The Material Culture are body parts and the objects produced by humans’ beings too, like tools, clothing, utensils, art and any physical item.
When these objects belonged to a Saint a martyr or were in intimate contact with them, becomes in a relic an automatically incorporate the sacred power and a promise to act as intermediaries with God itself.
The relics could be body parts, blood, objects that belonged to the saint-like the clothing, books.
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In the other hand, we have objects that have been in touch with those relics, clothes, candles, badges, blood-soaked scraps of cloth that were treated as well as relics. To pray or to touch one of these relics could help to be closer to God and subsequently have more chances to be listened by the almighty.
Through relics and material objects, Christians asked for help from the dead saint in heaven, they asked for mediation before God. Those Christian pilgrims believed that these saints or martyrs could occasionally perform miracles with God’s help. That they could fight hunger, cure illnesses, finish off their enemies, forgive sins or ask for mercy for sins committed. The idea was that they could make petitions in his name before God himself.
Canterbury Between the 12th and 16th centuries it was one of the largest centres of pilgrimage.
These pilgrims came from all parts of England from other places in Northern Europe. Their main aim was to venerate the relics of the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket (1163 to 1170).
People gathered around his body who, sensing that he would be a martyr, tried to take what objects they could. They collected his blood or soaked it in tatters of cloth. His clothes were also soaked with his blood.
As an example, in the treasury of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, they kept his tunic, his brain and a part of one of his arms.
Focusing on the rests of the human body, the body relics itself, used to be placed on the altars or in the reliquaries, so the veneration was practised inside a church or in a sacred space under the supervision of the monks, those relics become very important links between laity and clergy.
During the Middle Ages, these sanctuaries became internationally important, such as Thomas Becket’s in Canterbury, Santiago de Compostela in Spain or the most well-known Jerusalem.
Christians thought that holiness or goodness could be transmitted through physical contact. This favoured the spiritual value of the relics since by touching or pressing them they were impregnated with their spiritual qualities and at the same time also with certain miraculous powers.
It became popular to believe that through prayer, pilgrimage and direct contact with those relics of the body of the saint or martyr, they could intercede before God to give them the help or favours requested, in the form of healing, forgiveness or whatever the request was.
Christians sometimes when contemplating the skeletal remains, body parts or sometimes the entire body of a martyr, saint or someone who has dedicated his or her life to God or good works, believe and desire to emulate or to have a similar life.
Not having access to these remains for everyone, makes the pilgrimage to visit them, venerate them in order to obtain their favours. This mode of worship or pilgrimage was spontaneous and does not form part of the worship or commitment to God on the part of believers.
Although it is a Christian cult, some of its members do not understand it or may even see it as a type of ritual with pagan airs. Perhaps because of the belief that the true liberating proof is in the soul and not in the vessel that contains it.
Perhaps the real idea should be focus on the afterlife or the idea of the final judgment having more opportunities for salvation, eternal life or even a shorter time of redemption in purgatory in some cases.
Since very ancient times human beings and different civilizations have respected the human remains of their loved ones, this must be related to the idea of life after death and resurrection.
Perhaps, this idea was based on the fact, that both good men, saints and even sinners will have a resurrection after death, either to go to heaven or to hell. So, if God himself gives as much importance to our body as we humans should, this could mean that they deserve attention and respect. If we venerate human remains or the ashes of our loved ones, we can also do the same with the remains of martyrs, saints or people that we admire or who have shown unusual qualities during their lives.
Sometimes, in addition to venerating human remains, we venerate objects that belonged to them or were in contact with them or even with those same objects.
These body parts sometimes are profusely decorated with jewellery or gems, converting these body parts in objects and then material culture as well.
This can change our approach to relics, but people also tend to treat the remains of their loved ones with respect and tend to keep the material objects that belonged to them and have a hard time getting rid of these objects. Maybe this idea is also part of the connection that believers can have with the material objects of Christianity and this is why the pilgrimage began to believe that in the same way that our beloved one’s objects could contain a part of their essence, the saint’s or the martyr’s objects could contain special qualities that could help them to thrive in life or in the afterlife.
These highly venerated places of pilgrimage began to produce souvenirs of the shrines visited, such as pilgrim’s badges, metal objects blessed and sold at the pilgrimage centres.
As for the objects, let’s focus on the pilgrim’s badges that were fundamental in spreading the iconography, as they were visual objects that spread the ideas through the images and therefore, it was a very effective way of getting messages to the uneducated people who at that time were the majority of the population.
The badges were carried by their owner who travelled around the world proudly showing them to the people he met so that he could show others his status as a pilgrim as well as the place of pilgrimage.
This object also protected the pilgrim in a spiritual form or along the way. These badges were also a proof of the pilgrimage and of the passage through the sanctuary. In the best cases, it could facilitate the pilgrim the passage, food, lodging or entrance to hospitals. Therefore, these badges gradually became not only a reminder of the pilgrimage undertaken or an amulet of spiritual and physical protection but at times they were also safe-conducts and a sign of belonging.
The pilgrims felt protected during their journey with these credentials hanging on their clothes.
Over time, the increase in visits by pilgrims to these places of worship and the demand for this type of objects made it increasingly common to take these souvenirs in the form of blessed insignias, statuettes, prints, etc.
These insignias in the Canterbury’s Cathedral represented Becket, his head, his sanctuary or also his martyrdom.
Those responsible for the sanctuaries faced this demand by facilitating the acquisition of these badges that had been in contact with some of the relics of the martyr, taking advantage of the need of the pilgrims to touch and see these relics that were so important for them. A very lucrative business had been created, which was also under the control of the church.
In this way, the church achieved several objectives, favouring pilgrimage’s development and spreading its divine message, which became, by the way, a very lucrative business.
Canterbury used this income generated by the visits of the pilgrims and the sale of badges for the reconstruction of the cathedral.
In short, we can say that both objects and human remains helped us to remember a person. If also, this person was unique and dedicated his life to God in such a severe way that he became a martyr or a saint, we can project into ourselves the desire to achieve similar goals and believe that intimate contact with these relics can favour us and even changing something in ourselves or in a person that we love.
The cult of relics is not the cult of the object or the body but the exemplary holiness and goodness of the body.
For Christians when someone lives fully in God, he can become a guide or an example of life so that the believer himself following these examples comes closer to a life in holiness and the goal of salvation.
