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Abstract The rise in sea levels, driven by global climate change, poses a significant threat to cultural heritage in coastal regions. Traditional risk assessment methods, focusing on direct inundation, often fail to consider the crucial impact of socio-economic factors, which are significantly vulnerable to sea level rise. To bridge this gap, this study introduces an innovative Sea Level Rise Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment Model (SLR-CHIA Model), a novel approach that integrates both land inundation and socio-economic aspects. This comprehensive model evaluates potential risks to various types of cultural heritage in coastal China, including intangible cultural heritage, relics, and traditional villages. The study’s findings are striking: (1) About 7.79% of coastal villages, 53.94% of relics, and 2.53% of intangible cultural heritage are potentially at high risk in a 100-year sea level rise event; (2) Relics in the Eastern coast and villages in the Southern coast are most vulnerable; (3) Different types of cultural heritage rely on diverse principal factors for protection, resulting in varied risk levels under sea level rise conditions. The SLR-CHIA Model provides a vital methodological framework for evaluating cultural heritage risks in other global regions.

Looking at examples of the suffering of Orthodox Christians starting from the early Christian up to the modern period, the same elements of martyrological causes and circumstances as well as the character of martyr cults and, later, miracle-working of relics can be observed. Based on this, common hagiographic topos were defined: emphasis on physical beauty, perseverance in faith, cruel torture, the way of establishing the cult and the story of miracle-working. The fact that the martyrological context based on theology, defined in the early Christian period, directly refers to the cults of the new martyrs, especially from the area of Kosovo and Metohija, precisely indicates the continuity of martyrdom for the faith. In such a discourse, the examples of the Kosovo-Metohija new martyrs Grigorije Pećki, Vasilije Pekar and Bosiljka Pasjanska represent not only a link but also a confirmation of the New Testament announcement that there will be suffering for Christ until His second coming, which is also proven by the latest examples of the venerable martyrs of Kosovo-Metohija Hariton and Stefan.

In 1606 Henry Garnet, provincial of the English Jesuits and purported co-conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot against James I, was executed at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Following his death, accounts of miracles occurring at his execution began to spread throughout England, including an account of a relic bearing his miraculous image. While Catholic writers promoted these accounts as evidence of Garnet’s innocence, Protestant contemporaries argued that Garnet was an illegitimate martyr and that his commemoration was evidence of Catholic support for regicide. This article demonstrates how London Protestant writers and publishers utilized anti-hagiographical arguments to intervene in attempts to promote Garnet’s sainthood, counter claims about the veracity of his relic, and shape his legacy in the decades following his execution.

The article discusses current trends in the formation of the church space in post-Soviet Russia. The author focuses on religious practices that result in the presence of symbolically significant objects – relics, votive gifts, donators’ icons, notes, etc., – in churches. These objects build the space of the church as a space of communication with the saints; they form an environment in which parishioners and pilgrims clearly see the channels and means of this communication. Some practices are carried out primarily by the clergy – such as collections of relics and brandea or ordering various reliquaries for keeping sacred objects which the church is either already having or planning to obtain. Collecting relics allows clergy to build the “topography of holiness” in the church, to present the uniqueness of the church in the parish and on the church website. Other practices are carried out primarily by parishioners and pilgrims – this is the bringing of votive gifts, notes, and donators’ icons (sometimes with inscriptions). Various objects that appear in the temple space can serve as affordances for such actions. First, these are wooden icon-cases covered with glass – ‘niches’ in which it is convenient and safe to place gifts. Secondly, these are ‘regular’ gifts – decorations placed on icons by the clergy (as a rule, pectoral crosses and panagia). Finally, the same role is played by the notes, the gifts, and the curatorial icons themselves – the presence of the gift serves as an invitation to do a similar action and bring a note / a jewelry or to order a new icon related to personal or family story (request, need). As a result of such practices, the church space in Russia is actively developing. Reliquaries of various forms are being created; relics are integrated into icons and crosses, turning them into reliquaries; massive icon-cases are ordered for icons, convenient for placing a lot of votive gifts, etc. These processes are sometimes hardly noticeable, but their role in the current church tradition is undoubtedly significant. В статье рассмотрены актуальные тенденции в формировании храмового пространства в постсоветской России. В фокусе внимания – религиозные практики, которые оказывают влияние на наполнение церквей символически значимыми объектами – реликвиями, вотивными дарами, ктиторскими иконами, записками и т. п. Эти предметы выстраивают пространство храма как пространство коммуникации со святыми и формируют среду, в которой прихожане и паломники наглядно видят каналы и средства этой коммуникации. Некоторые практики осуществляются прежде всего духовенством – это собирание реликвий, святых мощей и брандеа, заказ различных реликвариев для хранения как уже приобретённых, так и (зачастую) ещё только запланированных к приобретению святынь. Собирание реликвий позволяет выстраивать свою «топографию святости» в каждой церкви, позиционировать уникальность своего храма в приходе и на церковном сайте. Другие практики осуществляют прежде всего прихожане и паломники – это принесение вотивных даров, записок, а также ктиторских икон, иногда с донаторскими надписями. Аффордансами для таких действий могут служить различные предметы, появляющиеся в храмовом пространстве. Прежде всего, это деревянные киоты, закрытые стеклами, – ниши, в которых удобно и безопасно размещать дары. Кроме того, это «регулярные» дары – украшения, размещаемые на иконах духовенством (как правило, наперсные кресты и панагии). Наконец, ту же роль играют сами записки, привесы и ктиторские иконы – наличие дара служит приглашением сделать аналогичное действие и принести записку / одарить икону драгоценностью / заказать новую икону, связанную с личной или семейной историей (просьбой, потребностью). В результате развития таких практик храмовое пространство в России активно развивается, трансформируется, формируется на новых основаниях. Для реликвий создают мощевики разных форм; частицы мощей интегрируют в иконы и кресты, превращая их в реликварии; для икон заказывают массивные киоты, в которых можно разместить множество вотивных привесов и т. п. Эти процессы порой мало заметны, но их роль в актуальной церковной традиции крайне велика.

