Holy bones, holy dust: how relics shaped the history of Medieval Europe / Charles Freeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freeman, Charles, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Relics--History--To 1500.

Relics.

Christian saints--Cult--History--To 1500.

Christian saints.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (306 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Relics were everywhere in medieval society. Saintly morsels such as bones, hair, teeth, blood, milk, and clothes, and items like the Crown of Thorns were thought to bring the believer closer to the saint, who might intercede with God on his or her behalf. This book presents an illustrated exploration of 1000 years of holy relics across Europe.

Contents:

Prologue: the making of a martyr

How the Christian relic emerged

The incorruptible flesh of the martyrs

Creating a Christian landscape

The battle for acceptance

The view from Byzantium

Bishops, magic and relics in the post-Roman world

'A barbarous, fierce and unbelieving nation'

The great consolidator

Hope and desperation in a disordered world

Cults and the rise of anti-semitism

Fervent Christian pilgrims

'The eyes are fed with gold-bedecked reliquaries'

Looting the East

Louis IX and the Sainte-Chapelle

Sacred flesh between death and resurrection

'Christ's recruits ... fight back'

Protectors of il Popolo

The Virgin Mary and the penitent whore

The wondrous blood of Christ

Rescuers and devils

'Of far-off saints, hallowed in sundry lands'

'dead images that ... may not ... help any man of any disease'

Protestantism and the new iconoclasm

Intimations of reality

Reasserting the miraculous

Within the community of the supernatural.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-296) and index.

ISBN:

0-300-16659-1

OCLC:

1024016341