Bones to Stones: Medieval Pilgrimage Culture

Catalog description

Dry bones, rotted flesh and discarded teeth — these were the heart of medieval pilgrimage culture. The bodily remains of the holy dead, saints and martyrs, spurred thousands of devout believers throughout the Middle Ages to travel to far off lands to venerate these abject traces. This lecture course, while anchored in Western Europe, will consider pilgrimage as a cross-cultural phenomenon, focussing on the resplendent arts, notably reliquaries, and architecture that developed to accommodate the desire to venerate bodily remains of the sacred.