T
he cult ofrelicswas not new in the Roman-
esque era. For centuries, Christians had trav-
eled to sacred shrines that housed the body parts of,
or objects associated with, the holy family or the
saints. The faithful had long believed that bones,
clothing, instruments of martyrdom, and the like
had the power to heal body and soul. The venera-
tion of relics reached a high point in the 11th and
12th centuries.
In Romanesque times, pilgrimage was the most
conspicuous feature of public devotion, proclaiming
the pilgrim’s faith in the power of saints and hope
for their special favor. The major shrines—Saint Pe-
ter’s and Saint Paul’s in Rome and the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem—drew pilgrims from
all over Europe, just as Muslims journeyed from afar
to Mecca (see “Muhammad and Islam,” Chapter 13,
page 343). To achieve salvation, Christian pilgrims
braved bad roads and hostile wildernesses infested
with robbers who preyed on innocent travelers. The
journeys could take more than a year to complete—
when they were successful. People often undertook
pilgrimage as an act of repentance or as a last resort
in their search for a cure for some physical disability.
Hardship and austerity were means of increasing
pilgrims’ chances for the remission of sin or of dis-
ease. The distance and peril of the pilgrimage were measures of pil-
grims’ sincerity of repentance or of the reward they sought.
For those with insufficient time or money to make a pilgrimage
to Rome or Jerusalem (in short, for most people at the time), holy
destinations could be found closer to home. In France, for example,
the church at Vézelay housed the bones of Mary Magdalene. Pilgrims
could also view Saint Foy’s remains at Conques, Lazarus’s at Autun,
Saint Martin’s at Tours, and Saint Saturninus’s at Toulouse. Each of
these great shrines was also an important way station en route to the
most venerated Christian shrine in western Europe, the tomb of Saint
James at Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.
Large crowds of pilgrims paying homage to saints placed a great
burden on the churches that stored their relics and led to changes in
church design, principally longer and wider naves and aisles, transepts
and ambulatories with additional chapels (FIG. 17-5), and second-
story galleries (FIG. 17-6). Pilgrim traffic also established the routes
that later became the major avenues of commerce and communica-
tion in western Europe. The popularity of pilgrimages gave rise to
travel guides akin to modern guidebooks. These provided pilgrims
with information about saints and shrines and also about roads, ac-
commodations, food, and drink. How widely circulated these hand-
written books were is a matter of debate, but the information they
provide modern scholars is still invaluable. The most famous Ro-
manesque guidebook described the four roads leading to Santiago de
Compostela through Arles and Toulouse, Conques and Moissac, Véze-
lay and Périgueux, and Tours and Bordeaux (MAP17-1). Saint James
was the symbol of Christian resistance to Muslim expansion in west-
ern Europe, and his relics, discovered in the ninth century, drew pil-
grims to Santiago de Compostela from far and wide. The guidebook’s
anonymous 12th-century author, possibly Aimery Picaud, a CluniacPilgrimages and the Cult of Relics
ART AND SOCIETY
* William Melczer,The Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela (New York:
Italica Press, 1993), 133.
†Ibid., 103.
‡Ibid., 127.432 Chapter 17 ROMANESQUE EUROPEMAP17-1Western Europe around 1100.CórdobaToursParisSilosRavennaRomeCompostelaSantiago deSevilleSanta Maríade Mur
CardonaSaint-Genis-des-FontainesDurhamWinchester LondonCanterbury
HastingsBury St. EdmundsMonrealePalermoMontecassino CapuaPisa FlorenceModena
CanossaParma
FidenzaVeniceWeissenauMilanToulouseMoissacConques
ArlesBordeauxPérigueux ClermontBayeuxCaenAngers
PoitiersPrémontréAmiensCorbieSt.-Savin-sur-GartempeSt. Thierry
SensClunyAutunTournusFontenayVézelay
Clairvaux
CiteauxVignoryLiègeStavelot
Bingen Mainz
Trier Disibodenberg
Speyer
HohenbergelaSerós
SantaCruzdATLANTIC
OCEANATLANTIC
OCEANNorth
SeaNorth
SeaBaltic
SeaBaltic
SeaMediterranean SeaMediterranean SeaTyrrhenian
SeaTyrrhenian
Sea
Ionian
SeaIonian
SeaAd
riat
icS
eaAd
riat
icS
eaEnglish ChannelRhin
eR
.SicilyUMAYYAD
CALIPHATEKINGDOM OF
LEÓN & CASTILEFRANCEOFKINGDOM HOLY ROMANEMPIRENORMAN
KINGDOMKINGDOM
OF
POLANDKINGDOM
OF
DENMARKKINGDOM
OF
HUNGARYNORMAN
KINGDOMENGLANDIRELANDSPAINITALYKENT GERMANYCHAMPAGNEBU
RG
UN
DYAU
VERGNELANGUED
AQUITAINE OCARAGONPROVENCE
TUSCANYLOMBARDYNORMANDYCATALO
NIA0 200 400 miles
0 200 400 kilometersPrincipal pilgrimage
routes to Santiago
de Compostelamonk, was himself a well-traveled pilgrim. According to the guide,
the author wrote it “in Rome, in the lands of Jerusalem, in France, in
Italy, in Germany, in Frisia and mainly in Cluny.”*
Pilgrims reading the guidebook learned about the saints and
their shrines at each stop along the way to Spain. Saint Saturninus of
Toulouse, for example, endured a martyr’s death at the hands of pa-
gans when he
was tied to some furious and wild bulls and then precipitated from
the height of the citadel....His head crushed, his brains knocked
out, his whole body torn to pieces, he rendered his worthy soul to
Christ. He is buried in an excellent location close to the city of
Toulouse where a large basilica [FIGS. 17-4to 17-6] was erected by
the faithful in his honor.†
Given the competition among monasteries and cities for the
possession of saints’ relics, the Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Com-
postela also included comments on authenticity. For example, about
Saint James’s tomb, the author stated:
May therefore the imitators from beyond the mountains blush who
claim to possess some portion of him or even his entire relic. In fact,
the body of the Apostle is here in its entirety, divinely lit by paradisi-
acal carbuncles, incessantly honored with immaculate and soft per-
fumes, decorated with dazzling celestial candles, and diligently wor-
shipped by attentive angels.‡