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Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe
Relics were everywhere in medieval society. Saintly morsels such as bones, hair, teeth, blood, milk, and clothes, and items like the Crown of Thorns, coveted by Louis IX of France, were thought to bring the believer closer to the saint, who might intercede with God on his or her behalf. In the first comprehensive history in English of the rise of relic cults, Charles Freeman takes readers on a vivid, fast-paced journey from Constantinople to the northern Isles of Scotland over the course of a millennium. In Holy Bones, Holy Dust , Freeman illustrates that the pervasiveness and variety of relics answered very specific needs of ordinary people across a darkened Europe under threat of political upheavals, disease, and hellfire. But relics were not only venerated—they were traded, collected, lost, stolen, duplicated, and destroyed. They were bargaining chips, good business and good propaganda, politically appropriated across Europe, and even used to wield military power. Freeman examines an expansive array of relics, showing how the mania for these objects deepens our understanding of the medieval world and why these relics continue to capture our imagination.
306 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2011
28 people are currently reading
400 people want to read
About the author
Charles Freeman
63 books120 followersCharles Freeman is a freelance academic historian with wide interests in the history of European culture and thought. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Egypt, Greece and Rome, Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean. He has followed this up with The Greek Achievement (Penguin 1999), The Legacy of Ancient Egypt (Facts on File, 1997) and The Closing of the Western Mind, a study of the relationship between Greek philosophy and Christianity in the fourth century and beyond. His The Horses of St. Mark’s (Little Brown, 2004) is a study of these famous works of art in their historical contexts over the centuries. In 2003, Charles Freeman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 23, 2019
Magic, effected either by angels or devils, pervaded the medieval world.
and i snapped.
я була готова читати цю книжку навіть після слів про поклоніння святим (насправді вшанування) як по суті політеїзм (насправді ні), бо народна побожність і зараз викидає дивовижні коні, що вже казати про менш поінформованих середньовічних вірних. я готова була пробачити йому зверхність у ставленні до культури, з якою він себе не ідентифікує, хоча у 2010-х це вже не дуже комільфо*. але коли мужик, який береться пояснювати середньовіччя, плутає чудеса з магією, а дію бога/диявола з дією ангелів/демонів, уже ніяких готовностей не вистачає. це ж треба так облажатися в одному простому реченні.
а шкода, у мене були надії на цей текст.
* хто б сумнівався, одна з його книжок так і зветься: «the closing of the western mind: the rise of faith and the fall of reason».
and i snapped.
я була готова читати цю книжку навіть після слів про поклоніння святим (насправді вшанування) як по суті політеїзм (насправді ні), бо народна побожність і зараз викидає дивовижні коні, що вже казати про менш поінформованих середньовічних вірних. я готова була пробачити йому зверхність у ставленні до культури, з якою він себе не ідентифікує, хоча у 2010-х це вже не дуже комільфо*. але коли мужик, який береться пояснювати середньовіччя, плутає чудеса з магією, а дію бога/диявола з дією ангелів/демонів, уже ніяких готовностей не вистачає. це ж треба так облажатися в одному простому реченні.
а шкода, у мене були надії на цей текст.
* хто б сумнівався, одна з його книжок так і зветься: «the closing of the western mind: the rise of faith and the fall of reason».
July 10, 2011
If you’ve read A Morbid Taste for Bones, Ellis Peter’s medieval murder-mystery, you will understand just how important holy relics were for any aspiring religious institution of the day, not just bones but skin, hair, finger and toe nails, blood, hearts, anything associated with the saintly. And the trade wasn’t just in body parts. Bits of the true cross, the crown of thorns, the nails of the crucifixion, they were all there, right across the Christian world.
The thing is, you see, relics were big business; relics brought fame, fame brought pilgrims, pilgrims brought money. Where there is a demand there will always be a supply, with the suppliers not all that scrupulous or that bothered with authenticity. Saint Mary Magdalene must have been the oddest looking person who ever lived. She had eighteen arms. That’s not so bad, I suppose, because they had to be spread across five bodies!
It’s easy to smile with condescension from the sceptical heights of the present on the gullible enthusiasms of the past. But relics and the pursuit of relics was in so many ways the defining feature of medieval Christianity, both in the Catholic west and the Orthodox east. In Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe Charles Freeman does a first-class job of putting the whole thing in proper perspective, in a fashion that is both scholarly and entertaining.
The passion for body parts defined medieval Christianity, separating it from the classical past, where pagan writers associated it with necromancy and witchcraft, or from a Judaic tradition which found the practice wholly repugnant. But for the Christians of the Middle Ages, the high noon of faith, relics were far more than objects of morbid curiosity or simple veneration; they had power, the power of the living Christ and the saints; the power to heal, the power to work all sorts of miracles.
When I was nineteen I walked with a group of friends on the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Saint James the Greater, son of Zebedee, were supposedly laid to rest in the early Middle Ages. We went as curious tourists but for the millions who came before us, those who trod this way in earlier centuries, a visit to the saint was a way of lessening the burden of sin, of decreasing the time one had to spend in purgatory.
