Eastern relics and reliquaries in Francia (6th - 9th c.) and their ways of dissemination (original) (raw)

Eastern relics and reliquaries in Francia (6th - 9th c.) and their ways of dissemination

The cult of saints in Gaul during the Merovingian and Carolingian period is embedded in the general emergence of relics and saints’ cults during Late Antiquity, but must be understood as a particular feature of the developing Frankish Christianity. One can estimate at least 120 different local Gallic saints connected with corresponding relics that were venerated in the 6th century AD. Apart from these, saints and relics from the East are also mentioned in written sources, but the distribution of their cults seems to be limited. So the focus of the paper is to analyze this phenomenon: Which proves for eastern Saints and relics exist in the West and under which circumstances have they been disseminated in Francia? Which persons had been involved in the exchange process? What can we learn about the connection between the Franks and the East, especially the Byzantine Empire? And what impact did the relics have for the church, parish or region they had been transferred to?