Relics, Miracles and Pilgrimages

The altar above the purported tomb tomb of Paul in the Basicilica San Paulo fuori la Mura just outside Rome, photo EOP January 2009.

"Relics, especially the integral skeletons of widely-known saints, emitted a kind of holy radioactivity which bombarded everything in the area..." Finucane, Ronald C. 1977. Miracles and Pilgrims, p. 26.

As with images, I rather took for granted the role of relics in the creation of Christian pilgrimages, thus pilgrims ventured to Santiago to venerate the purported tomb of St. James the Greater (Santiago) or to Rome where Saints Peter and Paul are presumably buried. In fact the early Christian cult of relics went far beyond prompting visits to the remains, real or imagined of the apostles and others who were closely related to the Christ. Of course there were also things related to Christ and Mary, vials of her milk or pieces of the true cross, for example, but in addition there were the skeletons of literally hundreds of saints of the early church. Many of those were local, martyrs and others who served the church as it was gaining adherents in late Roman and early medieval Europe.

While the relics themselves were presumably of interest to early Christians, even those who had no immediate problems for which they were seeking relief, they were especially important for those who wanted relief from the myriad problems suffered by people. Many of the problems were medical, and visits to the sites of the relics allowed the sufferer of a disease or infirmity to be irradiated with the "holy radioactivity" the relics were thought to emit. Miracles were sought and, if the records are to be believed, a major theme in Finucane's book, sometimes occurred. Those miracles were blieved to be especially likely in places where the whole skeleton of one or another saints lay in repose.

Over time the whole skeletons were dispersed as individual bones, or even fragments of bones were moved to other churches and shrines. Not infrequently bits of skeletons were given to visiting dignitaries to take home. The hand of St, James from Compostela was given to an early English pilgrim and found a new shrine in the Abbey of St. James in Reading just west of London. Other remains were stolen and translocated to a shrine somewhere else. The remains of St. Foi, an early Christian martyr in France, for example, were stolen from a shrine in the Rhone Valley and relocated to Conques on the southern edge of the Massif Central. The post-reformation dissolution of the monastic establishments in England and the French Revolution respectively led to the loss of the bones of the apostle and the martyr, though both the ruins of the abbey in Reading and the lovely romanesque church and the rich treasury at Conques remain pilgrimage destinations.

Of course pilgrimage seeking after miracles was not limited to the medieval era, for many Christian pilgrims travel today to Lourdes, Fatima, Guadeloupe, and numerous other shrines in hopes of cures for disease and other problems of living. And it is not limited to Christians, as among almost countless possible examples, Buddhist pilgrims travel to see the tooth of the Buddha in Kandy, Sri Lanka or Shia Muslims go to the tomb of Hussein in Karbalah, Iraq. Relics in the form of skeletal remains and other physical things associated with particular saints, and the miracles they can create, however, have lost some of their importance over time. Now numerous pilgrimages are to images, and relatively few Christian pilgrimage sites created since the Middle Ages are devoted to minor saints. More on that later.

Icon, Image and Pilgrimage

A 15th century olive wood statue, about life size, of the Christ Child in the Church of Santa Mara in Aracoeli adjacent to the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Among many other objects of veneration and immense artistic value in that magnificent church, the statue, covered in votive offerings, has been an object of pilgrimage for centuries, venerated especially by women wishing to become pregnant. Photo EOP January 2009.

In the process of doing research for the upcoming course at ALRI, I have been reading materials in art history related to pilgrimage. While it is clear in retrospect, I had not previously given much thought to the issue of "images" in pilgrimage, especially in Christian pilgrimages. Travel to venerate an icon - a painting, a statue or some other visual representation of a diety or a holy person - is one of the most common types of pilgrimage. The various "black virgin" statues scattered across Europe at places like Jasna Gora in Poland or Le Puy in France are major pilgrim destinations as are various other visual representations of the Christ, Mary, or one or another saints housed in churches, monasteries, or isolated hermitages. Almost as important is taking home an icon, a visual representation of the pilgrimage. Even those who walk a pilgrim route in a spirit of postmodern irony usually take lots of photos and often buy a souvenir to take home. Rare is the postmodern pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela who does not go home with the iconic scallop shell, a handful of postcards, and often with a tasteful olive wood carving of St. James dressed as a pilgrim. A more traditional pilgrim has an even greater array of souvenirs to chose from and take home.

Today I finished reading a most significant work on the importance of images to pilgrimage, among other related topics, Freedberg, David (1989). The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-261441-1. Chapter 6 "Image and Pilgrimage" is especially important in a book that should be read by any serious student of pilgrimages in the Roman Catholic tradition.