particular on cults of saints and on relics and
miracles.
Amalia Galdi, Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of
Salerno, specialist in religious history and, in particular, the cults of the
saints and hagiographic literature in Italy between the eighth and the
14th centuries.
María García-Barberena, PhD in History. Archaeologist of the Gabinete
Trama (Pamplona).
P hilippe George, PhD in Philosophy and Letters (University of Liège). Cura-
tor of the Treasure of the Cathedral of Liège. Former President of the
Institut Archeologique Liégeois. Correspondant of the Societé Nationale
des Antiquaires de France.
K laus Hardering, PhD in History, studied history of art, historical geogra-
phy, and town planning in Bonn and Leiden. Head of Cologne Cathedral
Archive since 2007. Academic assistant at Cologne Cathedral from 1990.
Thomas Higham , Professor of Archaeological Science and Director of the
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford. Co-founder
of the Oxford Relics Cluster at Keble College, Oxford.
G eorges Kazan, DPhil (Oxon) in Archaeology. Collegium Fellow, Turku Insti-
tute for Advanced Studies & Department of Archaeology, University of
Turku. Research Associate, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford.
Co-founder of the Oxford Relics Cluster at Keble College, Oxford .
Rossina Kostova , PhD in History (Central European University, Budapest).
Associate Professor of Medieval Archaeology of Bulgaria and the Balkans