It couldn’t go on, of course. As faith waned credulity waned also, not all that surprising when one considers that Rome boasted along with the heads of Peter and Paul some of the manna from heaven, five loaves and two fishes from the feeding of the five thousand – clearly well past their use by date – and the foreskin of Jesus, the only fleshy part he left on earth. Elsewhere one could find the breast milk of the Virgin Mary in such abundance that John Calvin, the reformer, observed “Had the Virgin been a wet-nurse her whole life, or a dairy, she could not have produced more than is shown as hers.”
A lot of it is dryly amusing, the obvious fraud which must have been obvious even at the time, but Freeman tells his story without condescension. Relics are no longer fashionable, not even in the Catholic Church, but its owing to them that we can still admire splendid reliquaries or, more important, the churches and cathedrals that were built to magnify them. These bones, as Freeman suggests, shaped the Gothic, grand reliquaries of light and space.
Freeman, as all good historians should, attempts to understand the past in its own terms. In Holy Bones, Holy Dust he explorers the way in which relics played a part in past identities, in the religious experience of ordinary people, that cross-section of humanity that Chaucer brought so vividly to life on the pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
Freeman’s book is an excellent reminder that relics were once central to human identity. Once, I wrote, but pause for a moment and think. Relics, the veneration of objects, might be said never to have gone away, merely to have degenerated into a secular form. Here we are in an age where people on EBay determinedly bid for an item associated with celebrities, living or dead, things that carry no promise or power whatsoever.
I can picture in my mind’s eye the pilgrims gathered at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, ready to set out for Canterbury. I bequeath on them the miracle of foresight, the ability to look into the modern age. See how they laugh at our credulity.
The thing is, you see, relics were big business; relics brought fame, fame brought pilgrims, pilgrims brought money. Where there is a demand there will always be a supply, with the suppliers not all that scrupulous or that bothered with authenticity. Saint Mary Magdalene must have been the oddest looking person who ever lived. She had eighteen arms. That’s not so bad, I suppose, because they had to be spread across five bodies!
It’s easy to smile with condescension from the sceptical heights of the present on the gullible enthusiasms of the past. But relics and the pursuit of relics was in so many ways the defining feature of medieval Christianity, both in the Catholic west and the Orthodox east. In Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe Charles Freeman does a first-class job of putting the whole thing in proper perspective, in a fashion that is both scholarly and entertaining.
The passion for body parts defined medieval Christianity, separating it from the classical past, where pagan writers associated it with necromancy and witchcraft, or from a Judaic tradition which found the practice wholly repugnant. But for the Christians of the Middle Ages, the high noon of faith, relics were far more than objects of morbid curiosity or simple veneration; they had power, the power of the living Christ and the saints; the power to heal, the power to work all sorts of miracles.
When I was nineteen I walked with a group of friends on the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Saint James the Greater, son of Zebedee, were supposedly laid to rest in the early Middle Ages. We went as curious tourists but for the millions who came before us, those who trod this way in earlier centuries, a visit to the saint was a way of lessening the burden of sin, of decreasing the time one had to spend in purgatory.
It couldn’t go on, of course. As faith waned credulity waned also, not all that surprising when one considers that Rome boasted along with the heads of Peter and Paul some of the manna from heaven, five loaves and two fishes from the feeding of the five thousand – clearly well past their use by date – and the foreskin of Jesus, the only fleshy part he left on earth. Elsewhere one could find the breast milk of the Virgin Mary in such abundance that John Calvin, the reformer, observed “Had the Virgin been a wet-nurse her whole life, or a dairy, she could not have produced more than is shown as hers.”
A lot of it is dryly amusing, the obvious fraud which must have been obvious even at the time, but Freeman tells his story without condescension. Relics are no longer fashionable, not even in the Catholic Church, but its owing to them that we can still admire splendid reliquaries or, more important, the churches and cathedrals that were built to magnify them. These bones, as Freeman suggests, shaped the Gothic, grand reliquaries of light and space.
Freeman, as all good historians should, attempts to understand the past in its own terms. In Holy Bones, Holy Dust he explorers the way in which relics played a part in past identities, in the religious experience of ordinary people, that cross-section of humanity that Chaucer brought so vividly to life on the pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
Freeman’s book is an excellent reminder that relics were once central to human identity. Once, I wrote, but pause for a moment and think. Relics, the veneration of objects, might be said never to have gone away, merely to have degenerated into a secular form. Here we are in an age where people on EBay determinedly bid for an item associated with celebrities, living or dead, things that carry no promise or power whatsoever.
I can picture in my mind’s eye the pilgrims gathered at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, ready to set out for Canterbury. I bequeath on them the miracle of foresight, the ability to look into the modern age. See how they laugh at our credulity.
November 22, 2018
This is one of those books I wish I could review without leaving a rating. The tone the author takes is mildly ironic and sarcastic at times, seeming to indicate his own disbelief that anyone could take relics (his subject) seriously. At times I swear I could actually hear him rolling his eyes. Which as a reader made me think, "He's right; this is silly. Why am I even reading this book??" That made my relationship to the book only 2 stars.
However, it's obvious the author has done extensive study on the subject and, though not exhaustive, contained a wonderful amount of information. The anecdotal style keeps it readable and, dare I say it, entertaining. That would earn it 4 stars. So, 3 stars it is.
However, it's obvious the author has done extensive study on the subject and, though not exhaustive, contained a wonderful amount of information. The anecdotal style keeps it readable and, dare I say it, entertaining. That would earn it 4 stars. So, 3 stars it is.
April 24, 2025
This is a wonderful and very readable history (actually I will qualify the history bit a few lines) of relics and the central place they held in the history of Christianity up to the reformation - and on this the book is excellent but what Mr. Freeman like all authors on this subject fail to recount is how central relics were, and for many, still are in the lives of most Catholics.
When I was a schoolboy in Ireland in The 1970s I was taken to see the head of blessed (now Saint) Oliver Plunkett in Drogheda cathedral - the same head in its gilded reliquary was there on the alter in Phoenix Park Dublin when Pope John Paul II on his first international visit (aside from Poland), when archbishop Oscar Romero (now a saint) was gun downed by right wing militia in his cathedral saying mass his bloody vestments were cut up and distributed as relics. About fifteen years ago a fifteen year old (deceased) boy was named blessed (one step below full canonization) his body is in a glass coffin in Assisi in Italy (covered in wax so he looks lifelike) and various relics have been sent to churches in England and the USA (and maybe elsewhere) were they are venerated as a very continuing part of the belief of catholic's.
Relics are still an essential part of Catholic belief - and of course even more so in the various orthodox churches - so although it is subject that may seem bizarre it is always unfortunate to treat it as some long forgotten habit - it has retained a startling relevance to an awful lot of people long after most reformation beliefs have been abandoned - does any one in the Anglican church still believe in those 39 articles that used to define what the believed?
But, as an account of the relic' phenomena before the reformation this book is first rate and free of the patronising superiority such often receive.
When I was a schoolboy in Ireland in The 1970s I was taken to see the head of blessed (now Saint) Oliver Plunkett in Drogheda cathedral - the same head in its gilded reliquary was there on the alter in Phoenix Park Dublin when Pope John Paul II on his first international visit (aside from Poland), when archbishop Oscar Romero (now a saint) was gun downed by right wing militia in his cathedral saying mass his bloody vestments were cut up and distributed as relics. About fifteen years ago a fifteen year old (deceased) boy was named blessed (one step below full canonization) his body is in a glass coffin in Assisi in Italy (covered in wax so he looks lifelike) and various relics have been sent to churches in England and the USA (and maybe elsewhere) were they are venerated as a very continuing part of the belief of catholic's.
Relics are still an essential part of Catholic belief - and of course even more so in the various orthodox churches - so although it is subject that may seem bizarre it is always unfortunate to treat it as some long forgotten habit - it has retained a startling relevance to an awful lot of people long after most reformation beliefs have been abandoned - does any one in the Anglican church still believe in those 39 articles that used to define what the believed?
But, as an account of the relic' phenomena before the reformation this book is first rate and free of the patronising superiority such often receive.
January 3, 2012
Just how many times WAS Jesus circumcized? Based on the number of foreskins that were held as "relics"--many times. Freeman manages to show the absurdity of much of the world of relic hunting and "worshiping" without denigrating Christianity or Catholicism. I learned things I didn't know, for instance about indulgences. I knew you could earn them from pilgrimages and from crusading but I didn't realize how pervasive they were. You could (and some did) accumulate tens of thousands of years of relief from purgatory just from visiting certain churches and relics.
I would have liked to see more discussion of the "why." He touches briefly on this at the end when he points to how Reformation thinkers left the terror of hell but took away the comfort of relics and indulgences.
I would have liked to see more discussion of the "why." He touches briefly on this at the end when he points to how Reformation thinkers left the terror of hell but took away the comfort of relics and indulgences.
April 16, 2021
Title: Holy Bones, Holy Dust
Author: Charles Freeman
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publishing Date: 2011
Pgs: 306 pages
Dewey: 235.2 FRE
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Reliquary and Saint cults began growing almost from Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary, though the foundation of the Church in Rome expanded and strengthened the growth. Relics were omnipresent in the medieval world. Bones, teeth, hair, blood, milk, clothes, things they touched, and items, such as the Crown of Thorns...objects to bring the believer closer to the Saints and allow the Saints to intercede on the penitent’s behalf with God. This is a history of the rise of the relic cults in Europe. The Dark Ages, political upheaval, disease, and the threat of hellfire, amid this, relics were venerated and generated a trade and financial aspect on top of the religious motif; traded, collected, lost, stolen, sold, duplicated, destroyed, bargained with, fought wars with and over, and propaganda.