The article analyzes three fragments from the travel notes of Vasily Grigorovich-Barsky about pilgrimage sites identified as the house of the Virgin Mary in Mariazell, Loreto and Nazareth. This traveler, who lived in the 18th century, was an Orthodox Christian and his education was very close to European University tradition, was interested not only in the appearance and history of these complexes, but also in the authenticity of the objects of worship. The texts about Mariazell and Loreto are non-critical descriptions, although about the shrine in Nazareth in his description Barsky is doubting about the authenticity of what he had seen earlier. Bringing scientific arguments, he is convinced of the falsity of the Catholic shrine in Loreto and the falsity of the legend about moving the house to another location. His reasoning, at first glance, is a natural part of interfaith polemics, but when referring to the tradition of Loretan criticism, it turns out that the author is included in the polemic that began in European religious and scientific circles long before him. His arguments are of interest from the point of view of the history of the Church, since he refutes Catholic practice, relying on arguments of a scientific nature, and not on theology. В статье анализируются три фрагмента из путевых заметок Василия Григоровича-Барского о паломнических объектах, отождествляемых с домом Девы Марии, в Марияцелле, Лорето и Назарете. Путешественника, жившего в XVIII столетии, исповедующего православие и получившего образование, близкое к университетскому, интересовал не только облик и история этих комплексов, но и подлинность объектов поклонения. Тексты о Марияцелле и Лорето имеют характер некритических описаний, тогда как при обращении к святыне в Назарете Барский задаётся вопросом о подлинности увиденного им ранее. Приводя аргументы научного характера, он убеждается в поддельности католической святыни в Лорето и неистинности легенды о переносе домика Девы Марии. Его рассуждения, на первый взгляд, являются естественной частью межконфессиональной полемики, но при обращении к традиции лоретанской критики выясняется, что автор включается в полемику, начавшуюся в европейских религиозных и научных кругах задолго до него. Его рассуждения представляют интерес с точки зрения истории Церкви, поскольку он опровергает католическую практику, опираясь на аргументы научного характера, а не на богословие.

Relics of holy people have been attractive among Muslims of all generations due to their mundane and spiritual importance. Sufi scholars are, especially, notable for their particular interest in relics, which form an integral part of their beliefs and practices. They venerate relics through which they seek blessing (tabāruk) and intercession (tawāṣul), among others. Meanwhile, the modern Salafi scholars criticized the Sufis’ perspective on relics, claiming that their actions constitute bid’ah (innovation), kufr (infidelity), and syirk (associating partners with Allah). This paper, therefore, examined the modern Salafis’ criticism of the religious attitudes of the Sufis on relics. It adopted both historical and exegetical methods to achieve the set objectives. It has been discovered that relics have spiritual values, and Muslims of all generations, especially the companions (ṣahābah), have used them for different spiritual purposes. It is also clear that both the Salafis and Sufis venerate and seek blessing from the relics, though Sufis are more prominent in the practice. The paper identified excessiveness and arbitrariness in the disposition of the Sufis to the relics, which engendered deification of them as the yardstick for the Salafis’ criticisms. Therefore, it concluded that advocacy for the desecration of relics on the part of modern Salafi scholars lacks merits. Instead, machinery to checkmate arbitrariness should be advocated for.

This article offers a pedagogical approach to introducing undergraduate students to hagiology by comparing medieval sanctity to modern celebrity. The bodies of saints and celebrities are important loci for the transmission of sanctity or celebrity from a person to the public and for the continuity of identity. Examples include St. Faith, St. Cuthbert, Kim Kardashian, and Marilyn Monroe. Using a comparative method allows students who are non-religious to better apprehend the unfamiliar practices and beliefs around the cult of saints and relics.

The introduction of the angel and later the Tudor sovereign gold coins in the late 1400s became part of a political rhetoric aimed at mediating the king’s image, power, and wealth. However, it also played a part in the legitimation of the Tudor dynasty during the later stages of the Wars of the Roses, a time of Yorkist pretenders and foreign opposition to Henry VII’s reign. As only the rightful king was believed to have the gift of healing, Henry VII appropriated both coins and ritual from the Plantagenet dynasty associated with the sanctity of kingship. Ordinary objects bearing the King’s image were imbued by the people with supernatural and political powers. How could the religious function of contact relics also facilitate the use of the non-religious Tudor gold sovereign and other denominations by mimicking the iconography and ritual use of the angel? And how were these coins used as part of political rhetoric to legitimate the claim for the throne to support a myth of royal succession and prove Tudor right by appealing to the public? This article argues that the coins created and empowered the King with saintly abilities, granting the object carrying the King’s image a reliclike power, further fusing the image with people’s belief in the legitimate King’s God-given power of healing. The visual migration or transfer of an image’s symbolic properties, in this case the transference of its sacred properties to secular objects, mediated both the literal and conceptual image of the King as part of political legitimation against the Yorkist pretenders and foreign powers

