Christianity and Relics. Part Five: Conclusion

In this series, I’ve tried to map out the development of the veneration of relics and more broadly the cult of the saints. I covered four areas of interest: The early practice of burial in the church for martyrsThe significance of martyrdom and martyrs to the churchBeliefs pertaining to martyrs and the influence of Greco-Roman …

Christianity and Relics. Part Four: The Public Cult

Introduction In my previous entries I outlined the initial early church practice to bury its dead in a mode similar to the culture around it. In my second I looked at the growing prestige of the martyr, in life and death, in the church who came to be seen as a type of individual set …

Christianity and Relics. Part Three: Spiritual Guides

Introduction In my initial entry on this series I had a look at the burial practices of the early church. Showing that up until the 4th century the normative practice was to bury the dead, this included the martyrs. In my second entry I chart how the martyrs themselves had come to be understood as …

Christianity and Relics. Part Two: Martyrdom

Introduction In my first entry on this series on relics I looked at several examples of how the early church treated its dead. Three of the four examples of burial I looked at were the aftermath of martyrdom. To be martyred was to be more than a confessor of the faith, it was a position …

Christianity and Relics. Part One: Burial and the Dead

Introduction After having written a series and reflection on icons and their development in Christian history I came to realise that one cannot really fully address it without some extended reference to relics. I was prompted to actually write something on this after seeing a thread by a Roman Catholic arguing for the practice based …