_________________________________________
Genre:
History
Religion
Religious Antiquities and Archaeology
Antiquities
Archaeology
Saints and Sainthood
Christianity
Chrisitan Church History
Why this book:
Wanted stories of the Saints, I got an education in the “miracles” and reliquary cults that falls within my cynical purview.
_________________________________________
Favorite Concept:
And finally, someone I agree with. I find myself in agreement with Basil of Caesarea. “As the sun does not need the lamp light, so, also, the Church and the congregation can do without the remains of Martyrs. It is sufficient to venerate the name of Christ for the church...redeemed by his blood.”
Hmm Moments:
The martyrdoms and the Saints and what's done with their bodies; bits of bone, dust, hair, etc sounds a lot like Wild West Medicine Show bushwa, just in a BC/Medieval European setting instead of the Old West.
So the Cross as a weapon of victory is an Anglo-Saxon pastiche, probably based on the reliquary cults of Roman Empire and Medieval Christianity
King Oswald of Northumbria seems very Arthur-like.
An incorruptible body laid long in the tomb...isn't that a vampire not a Saint?
So, the incorruptible bodies of the Saints may have been a function of the anointing of the body with spices, post-death, in effect, embalming the body, per Bede. And, at least, in the case of Cuthbert, bodies were so anointed that their shrouds and burial clothes were glued to their body. Well, of course, they appear uncorrupted. Effectively, they’ve been lacquered.
If all the fragments of the True Cross that are, supposedly, in all the church and all the reliquaries, all over the whole of Europe, were actual parts of the True Cross than the True Cross must have been three or four stories tall.
As the heavenly indulgences to lessen a soul’s time in purgatory became commonplace and the reliquary cults became more financial institutions and tourist traps than holy shrines, it was only a matter of time before someone like Martin Luther was going to come along.
WTF Moments:
St. Bernard was a freak. Holy milk from a statue of the Virgin Mary. Blaugh. How many of these people drinking from the breast of a statue or making tea from the dust or fragments of Saints gave themselves horribly diseases later in life? ...it is to vomit.
The idea that the sickly sweet smell coming from corpses is divine is disgusting. The very thought of what people were doing with these decomposing bodies is gross and horrific. No wonder the plague kept trying to kill all of them.
John of Damascus saying that fragrant oils burst forth from the corpses of saints. Amazing they didn't all die sooner. It’s not like those people were embalmed back then.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
What I wanted to read was something of the lives of the saints. I expected spiritualism, maybe some wisdom, maybe some owners manual for the human soul kind of stuff. Instead this took me through a history of fairy tale polytheism dressed up as Christian thought about guys asking to be turned over on the spit like Lawrence in Rome in the midst of his martyrdom. Cause you gotta be done on both sides for Jesus, right?
With all this mixing dust with water or splinters with water and drinking it, I'm surprised more of these people didn't die from their saintly cures.
Pope Gregory the 7th declaring that all of his predecessors were saints and that it should be assumed for all popes unless proved otherwise. … ...considering the political juxtaposition that seep into these elections being more powerful than the ecclesiastical. C’mon, man.
The Sigh:
Ambrose of Milan creating his own Christian Martyrs out of whole cloth and promulgating them to Sainthood is a paradigm that became a self-fulfilling prophecy repeated over and over as charlatans and conmen either in priest’s robes or preying on gullible priests created relic after relic in Middle Ages Europe.
And, so, Ambrose of Milan, ever the politician, began trading relics and bits and pieces with others building a power network that had little or nothing to do with Christ or the wider church. Effectively he created a collector network based on martyrs and Saints who may or may not have been genuine. And created numerous new shrines as a circumstance. Shrines = $$$ and power.
I understand the masses being the gullible, but were the people in power this gullible or were they using fraud and counterfeit relics to put one over on the people; both for power and for money. Creating a tourist trap industry for pilgrimages and such.
There are so many moments where I almost put this book down. I mean the milk of the Virgin Mary, a thousand years after Christ.
Wisdom:
Augustine, a 4th century theologian, took Matthew 13:38, where it's saying that the save would be separated from the unsaved and those rejected would burn eternally and used it as a precept a precept that was bought into by the church and the people in general I submit that the modern Church revels in the difference between the saved and the unsaved where is the blood of Christ was for everybody plus my disillusionment.
Juxtaposition:
A bishop in 5th century Constantinople asked God to clear his mind of secular learning. He wanted God to open him instead to the reception of divine words. If that's not a description of modern American religious fanatics, I don't know what is. They are open to the words of religious charlatans clothed as priests, but closed to the voice of God.
And when they run out of pagans to Lord it over, they start playing my Saints better than your Saint in a grab for more power and $$$.
There is a dangerous belief that a victory however nasty and brutal confirms the justification of a war in the eyes of God. Man isn't that a piece of the Middle Ages that still impacts daily life. That’s what right wing clerics told their flocks after Trump’s inauguration in 2016 to glowing Fox News reviews.