In the Catholic areas of Europe, the human remains (both their bones and the fabrics they touched) of persons considered to have been exceptional are usually stored for transformation into relics. The production and the reproduction of the object-relic takes place within monasteries and is carried out firstly on the material level. In this article I intend to present in detail, from an anthropological standpoint, the practices used to process such remains, the role of the social actors involved and the political-ecclesiastical dynamics connected with them. Owing to obvious difficulties in accessing enclosed communities, such practices are usually overlooked in historiographical and ethno-anthropological analyses, while they should instead be considered the most important moment in the lengthy process intended to give form and meaning to remains, with a view to their exhibition and use in ritual.

In 1082, at the council of Charroux convened by the papal legate Amatus of Oloron, astonished witnesses observed the Holy Prepuce, a rare body relic of Christ himself, to be miraculously spotted with fresh blood. This spectacular miracle holds implications for our understanding of charismatic strategies of religious reform in France in the era of Pope Gregory VII. Gregory’s use of standing legates with regional mandates, such as Amatus, was a novelty in papal administration, but the legates, though empowered as proxies of the pope, were often weak lieutenants. When they could not induce or coerce cooperation, they frequently confronted the impotence of their legal–canonical mandates. The miracle at Charroux, I will show, exemplifies an alternative charismatic strategy, harnessing liturgical art and spectacle to magnify the legate’s stature as an authority in the context of the Eucharistic controversy and religious reform.

From 1309 to 1523, Rhodes was ruled by the Order of the Knights of St. John. The relics of John the Baptist, their patron saint, held a prominent place in the Hospitallers’ devotion. Among the relics, his arm became a significant focus of attention and pilgrimage for the Christian world. After a brief review of the earliest references to the arm, its travels about the eastern Mediterranean, as well as some of the testimonies related to it, the representations of the saint’s arm in medieval painting are briefly examined. After 1204, the Knights appear to have had a direct or indirect connection with the proliferation and dispersal of the relics of the saint, aiming at political and economic benefits. The “miraculous replication” of the arm opened new perspectives for power and influence.

The paper discusses the relic of the head of the Serbian patriarch Pajsije, recently discovered in the Patriarchate of Peć monastery. Besides a painted cryptogram, the head also includes an extensive inscription with information about Pajsije’s title, time of reign, date of death and place of burial. Taking into account the historical and ideological context, the paper argues that the impetus for establishing Pajsije’s cult came from Patriarch Maksim, his follower and admirer. An analysis of archaeological documentation has shown that Pajsije’s tomb was located at the same spot as Patriarch Maksim’s grave later on. An icon of Patriarch Pajsije now kept in Ravenna made up a unified cultic ensemble with the coffin-reliquary.

Abstract Two types of materials were sampled as part of an investigation of the relics of the Holy Catholic Church of the Apostles St Philip and St James in the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli in Rome: bone- and mummy-materials and architectural samples. The analyses encompassed radiocarbon dating, thermoluminescence dating, gas and liquid chromatographic separation with mass spectrometric detection, X-Ray fluorescence, X-Ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show that the samples were subjected to a number of conservational and exhibition-related treatments. The alleged femoral bone of St James was dated between AD 214 and 340 (2σ confidence), which shows that this cannot be the bone of St James. An encrustation found in a canal in the reliquary in the high altar construction showed the presence of heavily oxidized rapeseed oil, which was radiocarbon dated between AD 267 and 539 (2σ confidence), and a ceramic shard also found in the high altar construction was TL-dated to AD 314–746 (2σ confidence). The two latter dates are consistent with a translation of the relics following the erection of the church at the time of Pope Pelagius I in AD 556–561.

This paper sketches an interpretive approach to the scarce presence of relics in Santiago de Chile during the Colonial period. Taking stock of conventual sources and of some testamentary dispositions, the article delineates the discreet life that those sacred remains (and their associated visual objects) led within the religious life of the era. Through the prevailing presence of the ligna crucis and the occasional advent of other pious remains, the text unveils the widespread dissemination that foreign relics enjoyed during the Counterreformation, which allowed them even to reach the southern border of the Hispanic Empire.

This paper analyses the military use of holy relics, images, and other Christian apotropaic devices in the Roman-Persian wars. I examine a wide range of literary evidence from the 4th to the 7th century exploring where, why, and how different Christian objects were used in military contexts. Moreover, I consider different factors, as the local religious practices or the rivalry between the Christian Roman Empire and Zoroastrian Persia. I argue that the earliest military uses of relics and holy images happened in the context of the Roman-Persian conflict and frontier region, and that, during the 4th-7th centuries, these uses were much more common there than anywhere else. Also, that some local practices of this region could have been adopted by military officers and the Imperial elite. I propose that three factors could explain this: First, the intensity of the cult of relics and images in Syria and the Near East. Second, the growing identification of the Roman Empire as a Christian power between the 4th and 7th centuries. Finally, the Roman-Persian conflict and the climate of religious confrontation that grew over the course of the Byzantine-Sassanian wars.

AThe essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy,the artificial and the natural. This article proposes the framework of puppetry as a means of understanding the transcendent potential of a group of medieval reliquary busts from Cologne. In both appearance and manipulation, these sculpted busts blurred the boundaries between life and death, much like puppets. I argue that the dual mimesis of these busts, both visual and kinetic, enhanced their theological purpose as vessels for the bones of saints, and points to a medieval interest in the productive paradoxes of representation. Through their puppet-like hybridity, these sculptures bridged the distance between humans and the divine for medieval viewers. The article concludes by proposing a parallel between the temporary lives of puppets and the hybrid nature of artificial intelligence, suggesting that medieval conceptions of mimesis can provide a means of thinking through twenty-first century technology.

The article deals with the origins of the Russian Christian Archaeology namely with pilgrim notes of Vassiliy Barskiy. The author is reviewing Barskiy’s text as one of the first scientific descriptions of the sacred places, wonder-­working icons and holy places. His descriptions of sacred objects are structured, they include illustrations, information from written and verbal sources as well as critics of these sources. He makes conclusions about relevance of information and relics themselves. Based on this, the author believes Vassiliy Barskiy schould be recognized not only one of the sources of Russian scientific tradition, but the first Christian archaeologist.

The article opens a series of publications on the existence of sacrum in remote places, small, peripheral, less known sanctuaries against the backdrop of religious landscapes. The first of the sanctuary series is Mętków, whose history is presented by Władysław Zarębczan. However, I add anthropological commentary to this story, using categories: religious culture, etiological legend, sanctuary, relics.

Archaeology has to face the ruins, any kind of the traces of the successive human cultures. From the beginning of what is called antiquarianism, preservation of the relics of the past is a moral and scientific necessity. This paper tends to explore the various dimensions of the notion of ruins in relation to our modern vision of the past.

Through a survey of archival and primary source material, this article discusses the existence of St. Thomas Becket’s relics in Siena cathedral. The institution’s inventories indicate that, from 1482 until ca. 1529, the relics were housed in an ostensory kept in the sacristy. Today, this object is displayed in the Sala del Tesoro, in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo in Siena. Although the ostensory has been examined in previous scholarship concerned with mapping the cathedral’s heritage, its function as a vessel for the relics of Thomas Becket, and indeed the very presence of these relics in Siena, remain unexplored. Thus, seeking to understand the nature of Becket’s reception in Siena, I examine the whereabouts of his relics within the cathedral, to then widen the investigation to the city at large. The evidence shows that although there were no chapels, altars or churches dedicated to Thomas Becket within the city walls, Siena still engaged with Becket’s sainthood and legacy on multiple levels.

This paper analyses the meta-historical value of the martyrs’ biographies and their cult in Hispania from the 4th century to the Visigothic period. Instead of carrying on with the intense debate on the historical authenticity of the martyrs’ lives or their political instrumentalisation, my aim here is threefold. First, I describe martyrs’ relics not only as artefacts valued because of the biography of associated martyr, but also for their inherent capacity of unlimitedly adding new stories to the martyr’s narrative through the miracles attributed to his/her relic. Second, I focus on space and the symbolic significance of a landscape, in which an area ceases to be a mere geographical entity to become the scenario of the martyr’s alleged events. Finally, I explore how the memory of martyrs was used to conceptualise time at a local level and the implications of this. The new time framework made it possible to connect important contemporary experiences in an individual’s everyday life with transcendent historical time represented by the days commemorating martyrs.

This article brings to light the results of a study undertaken on two textile objects which, according to tradition, are identified as the scapular and the tunic that belonged to the Dominican habit of Princess Santa Joana. Considered relics since the death of the princess (1490), they were stored in 1701 in a specially designed reliquary chest made of silver and crystal. The whole investigation was carried out on archival sources and published literature related to the worship of Princess Santa Joana, which begun immediately after her death. In order to contextualize the historical objects and their function, a brief introduction about the importance and meaning of the relics is made, while individualizing the worship of the relics in the Jesus de Aveiro Convent – especially those directly related with Princess Santa Joana. Therefore, this article gathers the conclusions achieved with the collected historical information and from the thorough examination of the textile objects.

Scholars have traditionally dated the Royal Chapel at Pyrga, Cyprus to the year 1421 and attributed it to the patronage of the island’s Latin ruler Janus de Lusignan (r. 1398-1432). However, more recent stylistic, iconographic, and epigraphic analyses present a convincing argument for dating the chapel to the mid-fourteenth century. Ironically, though the chapel is most frequently associated with the death of Janus’s wife Queen Charlotte, the portraits of a Latin king and queen both appear as living, albeit anachronistic, attendants at Christ’s death in the chapel’s decoration. Their prayerful attitude at the base of the Cross on Golgotha, in conjunction with programmatic emphasis on sickness/death, salvation, and intercession, implies that the foundation was intended to be something other than a memorial funerary chapel for a specific royal person. This article, which supports a mid-fourteenth-century date, will argue that the chapel instead functioned as an ex-voto or visual prayer for the salvation of the Cypriot people from an outbreak of plague on the island. Evidence points to King Peter I de Lusignan (r. 1358-1369) and Queen Eleanora as likely patrons of the chapel and the role of St. Peter Thomas—monk, papal procurator, and bishop—as instigator of royal penitential display as a means of countering the spread of plague. Important to this revised date and context is the clear invocation of the True Cross—relic and palladium par excellence of the Crusades—that held special importance in the religious culture of Cyprus and for its royal dynasty.

