Bishops and Relics in the Late Antique Mediterranean_Workshop: THE CULT OF RELICS IN THE LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN (original) (raw)
Related papers
Du M ba rton oa k S r e S e a rCH l i br a ry a n D Col l eC t ion © 2015 Dumbarton oaks research library and Collection trustees for Harvard university Washington, D.C. all rights reserved. printed in the united States of america. L i br a ry of Congr ess C ata logi ng -i n-Pu bl ic at ion Data Saints and sacred matter: the cult of relics in byzantium and beyond / edited by Cynthia Hahn and Holger a. klein. -First [edition]. pages cm. -(Dumbarton oaks byzantine symposia and colloquia) includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-88402-406-4 (alk. paper) 1. relics-byzantine empire. 2. byzantine empire-religious life and customs. i. Hahn, Cynthia J. (Cynthia Jean), editor. ii. klein, Holger a., editor. bv890.s24 2015 235�.2-dc23 2015000615 managing editor: Joel kalvesmaki Text design and composition: Melissa tandysh www.doaks.org/publications
Eastern, Western and Local Habits in the Early Cult of Relics, Studia Patristica 91 (2017), 283-296
The cult of relics emerged in Christendom only in the 4 th century, but then it spread with an astonishing speed. This article addresses the questions of whether in this process this new phenomenon remained uniform or evolved locally, and especially whether the general distinction between eastern and western customs is useful for its description. I will argue that several practices indeed developed in specific places and remained more popular in their regions of origin. However, these practices did proliferate and if the diversity of customs in this field never disappeared, it is due to limited contacts between different regions and to the lack of interest in making the cult of relics homogeneous, and not to any profoundly different views on how the remains of saints should be venerated.
The paper discusses 57 relics from the Holy Land in the Roman Sancta Sanctorum Chapel, collected by the Popes from ca. 600 to 900 A. D. Using statistical analysis it is designed to answer the following questions: (1) What information does the Lateran treasure provide concerning the way relics were acquired in early Islamic Palestine and the practices of post-antique pilgrimage? (2) What conclusions regarding their agents and bearers can be drawn from the quality, accessibility, and topographical distribution of these relics? (3) Through what ways and political channels did the relics come to Rome and to the papal court? (4) What were the prevailing political, social, and economic conditions that allowed for the high mobility of relics between Jerusalem and Rome in the early Middle Ages?
Du M ba rton oa k S r e S e a rCH l i br a ry a n D Col l eC t ion © 2015 Dumbarton oaks research library and Collection trustees for Harvard university Washington, D.C. all rights reserved. printed in the united States of america. L i br a ry of Congr ess C ata logi ng -i n-Pu bl ic at ion Data Saints and sacred matter: the cult of relics in byzantium and beyond / edited by Cynthia Hahn and Holger a. klein. -First [edition]. pages cm. -(Dumbarton oaks byzantine symposia and colloquia) includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-88402-406-4 (alk. paper) 1. relics-byzantine empire. 2. byzantine empire-religious life and customs. i. Hahn, Cynthia J. (Cynthia Jean), editor. ii. klein, Holger a., editor. bv890.s24 2015 235�.2-dc23 2015000615 managing editor: Joel kalvesmaki Text design and composition: Melissa tandysh www.doaks.org/publications
The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics, OUP, Oxford 2019 (TOC and a sample chapter)
Christians have often admired and venerated the martyrs who died for their faith, but for a long time thought that the bodies of martyrs should remain undisturbed in their graves. Initially, the Christian attitude toward the bones of the dead, saint or not, was that of respectful distance. The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics examines how this attitude changed in the mid-fourth century. Robert Wiśniewski investigates how Christians began to believe in the power of relics, first over demons, then over physical diseases and enemies. He considers how the faithful sought to reveal hidden knowledge at the tombs of saints and why they buried the dead close to them. An essential element of this new belief was a strong conviction that the power of relics was transferred in a physical way and so the following chapters study relics as material objects. Wiśniewski analyses how contact with relics operated and how close it was. Did people touch, kiss, or look at the very bones, or just at tombs and reliquaries which contained them? When did the custom of dividing relics begin? Finally, the book deals with discussions and polemics concerning relics and attempts to find out the strength of the opposition which this new phenomenon had to face, both within and outside Christianity, on its way to becoming an essential element of medieval religiosity.
Du M ba rton oa k S r e S e a rCH l i br a ry a n D Col l eC t ion © 2015 Dumbarton oaks research library and Collection trustees for Harvard university Washington, D.C. all rights reserved. printed in the united States of america. L i br a ry of Congr ess C ata logi ng -i n-Pu bl ic at ion Data Saints and sacred matter: the cult of relics in byzantium and beyond / edited by Cynthia Hahn and Holger a. klein. -First [edition]. pages cm. -(Dumbarton oaks byzantine symposia and colloquia) includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-88402-406-4 (alk. paper) 1. relics-byzantine empire. 2. byzantine empire-religious life and customs. i. Hahn, Cynthia J. (Cynthia Jean), editor. ii. klein, Holger a., editor. bv890.s24 2015 235�.2-dc23 2015000615 managing editor: Joel kalvesmaki Text design and composition: Melissa tandysh www.doaks.org/publications
Among th e defi n i ng di f fer ences bet w een th e wor ld of th e Roman Empire in its pagan polytheist dispensation and its long life as a Christian commonwealthwhat we now call Byzantium-the question of how the holy was understood must be central. I am going to argue that one aspect of the Christian, and especially the Byzantine, redefinition of the holy lies in its passage into a hidden space of mysterious (even mystic) secrecy whose existence was announced and access to which was enabled through material framing and visual representation. That redefinition was already in formation among the various pagan mystery cults (such as Mithraism, with its underground, cavelike temples), which belonged, with Christianity and Judaism, to the great and vibrant substructure of religions, alongside more normative civic cults and the imperial cult, with their open-air spaces for ritual and sacrifice.1 The origins of secrecy in relation to the holy thus go deep into pre-Christian antiquity, with ancient sources such as Pausanias reporting numerous instances of closed shrines, deities available for epiphany on special occasions-sometimes only one day in the year-rituals and myths that can be revealed only to initiates.2 But central to the Christian articulation of these issues is the rise of the cult of relics and the relation of holy material to its packaging and presentation.