The Catholic Church and the reliquary cults seem to have failed to read the part about Moses, the Children of Israel, The Ten Commandments, and the Golden Calf.
Get Off My Lawn:
Why do I doubt the chronicles of Ignatius of Antioch that he said “let me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found the pure bread of Christ” instead of accepting help that could have kept him from martyrdom?
This is reinforcing all of my cynicism. The idea that they found the manger where Christ was born...800 years after the fact, and moved it to Rome under Pope Hadrian. Color me skeptical. I just don't know about all that.
Predictability/Non-Predictability:
Pope Pascal I building a shrine at San Prassede, where he brought 2,300 saints that he had collected from the Catacombs of Rome. ...so does that mean that all the bodies in the Catacombs of Rome were Saints?
I am trying not to let my cynicism and thoughts about modern holy men impact the way that I view this. But you can see the roots of the behaviors and the actions, the justifications of the way they act today, juxtaposed in the way the priests, clerics, popes, and courtiers of the king acted and abused the power of relics and Saints to get what they wanted in the secular world, over and over. To the degree that they created their own Saints and jacked up the miraculous powers of the saints, to the degree that those who may have actually been good and holy personages were lost, hidden, or covered over in the deluge.
_________________________________________
Last Page Sound:
Wasn't what I was expecting. My protestant leanings are more fully represented in the later chapters. Though I do normally expect history to be about money and power, so...
=======================================
Author: Charles Freeman
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publishing Date: 2011
Pgs: 306 pages
Dewey: 235.2 FRE
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Reliquary and Saint cults began growing almost from Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary, though the foundation of the Church in Rome expanded and strengthened the growth. Relics were omnipresent in the medieval world. Bones, teeth, hair, blood, milk, clothes, things they touched, and items, such as the Crown of Thorns...objects to bring the believer closer to the Saints and allow the Saints to intercede on the penitent’s behalf with God. This is a history of the rise of the relic cults in Europe. The Dark Ages, political upheaval, disease, and the threat of hellfire, amid this, relics were venerated and generated a trade and financial aspect on top of the religious motif; traded, collected, lost, stolen, sold, duplicated, destroyed, bargained with, fought wars with and over, and propaganda.
_________________________________________
Genre:
History
Religion
Religious Antiquities and Archaeology
Antiquities
Archaeology
Saints and Sainthood
Christianity
Chrisitan Church History
Why this book:
Wanted stories of the Saints, I got an education in the “miracles” and reliquary cults that falls within my cynical purview.
_________________________________________
Favorite Concept:
And finally, someone I agree with. I find myself in agreement with Basil of Caesarea. “As the sun does not need the lamp light, so, also, the Church and the congregation can do without the remains of Martyrs. It is sufficient to venerate the name of Christ for the church...redeemed by his blood.”
Hmm Moments:
The martyrdoms and the Saints and what's done with their bodies; bits of bone, dust, hair, etc sounds a lot like Wild West Medicine Show bushwa, just in a BC/Medieval European setting instead of the Old West.
So the Cross as a weapon of victory is an Anglo-Saxon pastiche, probably based on the reliquary cults of Roman Empire and Medieval Christianity
King Oswald of Northumbria seems very Arthur-like.
An incorruptible body laid long in the tomb...isn't that a vampire not a Saint?
So, the incorruptible bodies of the Saints may have been a function of the anointing of the body with spices, post-death, in effect, embalming the body, per Bede. And, at least, in the case of Cuthbert, bodies were so anointed that their shrouds and burial clothes were glued to their body. Well, of course, they appear uncorrupted. Effectively, they’ve been lacquered.
If all the fragments of the True Cross that are, supposedly, in all the church and all the reliquaries, all over the whole of Europe, were actual parts of the True Cross than the True Cross must have been three or four stories tall.
As the heavenly indulgences to lessen a soul’s time in purgatory became commonplace and the reliquary cults became more financial institutions and tourist traps than holy shrines, it was only a matter of time before someone like Martin Luther was going to come along.
WTF Moments:
St. Bernard was a freak. Holy milk from a statue of the Virgin Mary. Blaugh. How many of these people drinking from the breast of a statue or making tea from the dust or fragments of Saints gave themselves horribly diseases later in life? ...it is to vomit.
The idea that the sickly sweet smell coming from corpses is divine is disgusting. The very thought of what people were doing with these decomposing bodies is gross and horrific. No wonder the plague kept trying to kill all of them.
John of Damascus saying that fragrant oils burst forth from the corpses of saints. Amazing they didn't all die sooner. It’s not like those people were embalmed back then.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
What I wanted to read was something of the lives of the saints. I expected spiritualism, maybe some wisdom, maybe some owners manual for the human soul kind of stuff. Instead this took me through a history of fairy tale polytheism dressed up as Christian thought about guys asking to be turned over on the spit like Lawrence in Rome in the midst of his martyrdom. Cause you gotta be done on both sides for Jesus, right?
With all this mixing dust with water or splinters with water and drinking it, I'm surprised more of these people didn't die from their saintly cures.