On a cold Spring morning in 1969, a small group of scholars gathered at Brantwood. They were commemorating Ruskin s 150th birthday, and sharing their interests and knowledge. Taking this conference as its starting point, the study follows various threads of interest through the next fifty years, including the transformation of Bembridge, Sheffield and Lancaster as centres for Ruskin scholarship, as well as the continuing traditions of the productive landscape at Brantwood and Ruskin Land. It also considers some of the gaps we would now recognise in the line-up of 1969, especially the contested place of Ruskin in gender studies, and the role of women in developing Ruskin s legacies. This paper will draw on new interviews with Ruskin specialists from many different disciplines carried out in anticipation of Ruskin s 200th birthday.

The mobilization processes initiated by the medieval practice of Christian pilgrimage do not only concern the journeys of human travellers but also of things. The transport of objects to and from pilgrimage sites derives from a pre-modern concept of charisma as a specific kind of energy that can be transferred to things and substances. This mutual mobilization of humans and things can be described as the entangled processes of charismatic charging and re-charging; we argue that this pre-modern logic of contiguity and contagion has survived the multiple transformations of individual travel until today. Even travel dispositives of the 20th and 21st centuries presuppose kinds of situational and spatialized charisma involving human and non-human agents. We illustrate this by the example of the world-renowned Oberammergau Passion Play with its unique playing continuity from the early 17th century onwards. We argue that by taking objects home from elevated places, situational and site-specific charisma can be taken home. To describe the relationship between travel by pilgrims, the mobility of objects, and the mutual charismatic charging of elevated places and things, we propose three perspectives on the material remains of elevated situations. In addition to relics and souvenirs, we propose ‘spolia’ as a third category which allows for the description of discontinuity and transformation in practices of elevating things.

Relics are a special type of human body remains, which are venerated by the faithful due to the prominence the person had achieved during lifetime. Even if no such claims for incorruptibility are made, body relics have to be preserved in some fashion, in order to allow for their long-term viewing and veneration. The present report summarizes the available data regarding the impregnation as a method for body preservation, used by the Christian Church to conserve body relics. Impregnation is a widely used method, both by the Orthodox as well as by the Roman Catholic Church. It is known that bodies are treated with different protective mixtures on variable intervals after death. Public worship historically involved pouring of oil over relics. Moreover, small tissue fragments are embedded in wax blocks or are sealed with a mixture of molten wax and other resins. All of those methods are in fact impregnation with compounds with high molecular mass as a final stage of a preservation procedure. This impregnation of a tissue already reached some degree of dehydration or other preservation ensures longevity and protection of the relics by greatly slowing down the natural processes of decomposition and disintegration.

Many pilgrims from the late Middle Ages recounted their pilgrimage, describing their visits to the relics along their route and how they were shown to them. Based on texts written between 1460 and 1520, this paper analyses the different ways in which this monstration was taking place, publicly, at fixed times, or occasionally, on the pilgrims’ query. The displayed relics appear as body-images, whose visibility is organized by the institutions. However, rather than their appearance, pilgrims describe principally the way the relics were displayed, by whom and where, with which kind of adornment, the impression they created to the crowd and to themselves. Therefore, a display is organized around the relic, including objects, acting bodies, and society that is displayed with it.

The paper presents the results of analysis of typological, stylistic- technical, epigraphic and iconographic features of the luxurious panagiarion, part of a complex reliquary, in the treasury of the Tersatto Monastery near Rijeka. The size and content of the panagiarion, made of jewels, pearls and relics in silver gilded revetments, provide basis to classify it within the group of Late Byzantine pectoral panagiaria-reliquaries and enkolpia of diverse forms. The dedicatory inscription on its reverse refers to despotissa Barbara Frankopan, the wife of the Serbian despot Vuk Grgurević, as its patron. The inscription on its rim and capsule with a miniature relief of the Virgin with Christ place it within the field of Orthodox personal devotion. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177003: Srednjovekovno nasleđe Balkana: institucije i kultura]

This article explores the Counter-Reformation medievalization of Polish–Lithuanian St. Kazimierz Jagiellończyk (1458–1484)—whose canonization was only finalized in the seventeenth century—as a case study, taking up questions of the reception of cults of medieval saints in post-medieval societies, or in this case, the retroactive refashioning into a venerable medieval saint. The article investigates these questions across a transcultural Italo–Baltic context through the activities of principal agents of the saint’s re-fashioning as a venerable saint during the late seventeenth century: the Pacowie from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Medici from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, during a watershed period of Tuscan–Lithuanian bidirectional interest. During this period, the two dynasties were entangled not only by means of the shared division of Jagiellończyk’s bodily remains through translatio—the ritual relocation of relics of saints and holy persons—but also self-representational strategies that furthered their religio-political agendas and retroactively constructed their houses’ venerable medieval roots back through antiquity. Drawing on distinct genres of textual, visual, and material sources, the article analyzes the Tuscan–Lithuanian refashioning of Kazimierz against a series of precious reliquaries made to translate holy remains between Vilnius to Florence to offer a contribution to the entangled histories of sanctity, art and material culture, and conceptual geography within the transtemporal and transcultural neocolonial context interconnecting the Middle Ages, Age of Reformations, and the Counter-Reformation between Italy and Baltic Europe.

