‘Almost Every Miracle is Open to Carping’
Doubts, Relics, Reliquaries and Images of Saints in the Long 12th Century
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19344165 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Cleaver (0000-0003-3616-5782, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 167 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 51-69 |
| Publication date | 2014-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the British Archaeological Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0068-1288 • E-ISSN: 1747-6704 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/0068128814z.00000000025 |
| OpenAlex | W2027475717 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
Many of the great surviving monuments from the middle ages, the cathedrals, churches and objects made for them or for private devotion, testify to the importance of Christian faith in medieval culture. Devotion to the saints was a facet of that belief, vividly recorded in the surviving relics, reliquaries and images of saints as well as in hagiographic literature. Yet medieval sources also contain references to doubts about the nature and power of saints and their relics. The overcoming of doubt or incredulity was a widely used trope in hagiography. However, if we take medieval doubts seriously, they should prompt us to consider whether the images and objects created to celebrate particular saints might sometimes have been designed to bolster dubious claims or help to authenticate disputed material within a rich discourse about both individual saints and relics and about the nature of holy bodies more generally
Ancient history · Art · Faith · Literature · Middle Ages · Miracle · Power (physics) · Theology · Trope (literature) · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |