Hagiography, Relics and Secular Politics in Western Europe, 6th–13th Centuries

Abstract

This contribution, based mainly on hagiographic sources, presents the role of collecting and exalting of the relics by the secular power. The relics’ miraculous virtus haƒbozs several connections with the common good: protection, public safety, regulation of the weather, peacemaking. This is the reason for the political power’s interest in gathering and accumulating relics in the centres of power. The initiatives and the active role of emperors, kings and other secular lords are related in a great number of translation and invention stories from the early Middle Ages to the end of the period. Acquisitions of relics are often the result ∂of territorial expansions and wars of conquest. Several legends enhance the legitimacy and the sacrality of imperial and royal power. In Italian cities, people and civil authorities are particularly involved in the cult of saints and relics.