080078 PS Case Study: Relics and Reliquiare in Byzantium: From their Origins to 1204 (2015W)

Relics, from the Latin word reliquiae meaning "remains" or "that which is left behind", have been - and continue to be - collected in different cultures throughout the world. Generally they serve as a material reminder of holy people or of places where miraculous events occurred and as a physical point of contact between the human and the divine. Within the Byzantine cultural sphere, relics appear in various roles across the social spectrum: some public, for protection of the State, legitimization of the emperor, verification of church buildings, the focus of religious rituals and as diplomatic gifts; and some very private as the destination of pilgrimage, objects sought out for bodily healing or worn as apotropaic amulets.
This course will provide a general introduction to Byzantine society and culture as revealed to us through textual sources and the material evidence of still extant Byzantine reliquaries, many of which have been completely removed from their original contexts for hundreds of years.