The Changxi River Basin is a small root-like watershed, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea to the southeast. It is located on the border between Fujian and Zhejiang on the southeast coast of China. The area gave rise to the Changxi Culture that began in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Buddhism in the Changxi Basin was introduced no later than the 9th century. As the core hinterland of the Changxi Basin, Fu’an has always been an important center for Buddhism in Eastern Fujian. It reached its peak in the 10th to 13th centuries during the Song Dynasty. This article conducts a comprehensive investigation and study of the existing Buddhist temple sites and relics in Fu’an. It highlights these structures’ single-bay pattern of construction, based on rectangular plans in which the longitudinal axis extends along the plan’s direction of depth. This is a pattern rarely seen in the history of Chinese Buddhist architecture. The paper also summarizes a common element in these temples, their petal-shaped corrugated stone pillars which are divided into eight segments. Lastly, it illustrates the evolution of the temples in the Changxi River Basin from single-bay layouts to those with widths of multiple bays and indicates the unique status and associated values of single-bay Buddhist temples in the history of southern Buddhist architecture. The study examines new local findings and ideas for the study of Chinese Buddhist architectural history, providing academic support for the protection and research of Buddhist architectural heritage in Southeast China.

In Venice, the appropriation by power of the values of celebration and legitimation inherent in the cult of the patron saint was precious, successful, and taken to an extreme degree. A thoroughgoing identification became established between the Evangelist and the society of the lagoon, between Saint Mark and the Venetian domains. The question of the translation of the relics of Saint Mark is here examined in order to study what were the historical and imaginative necessities which determined it. Consideration is next given here to the importance of transfers of relics in medieval Venice. Finally, attention is give here to showing how a policy of relics was put in place in the city, and how, at the heart of a system of representations, this played a keyrole in a history which long became intertwined with that of the mythical completion of Venice.

The article is devoted to the history of creation of the Buddhist ritual monuments "stupa" by Karma- Kagyu masters in the Republic of Kalmykia.

This article discusses the ways in which the physical presence of consecrated virgins was perceived, described, and subsequently altered in Late Antiquity. In the course of the fourth and fifth centuries CE, through codes that regulated their behaviour and outward appearance, and through the assignment of specific ritual functions and spaces, bishops constructed a new and long-lasting image of consecrated virgins. The resulting model, the authors argue, was shaped by notions regarding female anatomy as well as by their association with the Virgin Mary; it was similar to a precious reliquary: a container whose aesthetic indicated the consecrated nature of its interior.

Charles IV accumulated collections of relics which symbolized his imperial ambi-tions: as the Holy Roman Emperor, he obtained the imperial crown jewels that he kept – along with a newly created collection of the reliquary treasure of the Bohemian Kingdom – in the Karlštejn castle. This collection, together with the relic collection of the St. Vitus Cathedral, represented his political idea of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. The relic collections were regularly shown to the large public at the Cattle Market (today’s Charles Square) and in the cathedral. The way these collections came about and the public’s interaction with them consti-tute a medieval form of the museum phenomenon and thus go beyond the contemporary pre-dominant ways of collecting objects of great value and significance as practiced by church treasuries and noble palace treasure chests.

The author presents the findings of his own studies on the presence of relics and dedications in the churches of Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre in medieval Polonia Minor (covering the former Krakow and Sandomierz voivideships). The article reveals important accounts in Samuel Nakielski’s chronicle. The first account relates bringing the soil from Jerusalem by Jaksa and is known in literature. The second account concerns the possession of the relics of the Holy Cross by the monastery of Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, hitherto unknown in literature. The author formulates a thesis on the existence of important relics of the Passion in the Miechów monastery. Key source accounts on dedications were analysed. It was indicated that the primary dedication of the Miechów church towards the end of the 18th century was a combined invocation of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holy Spirit and Blessed Virgin Mary. The author also extensively analyses the dedication of the church in Żarnowiec, with dedications to both feasts related to the Holy Cross, to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Sepulchre and Blessed Virgin Mary. The dedications of 10 other churches administered by Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre are also discussed. In addition, the author presents a substantial collection of data on the dedications of surviving altars and chapels in relation to the Miechów church and St Jadwiga’s Church in Stradom. In conjunction with the information on numerous relics of saints, the findings should become a departure point for further studies.

