The flow of relics from the holy land to Latin Europe in the Middle Ages

Among the goods produced in the Holy Land which found their way to Latin Europe in the Middle Ages, it was the relics that had a special significance. Their cult, which originated towards the end of antiquity, became one of the most important elements of the religious life of Christians in the Middle Ages, both in the East and in the West. The medieval reliquiae were objects of considerable ideological significance and at the same time, of great material value. Thus one may try to look upon the transfer of relics in the Mediterranean basin as a trade whose object was a particularly precious and universally desirable commodity. The relics from the Holy Land had reached Western Europe along various routes and in different ways. The circumstances of these translations, as described by medieval authors, allow one to distinguish three fundamental ways of the transfer of relics. They were, among others: - official translations effected by public figures; - individual import carried out by private individuals; - supernatural translations. Regardless of how probable (or improbable) the circumstances of their transfer to the West, the relics from the Holy Land gave the impulse to build a number of well-known European shrines, such as for instance Santiago de Compostella. In turn, the mass influx of the relics from the Holy Land, made it possible for the faithful from Latin Europe to come into direct physical contact with what they believed to be the most holy relics of Christianity, without the need to undertake the difficult journey to Jerusalem.