English Medieval Shrines (Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture) (Volume 3)

The cult of saints is one of the most fascinating manifestations of medieval piety. It was intensely physical; saints were believed to be present in the bodily remains that they had left on earth. Medieval shrines were created in order to protect the relics and yet to show off their spiritual worth and at the same time allow pilgrims limited access to them. English Medieval Shrines traces the development of such structures, from the earliest cult activities at saintly tombs in the late Roman empire, through Merovingian Gaul and the Carolingian Empire, via Anglo-Saxon England, to the high middle ages. The greater part of the book is a definitive exploration, on a basis that is at once thematic and chronological, of the major saints cults of medieval England, from the Norman Conquest to the Reformation. These include the great cults of St Cuthbert, St Swithun, and St Thomas Becket - and lesser known figures such as St Eanswytha of Folkestone or St Ecgwyne of Evesham.