Pope Gregory the 7th declaring that all of his predecessors were saints and that it should be assumed for all popes unless proved otherwise. … ...considering the political juxtaposition that seep into these elections being more powerful than the ecclesiastical. C’mon, man.
The Sigh:
Ambrose of Milan creating his own Christian Martyrs out of whole cloth and promulgating them to Sainthood is a paradigm that became a self-fulfilling prophecy repeated over and over as charlatans and conmen either in priest’s robes or preying on gullible priests created relic after relic in Middle Ages Europe.
And, so, Ambrose of Milan, ever the politician, began trading relics and bits and pieces with others building a power network that had little or nothing to do with Christ or the wider church. Effectively he created a collector network based on martyrs and Saints who may or may not have been genuine. And created numerous new shrines as a circumstance. Shrines = $$$ and power.
I understand the masses being the gullible, but were the people in power this gullible or were they using fraud and counterfeit relics to put one over on the people; both for power and for money. Creating a tourist trap industry for pilgrimages and such.
There are so many moments where I almost put this book down. I mean the milk of the Virgin Mary, a thousand years after Christ.
Wisdom:
Augustine, a 4th century theologian, took Matthew 13:38, where it's saying that the save would be separated from the unsaved and those rejected would burn eternally and used it as a precept a precept that was bought into by the church and the people in general I submit that the modern Church revels in the difference between the saved and the unsaved where is the blood of Christ was for everybody plus my disillusionment.
Juxtaposition:
A bishop in 5th century Constantinople asked God to clear his mind of secular learning. He wanted God to open him instead to the reception of divine words. If that's not a description of modern American religious fanatics, I don't know what is. They are open to the words of religious charlatans clothed as priests, but closed to the voice of God.
And when they run out of pagans to Lord it over, they start playing my Saints better than your Saint in a grab for more power and $$$.
There is a dangerous belief that a victory however nasty and brutal confirms the justification of a war in the eyes of God. Man isn't that a piece of the Middle Ages that still impacts daily life. That’s what right wing clerics told their flocks after Trump’s inauguration in 2016 to glowing Fox News reviews.
The Catholic Church and the reliquary cults seem to have failed to read the part about Moses, the Children of Israel, The Ten Commandments, and the Golden Calf.
Get Off My Lawn:
Why do I doubt the chronicles of Ignatius of Antioch that he said “let me be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found the pure bread of Christ” instead of accepting help that could have kept him from martyrdom?
This is reinforcing all of my cynicism. The idea that they found the manger where Christ was born...800 years after the fact, and moved it to Rome under Pope Hadrian. Color me skeptical. I just don't know about all that.
Predictability/Non-Predictability:
Pope Pascal I building a shrine at San Prassede, where he brought 2,300 saints that he had collected from the Catacombs of Rome. ...so does that mean that all the bodies in the Catacombs of Rome were Saints?
I am trying not to let my cynicism and thoughts about modern holy men impact the way that I view this. But you can see the roots of the behaviors and the actions, the justifications of the way they act today, juxtaposed in the way the priests, clerics, popes, and courtiers of the king acted and abused the power of relics and Saints to get what they wanted in the secular world, over and over. To the degree that they created their own Saints and jacked up the miraculous powers of the saints, to the degree that those who may have actually been good and holy personages were lost, hidden, or covered over in the deluge.
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Last Page Sound:
Wasn't what I was expecting. My protestant leanings are more fully represented in the later chapters. Though I do normally expect history to be about money and power, so...
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June 30, 2016
A fascinating subject. I never realised just how important relics were in medieval times, driving economies and power struggles. Nor how prevalent they supposedly were, with every monastery or city trying to outdo others with their collection of relics, even when that meant doubling up: "Six of the Apostles have two bodies ... St Stephen is scattered among three hundred shrines" "There are so many pieces of the True Cross that they would fill the hold of a cargo ship." All of this eventually feeds into the Reformation.
February 23, 2022
I am not a believer in such things but take me to a church with some relics and I want to see them. Of course, I know that it's old bits of bone and cloth (albeit lovingly presented at times) but these objects, just like their locations, have a degree of power about them and when in Rome...
This book is concerned with that power and as such it deals with it very well, tracing how relics became accepted by the church (and how) as well as how they were used by Church and State to bolster reputations, rule the incredulous masses and make piles of dosh.
The author’s main interest is during the medieval period and this might become a bit dry at times but Freeman keeps the momentum going and my interest did not wane. This is because he would refer to specific relics in their historical/religious context and reveal strange bits of ecclesiastical lore (as if the subject wasn’t strange enough) such as the fact that for a long time the first and second commandments were rolled into a single one due to translation issues and the Augustinian idea that every (worthy) body would ascend to heaven aged 33 (the age of Christ at his death) by either being taken forward or backward in time to that age. Is the latter still true? I rather hope so.
There is also a fascinating section on indulgences, complete with a scale of how much each part of a pilgrimage was worth (up the steps, 8 years per step, praying in front of a shrine obviously worth more), a great section on blood, tainted or otherwise, bloody hosts, and the Mass itself. Who would have thought that if a saint is resurrected he or she needs less blood ‘up there’ so any left behind, on say a cloth or sword is surplus to requirements and thus can become a relic without endangering the saint's body. And so on and so forth.
And of course the relics themselves. Mary’s breast milk, the stone Moses stood on when he received the ten commandments, the axe Noah used to chop down trees to build the ark, the multiple heads of John the baptist. From my perspective, it is all quite sweet and silly, but folks died for these things and continue to do so today.
Freeman might metaphorically roll his eyes at some things (no surprise there) but does try (and to my mind succeeds) in attempting to portray the medieval mindset. He also strikes a good balance between moving history forward without too much heavy-duty theology weighing it down which has got to be a tough thing to do.
Overall this is excellent stuff and I think you would have to go a long way before you need another book on the subject unless you were researching a particular saint. It also has nice illustrations.
This book is concerned with that power and as such it deals with it very well, tracing how relics became accepted by the church (and how) as well as how they were used by Church and State to bolster reputations, rule the incredulous masses and make piles of dosh.
The author’s main interest is during the medieval period and this might become a bit dry at times but Freeman keeps the momentum going and my interest did not wane. This is because he would refer to specific relics in their historical/religious context and reveal strange bits of ecclesiastical lore (as if the subject wasn’t strange enough) such as the fact that for a long time the first and second commandments were rolled into a single one due to translation issues and the Augustinian idea that every (worthy) body would ascend to heaven aged 33 (the age of Christ at his death) by either being taken forward or backward in time to that age. Is the latter still true? I rather hope so.
There is also a fascinating section on indulgences, complete with a scale of how much each part of a pilgrimage was worth (up the steps, 8 years per step, praying in front of a shrine obviously worth more), a great section on blood, tainted or otherwise, bloody hosts, and the Mass itself. Who would have thought that if a saint is resurrected he or she needs less blood ‘up there’ so any left behind, on say a cloth or sword is surplus to requirements and thus can become a relic without endangering the saint's body. And so on and so forth.
And of course the relics themselves. Mary’s breast milk, the stone Moses stood on when he received the ten commandments, the axe Noah used to chop down trees to build the ark, the multiple heads of John the baptist. From my perspective, it is all quite sweet and silly, but folks died for these things and continue to do so today.
Freeman might metaphorically roll his eyes at some things (no surprise there) but does try (and to my mind succeeds) in attempting to portray the medieval mindset. He also strikes a good balance between moving history forward without too much heavy-duty theology weighing it down which has got to be a tough thing to do.
Overall this is excellent stuff and I think you would have to go a long way before you need another book on the subject unless you were researching a particular saint. It also has nice illustrations.
October 26, 2021
Relics are a lot like bones (and not just in the literal sense): they're so fundamental to Medieval Europe that we seldom talk about them. Which is what makes Charles Freeman's Holy Bones: Holy Dust, such a wonderful primer on relics for anyone outside of the Catholic tradition.
Over a thousand years of history Freeman offers a sweep of the role of relics and saints in faith and practice, and all the ways that influenced everyday life for Europeans across the period. From the role of pilgrims and relics in the medieval economy to their influence on architecture like Gothic cathedrals, there's a lot to like in this book.
However some of the chapters are a little dry, which is again maybe fitting given the dusty subject at hand. Freeman rarely engages in the kind of longer narrative biographies some of these relics deserve, which is often a shame. But I'm sure if that we spent time on every head of Mary Magdalene or holy Foreskin, Freeman's book would be an unwieldy thousand pages.
Worth picking up.
Over a thousand years of history Freeman offers a sweep of the role of relics and saints in faith and practice, and all the ways that influenced everyday life for Europeans across the period. From the role of pilgrims and relics in the medieval economy to their influence on architecture like Gothic cathedrals, there's a lot to like in this book.
However some of the chapters are a little dry, which is again maybe fitting given the dusty subject at hand. Freeman rarely engages in the kind of longer narrative biographies some of these relics deserve, which is often a shame. But I'm sure if that we spent time on every head of Mary Magdalene or holy Foreskin, Freeman's book would be an unwieldy thousand pages.
Worth picking up.
September 19, 2018
This is a big dense book, absolutely brimming with information.
Charles Freeman manages to convey so much information while remaining engaging and entertaining.
There are chapters on specific relic cults, pilgrimages, the disputes about relics of Jesus and much more.
If you have an interest in the history of relics, this is a must read.
My only issue is: the pictures in my edition are black and white. They may have been updated in more recent editions, I hope this is the case.
Grace
Charles Freeman manages to convey so much information while remaining engaging and entertaining.
There are chapters on specific relic cults, pilgrimages, the disputes about relics of Jesus and much more.
If you have an interest in the history of relics, this is a must read.
My only issue is: the pictures in my edition are black and white. They may have been updated in more recent editions, I hope this is the case.
