Editing Relic (section)

===Relics and pilgrimage===
Rome became a major destination for Christian pilgrims as it was easier to access for European pilgrims than the [[Holy Land]]. [[Constantine the Great]] erected great basilicas over the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. A distinction of these sites was the presence of holy relics. Over the course of the Middle Ages, other religious structures acquired relics and became destinations for [[pilgrimage]]. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, substantial numbers of pilgrims flocked to [[Santiago de Compostela]] in Spain, in which the supposed relics of the apostle [[James, son of Zebedee]], discovered {{circa}} 830, are housed.<ref name=sorabella>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pilg/hd_pilg.htm|title=Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |work=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History}}</ref> Santiago de Compostela remains a significant pilgrimage site, with around 200,000 pilgrims, both secular and Christian, completing the numerous pilgrimage routes to the cathedral in 2012 alone.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Beardsley|first1=Eleanor|title=An Ancient Religious Pilgrimage That Now Draws The Secular|url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/05/20/185577205/Modern-Pilgrims-Find-New-Meaning-Walking-An-Ancient-Path|newspaper=NPR.org|access-date=20 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela in Pictures|url=http://www.santiago-compostela.net/|website=Camino de Santiago}}</ref>

By venerating relics through visitation, gifts, and providing services, medieval Christians believed that they would acquire the protection and intercession of the sanctified dead.<ref name=head/> Relics of [[local saint]]s drew visitors to sites like Saint Frideswide's in [[Oxford]], and San Nicola Peregrino in [[Trani]].<ref name=sorabella/> Instead of having to travel to be near to a venerated [[saint]], relics of the saint could be venerated locally. 

Believers would make pilgrimages to places believed to have been sanctified by the physical presence of Christ or prominent saints, such as the site of the [[Holy Sepulchre]] in [[Jerusalem]].{{cn|date=July 2023}}

====Economic effect====
As holy relics attracted pilgrims and these religious tourists needed to be housed, fed, and provided with souvenirs, relics became a source of income not only for the destinations that held them, but for the abbeys, churches, and towns en route. Relics were prized as they were portable.<ref name=ekelund>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ByFRavb95AYC&pg=PA139 |title=Sacred trust : the medieval church as an economic firm |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Robert B. Ekelund |isbn=0-19-510337-8 |location=New York |oclc=34943197| author-first=Robert B. | author-last=Ekelund | author-first2=Robert D.| author-last2=Tollison | author-first3=Gary M. | author-last3=Anderson | author-first4=Robert F.| author-last4=Herbert | author-first5=Audrey B.| author-last5=Davidson }}</ref> They could be possessed, inventoried, bequeathed, stolen, counterfeited, and smuggled.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Manns |first=D. |date=2015-04-13 |title=The Business of Bones: Relic Trafficking in the Middle Ages |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-business-of-bones-relic-trafficking-in-the-middle-ages |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}}</ref> They could add value to an established site or confer significance on a new location.<ref name=smith>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Julia M. H. |date=2010 |title=Portable Christianity: Relics in the Medieval West (c. 700–1200) |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1953/pba181p143.pdf |url-status=live|series=[[Proceedings of the British Academy]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |publication-date=2012 |volume=181 |pages=143–167 |doi=10.5871/bacad/9780197265277.003.0006 |isbn=9780197265277 |issn=0068-1202 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223053830/https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1953/pba181p143.pdf |archive-date=2022-02-23 |access-date=2022-04-18}}</ref> Offerings made at a site of pilgrimage were an important source of revenue for the community who received them on behalf of the saint.<ref name=geary>{{Cite book |last=Geary |first=Patrick J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vXriQodlUsQC&pg=PA22 |title=Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages |edition=Revised |year=2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-2020-7 |language=en}}</ref> 

According to [[Patrick J. Geary|Patrick Geary]], "[t]o the communities fortunate enough to have a saint's remains in its church, the benefits in terms of revenue and status were enormous, and competition to acquire relics and to promote the local saint's virtues over those of neighboring communities was keen."<ref name=patg>{{Citation |last=Geary |first=Patrick |title=Sacred commodities: the circulation of medieval relics |date=1986-04-30 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/CBO9780511819582A016/type/book_part |work=The Social Life of Things |pages=169–192 |editor-last=Appadurai |editor-first=Arjun |edition=1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511819582.008 |isbn=978-0-521-32351-2 |access-date=2022-04-18 |archive-date=2014-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314102934/http://sacredspace.barrystephenson.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Geary-Sacred-Commodities-Medieval-Relics.pdf |url-status=dead |url-access=subscription }}.</ref> Local clergy promoted their own patron saints in an effort to secure their own market share. On occasion guards had to watch over mortally ill holy men and women to prevent the unauthorized dismemberment of their corpses as soon as they died.<ref name=butterfield>{{Cite magazine |last=Butterfield |first=Andrew |date=2011-07-28 |title=What Remains |magazine=The New Republic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/92804/medieval-christian-art-relics |access-date=2022-04-18 |issn=0028-6583}}</ref> Geary also suggests that the danger of someone murdering an aging holy man in order to acquire his relics was a legitimate concern.<ref name=patg/>

Relics were used to cure the sick, to seek intercession for relief from famine or plague, to take solemn oaths, and to pressure warring factions to make peace in the presence of the sacred. Courts held relics since Merovingian times.<ref name=smith/> St [[Angilbert]] acquired for [[Charlemagne]] one of the most impressive collections in Christendom.<ref name=ekelund/> An active market developed and relics entered into commerce along the same trade routes followed by other portable commodities. Matthew Brown likens a ninth-century Italian [[deacon]] named Deusdona, with access to the Roman catacombs, as crossing the [[Alps]] to visit monastic fairs of northern Europe much like a contemporary art dealer.<ref name=brown>{{Cite web |url=http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/bown/art-value5-25-10.asp | title=Dust to Dust | first=Matthew | last=Brown |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=www.artnet.com | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205143130/http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/bown/art-value5-25-10.asp | archive-date=2022-02-05}}</ref>

[[Canterbury]] was a popular destination for English pilgrims, who traveled to witness the miracle-working relics of St [[Thomas Becket]], the sainted [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] who was [[Thomas Becket#Assassination|assassinated by knights]] of [[Henry II of England|King Henry II]] in 1170.<ref name=sorabella/> After Becket's death, his successor and the Canterbury chapter quickly used his relics to promote the cult of the as-yet-uncanonized martyr. The motivations included the assertion of the Church's independence against rulers, a desire to have an English (indeed [[Anglo-Normans|Norman English]]) saint of European reputation, and the desire to promote Canterbury as a destination for pilgrimage. In the first years after Becket's death, donations at the shrine accounted for twenty-eight percent of the cathedral's total revenues.<ref name=freeman>{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDQH9Pi5eT0C&pg=PA31 |title=Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe |year=2011|publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16659-0 |language=en}}</ref>