More than 70 % of the Caucasian Black Sea Coast (CBSC) forests grow in mountainous conditions of the Colchis phytogeographical province and perform primary environmental functions. In these forests for a long period of time excessively intense logging has been in practice, which caused serious damage to their health. The main issues of forestry here are the introduction of effective methods of harvesting, using rational technology in logging operations, restoring native forest types at past logging sites, increasing the productivity and sustainability of forests on the bioecological biogeocenotical level, and preserving the riparian-protective role of forests. In the article, the author analyzes the results of many years of research in forests of the CBSC, that consider the question of condition of forests, peculiarity the multifunctional values and priority direction forestry in them. The author also considers the basic conformity of structure and com-position of forest stands, and presents evidence about the natural renewal of logging sites in fir and beech forests. It has been established that high intensity selective logging more than 50 % canopy cover and bringing the stand after logging 0.5 and below leads to degradation of forests, except for the possibility of natural regeneration felling areas for over 70 years. The study substantiates the effectiveness of selective forms of forest management in the uneven-aged stands and the importance of a multi-purpose and sustainable use of forest resources. The study emphasizes the need for a rational technology of logging operations and silvicultural demands strict compliance with the development of cutting areas and suggests ways to improve the productivity of forests, using introduced valuable tree species. For example, Sequoia sempervirens Endl. in the plantings of forest monocultures on the Abkhazian Research Forest Experimental Station (Ochamchira) at age of 50 years forms a valuable timber of 1750 m3/ha, Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng in the same crop forms 1478 m3/ha, Liquidambar styraciflua L. 1000 m3/ha, Liriodendron tulipifera L. forms 852 m3/ha. The most productive local tree species Abies nordmanniana (Stev.) Spach of 50 year age forms a tree stand with timber stock of 350 m3/ha. It is noted that the negative impact on the state of forests and forestry in the region has a significant impact on management of forest resources, as well as global climate change of the planet, and example of which is desiccation of fir forests as a result of climate warming. For efficient use of forest resources, an environmentally and socio-economically sound development strategy for the forest industry in the region must be developed.More than 70 % of the Caucasian Black Sea Coast (CBSC) forests grow in mountainous conditions of the Colchis phytogeographical province and perform primary environmental functions. In these forests for a long period of time excessively intense logging has been in practice, which caused serious damage to their health. The main issues of forestry here are the introduction of effective methods of harvesting, using rational technology in logging operations, restoring native forest types at past logging sites, increasing the productivity and sustainability of forests on the bioecological biogeocenotical level, and preserving the riparian-protective role of forests. In the article, the author analyzes the results of many years of research in forests of the CBSC, that consider the question of condition of forests, peculiarity the multifunctional values and priority direction forestry in them. The author also considers the basic conformity of structure and com-position of forest stands, and presents evidence about the natural renewal of logging sites in fir and beech forests. It has been established that high intensity selective logging more than 50 % canopy cover and bringing the stand after logging 0.5 and below leads to degradation of forests, except for the possibility of natural regeneration felling areas for over 70 years. The study substantiates the effectiveness of selective forms of forest management in the uneven-aged stands and the importance of a multi-purpose and sustainable use of forest resources. The study emphasizes the need for a rational technology of logging operations and silvicultural demands strict compliance with the development of cutting areas and suggests ways to improve the productivity of forests, using introduced valuable tree species. For example, Sequoia sempervirens Endl. in the plantings of forest monocultures on the Abkhazian Research Forest Experimental Station (Ochamchira) at age of 50 years forms a valuable timber of 1750 m3/ha, Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng in the same crop forms 1478 m3/ha, Liquidambar styraciflua L. 1000 m3/ha, Liriodendron tulipifera L. forms 852 m3/ha. The most productive local tree species Abies nordmanniana (Stev.) Spach of 50 year age forms a tree stand with timber stock of 350 m3/ha. It is noted that the negative impact on the state of forests and forestry in the region has a significant impact on management of forest resources, as well as global climate change of the planet, and example of which is desiccation of fir forests as a result of climate warming. For efficient use of forest resources, an environmentally and socio-economically sound development strategy for the forest industry in the region must be developed.

A student essay for the Special Student Issue of the Journal of Extreme Anthropology accompanying the art exhibition 'Artist's Waste, Wasted Artists', which opened in Vienna on the 19th of September 2017 and was curated by the students of social anthropology at the University of Vienna. This essay analyzes the meaning and symbolic value of 'relics' of Hermann Nitsch's ritual performances.

The body and the sanctity. The case of the 19th-century Russian holy startsy The article considers references to the body appearing in selected texts concerning 19thcentury Russian holy startsy. Three conditions of a holy man’s body are discussed: living, immediately after death and as relics. The body plays an important role in creating the image of holiness of startsy during their lifetime. In the chapter The Breath of Corruption in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, the sacred status of starets Zosima’s dead body is cancelled by the crowd’s interpretation of his body’s putrefaction as judgment of God refuting the holiness of the deceased monk. This, in turn, allows for a discrediting the life of the starets. Mirroring the events of Dostoyevsky’s novel, the dead body of a monk became subject of dispute shortly before the canonization of the starets Seraphim of Sarov in 1903. Drawing on the commonness of the view identifying putrefaction of the body with profanity, a Petersburg anti-Orthodox association sought to discredit the Russian Orthodox Church by demanding that the coffin of Seraphim of Sarov is reopened. The answer of Antonius, the Metropolitan of Petersburg, was an article, in which he argued that inviolability of the body was not a necessary condition of holiness. During the canonization, the adored relics of Saint Seraphim were used by the state power to strengthen the bond between Tsar Nicholas II and the people. Ciało i świętość. Przypadek XIX-wiecznych świętych starców rosyjskich Artykuł rozważa odniesienia do ciała pojawiające się w wybranych tekstach dotyczących XIX-wiecznych rosyjskich świętych starców. Zostały w nim omówione trzy stany ciała świętego: za życia, tuż po śmierci oraz w postaci relikwii. Ciało odgrywa ważną rolę w kreowaniu obrazu świętości starców podczas ich życia. W rozdziale Odór trupi w powieści Bracia Karamazow Fiodora Dostojewskiego sakralny status martwego ciała starca Zosimy zostaje unieważniony przez zgromadzony tłum poprzez zinterpretowanie gnicia ciała jako wyroku bożego przeczącego świętości zmarłego. Dzięki temu możliwa jest dyskredytacja osoby starca za życia. Podobnie jak w powieści Dostojewskiego ciało zmarłego mnicha stało się przedmiotem sporu niedługo przed kanonizacją starca Serafina z Sarowa w 1903 roku. Powszechność poglądu utożsamiającego gnicie ciała z profanum sprawiła, że zwalczający prawosławie petersburski związek domagał się ponownego otwarcia trumny Serafina z Sarowa, chcąc podważyć wiarygodność Rosyjskiej Cerkwi Prawosławnej. Głos w sprawie szczątków starca zabrał metropolita Petersburga Antoni, przekonując, że nienaruszalność zwłok nie jest koniecznym warunkiem świętości. Podczas uroczystości kanonizacyjnych adorowane relikwie św. Serafina zostały wykorzystane w służbie władzy państwowej w celu wzmocnienia więzi pomiędzy carem Mikołajem II a ludem.