Grace
November 16, 2019
An interesting read and a re-thinking of Medieval Catholicism as polytheism on the same level of Hinduism due to the thousands of venerated relics of saints. Also interesting to see how the accumulation of and fight over relics brought power to both religious and secular leaders. However, the author's misreading of Augustine and his repeated suggestion that no one knew how to be saved until Martin Luther were ludicrous.
December 5, 2021
I’m not a religious person, but being raised Catholic, the saints and relics have always fascinated me.
This book was well written and interesting history of the relics and how they shaped medieval Europe and the lengths some went to get what they felt were genuine relics of saints and martyrs and even relics from Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Enjoyable read and highly recommend if these kinds of histories fascinate you like they do me.
5 stars and best reads pile.
This book was well written and interesting history of the relics and how they shaped medieval Europe and the lengths some went to get what they felt were genuine relics of saints and martyrs and even relics from Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Enjoyable read and highly recommend if these kinds of histories fascinate you like they do me.
5 stars and best reads pile.
April 20, 2023
An overall great book for learning about relics and their place in medieval society. However, the author is frustrating in his judgement and obvious disdain for those who believe in the sanctity of relics. I also think that he isn't a real Medievalist, as it is pretty well known that science and dedication to nature did have its place in medieval society (even in the 'Dark Ages').
January 15, 2018
really interesting read—works especially well with bynum's "resurrection of the body" even if freeman does flatten those debates a little in the interests of space. great stuff about the use of relics as a way both for the church to consolidate its power and for local interests to wrest power back.
October 20, 2019
Purposely difficult to read, written in such a fashion as to almost be impenetrable; an overstated, arrogant, 'holier-than-thou' attitude pervades this dreadful waffle that, if you get past the first few pages without grinding your teeth to dust, will have achieved a most almighty task indeed.
May 10, 2023
This was a unique book on how relics influenced the culture and politics of medieval Europe. A lot of it was very miniscule and written in a textbook-style that I was not a fan of but there were a few tidbits which I found fascinating that I will be able to retain.
June 13, 2021
Si fa leggere, interessante in alcuni spunti di curisotà per profani, non approfondisce e no tratta aspetto religioso a sufficienza, a volte puro resoconto di eventi
December 2, 2025
A good history of how important relics were to the medieval world. Anyone interested in this era will find this book essential reading.
April 21, 2023
A fascinating read about the cultural, political, economic and spiritual impacts that relics had in medieval Europe, taking the reader from Augustine in the fifth century up to and through the Reformation. This book is filled with interesting stories and sometimes bizarre tales of the origins of the relics, the shrines and the associated cults that sprang up around them.
I especially appreciated that this book never really takes a side, leaving a lot of judgement on the veracity of it all to the reader. The tales of these relics and their miracles are never assumed to be either real, imagined or fabricated. Instead, the author focuses more on the ways these various objects, whether they seem legitimate or ridiculous, shaped the continent during an uncertain time.
I would recommend this book to anyone fascinated by either the middle ages or by the history of the Catholic church and Christianity as a whole.
I especially appreciated that this book never really takes a side, leaving a lot of judgement on the veracity of it all to the reader. The tales of these relics and their miracles are never assumed to be either real, imagined or fabricated. Instead, the author focuses more on the ways these various objects, whether they seem legitimate or ridiculous, shaped the continent during an uncertain time.
I would recommend this book to anyone fascinated by either the middle ages or by the history of the Catholic church and Christianity as a whole.
February 10, 2017
This history of relics was FASCINATING. It wrapped up an interesting overview of Christianity's evolution, as well. I had no idea how the Eastern Orthodox tradition was wrapped up in icons and relics as well.
September 4, 2011
I kept feeling that this was Freeman's dissertation. It reveals much about Europe, about the people who made our world. They are our progenitors and at the same time incredibly different from us. The culture that created the cult of relics in Europe spawned our nascent world, but they were the children of the pagans, filled with the same superstitions and cravings for the supernatural to make their brutal lives more exciting and better. They were a people of a dark world, whose lives were nasty, brutish and short, but they resurrected their deities with ashes and dust.
June 30, 2015
I'm giving this book three stars only because it didn't quite hold my interest long enough to finish it; it's a library book and I have to return it. Overall, I think the subject matter is interesting and the author's style is pretty readable.
library-check-soonish
June 11, 2015Recommended by The Linkspages at Larsdatter.com
March 23, 2013
I wanted more about saints and specific relics. This book sort of focused more on the church.
January 19, 2016
Very interesting book, especially for those of us from mainly Protestant countries where relics have not really been a part of church life for centuries.
October 17, 2017
Incredibly fascinating stuff, but this book would seriously benefit from a better editor. I found the convoluted, comma-filled sentences and grammatical errors really distracting.
Read
February 26, 2015Finished, but not completed! Too dense and scholarly for my lazy brain.
Read
June 19, 2017good book. lots of strange facts about the Church in the Middle Ages.
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