For most medieval Christians, God was not seen as a close being, ready to listen to everyone's pleas and forgive transgressions. In the imagery of the time, Christ was seen as a formidable king of the world rather than a merciful shepherd. The distance that existed between man and God in the prevailing "theology of fear" was overcome by petitioning not directly to the Creator, but to the saints.
In no other epoch did the cult of martyrs and devotees flourish on such a scale as at that time. Nor was the belief that saints were constantly intervening in worldly affairs, performing miracles and punishing doubters so strong.
Medieval polytheism
Already at the time of
Martin Luther, medieval Christianity was compared to ancient pagan polytheism. Not only the father of the Reformation, but also the most famous historian of the Enlightenment,
Edward Gibbon, spoke of this. He argued that the "
simultaneously sublime yet simple theology of the early Christians became corrupted" by being tainted by the introduction of "
popular mythology" in the form of saint worship.
Modern scholars do not put the question in the same critical and value-oriented way. Nevertheless, there are still repeated, albeit much more subtle and explicit remarks that the cult of saints, their remains and objects associated with them replaced ancient idols and guardian spirits for the people of the Middle Ages.
At any rate, the British historian Charles Freeman, author of one of the most skeptical studies on the subject of the historical role of relics, writes explicitly, following Gibbon, of "medieval polytheism."
The power of holy objects
One thing is undeniable. Medieval religiosity was far more diffuse than the religiosity of earlier and later times.
The basis of medieval beliefs was the veneration of individual, often exclusively local saints, the memory of their pious deeds, superhuman achievements and posthumous miracles, and great attention was paid to the power of bones and objects associated with patron saints.
Relics even became one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable commodity of the era. Those associated with particularly popular figures or surrounded by the most intriguing stories commanded prices that clearly exceeded the equivalent of their weight in
gold or silver.
The intratemporal trade in relics especially flourished from the eighth century, when the rule came into force that the consecration of any church could not take place without the inclusion of holy remains. Relics were collected by monasteries, cathedral churches and parishes. However, it was also done by individuals, especially the rich and influential.
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For example, it is known about the Polish Duchess Salomea of Berg, who lived in the first half of the 12th century, that she allegedly possessed the hand of "the first martyr Stephen with skin, flesh and nails" but without a thumb. She also allegedly had a fragment of the chain of St. Peter and a large fragment of the Holy Cross.
It seems that the Duchess was particularly fond of collecting teeth. Among others, she kept the tooth of John the Baptist, St. Pancras, and St. Caecilia. The Duchess's second supposed passion was sacred liquids. The Duchess had "a drop of the Lord's blood" as well as a drop of the Virgin Mary's milk. In her opinion, of course, the real one.
It is known about the collection that at the end of her life Salome donated 90 relics to the Zwifalten Monastery, which was connected to her family. This was probably only a small part of the collection. In total, the Duchess may have owned hundreds of relics. She was no exception in this regard, although it is hard to find another equally avid collector of holy objects in medieval Poland alone.
Thousands of unofficial patron saints
The cult of saints and their remains permeated the entire temporal reality. As a result, its forms and details tell us much not only about the piety of the people who lived 500, 1000 or 1500 years ago, but also about the social order of the time, about the main daily problems and concerns of the population, or, finally, about the status of women or the cultural dominance of particular regions and groups.
It is impossible to say reliably how many saints were venerated in the Middle Ages. Only at the end of the 10th century did an official procedure of canonization by the papal curia appear. The first saint to be elevated to the altar thanks to it was Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg (995).
For a long time, this path was not considered strictly obligatory. The vast majority of saints were venerated from the bottom up, based on legends in a particular region, under the influence of relic merchants who touted their unusual wares, or even as a result of court propaganda.
In fact, in the early Middle Ages, it was the norm for wealthy families, even non-dynastic ones, to endow their members with an aura of holiness, convincing them that they were capable of performing miracles both in life and after death.
Only a few official canonizations survived to the end of the era. Between 1198 and 1431 there were only 71 canonizations, an average of one every three years. However, the various catalogs of saints, more or less official, leave no doubt that they were venerated on a large scale in the Middle Ages, not by tens or hundreds, but certainly by thousands.