In this paper the different processes of medieval memory construction of Saints Adrian and Natalia are studied through the presence of their relics in the altars of some churches in Rome, León and Lisbon. Following the martyrdom of Saint Adrian in the East and the transference of his mortal remains by his wife to Byzantium, it was between the 7th and the 13rd centuries that their worship was developed in the Iberian Peninsula therefore creating significant worship strategies. This had consequences in written sources, architecture and epigraphy, points of investigation of this article.

The present contribution discusses only a part of the results obtained by the team of archaeologists from “ Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology in the area of the Basilica with a Crypt during the period of 2002– 2013. We took into consideration the architectural features of the Christian edifice, the pre-existing architectural structures (both of Greek and Roman ages), the place of the Christian monument in the urbanism of Late Roman age at Histria, the archaeologically noticeable modifications that occurred in the configuration of this intra muros area of the Late Roman city at various chronological moments

Some of the earliest South Asian Buddhist historical records pertain to the enshrinement of relics, some of which were linked to the Buddha and others associated with prominent monastic teachers and their pupils. Who were the people primarily responsible for these enshrinements? How did the social status of these people represent Buddhism as a burgeoning institution? This paper utilizes early Prakrit inscriptions from India and Sri Lanka to reconsider who was interested in enshrining these relics and what, if any, connection they made have had with each other. Traditional accounts of reliquary enshrinement suggest that king Aśoka began the enterprise of setting up the Buddha’s corporeal body for worship but his own inscriptions cast doubt as to the importance he may have placed in the construction of stūpa-s and the widespread distribution of relics. Instead, as evidenced in epigraphy, inclusive corporations of individuals may have instigated, or, at the very least, became the torchbearers for, reliquary enshrinement as a salvific enterprise. Such corporations comprised of monastics as well as non-monastics and seemed to increasingly become more managerial over time. Eventually, culminating at places like Sanchi, the enshrinement of the corporeal remains of regionally famous monks partially supplanted the corporeal remains of the Buddha. Those interested in funding this new endeavor were corporations of relatives, monastic brethren, and others who were likely friends and immediate acquaintances. In the end, the social and corporate collectivity of early Buddhism may have outshined some textual monastic ideals of social isolation as it pertained to the planning, carrying out, and physical enshrinement of corporeal remains for worship, thus evoking an inclusive sentiment with the monastic institution rather than disassociation.

The surviving sources suggest that St Sava of Serbia was, as part of the programme of securing sacral legitimacy for the state and dynasty, setting the scene for the inclusion of his brother Stefan, the first-crowned Serbian king, among the saints. This part of the programme was not fully realized, but the focus of the cult was on the incorrupt relics. The cult of Stefan the First-Crowned was not rounded off until the seventeenth century, when the Patriarch Paisios wrote a vita and a service. The development of the cult over the centuries (from the 13th to the 20th century) was a direct reflection of changing historical circumstances and the prevailing ideology of rulership. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003 (Srednjovekovno nasleđe Balkana - institucije i kultura]

Hagiographic studies have turned their attention to a particular type of homo viator: saints. Either in vita or post mortem, saints helped in the configuration of cultural centers, pilgrimage itineraries and sacred spaces by means of their tangible presence, their capacity of producing miracles, through their representative or real/actual relics or through sacred bodily remains. This paper focuses on the analysis of those phenomena that adopted various dimensions and it also values the function and the meaning given by the medieval and modern society to the doctrinal and religious discourse of ecclesiastic people and to the practices of popular Christian religiosity of the Andalusian region among the 5th and 17th centuries.

The aim of this study is to understand how people of a particular social space expressed his world view of giving meaning to a sacred object such as relics and from which emanates a symbolic order that is amenable to analysis. Our research universe is structured from very specific scenery: the practice of healing. The attribution of meaning to the way it processes the function of the relics miracle-working presumed belief in the existence of supernatural powers, which are invisible on which we can act. In this interpretive context, the superstitious nature attributed to these practices is based on a competition for a plot of power in the field of manipulation of the sacred. We will focus on continental Portugal XVI-XVII centuries, where it encouraged the role of advocates in the sequencing of reform dictated by Trent.

The Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) is distributed in Central and Southern Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, and Iran, but had a wider mid-Holocene distribution into Northern Europe. To investigate the genetic affinity of a Danish population that went extinct in historical times, we analysed three ethanol-preserved individuals dating back to 1810 using a silica-in-solution ancient DNA extraction method, combined with next-generation sequencing. Bioinformatic mapping of the reads against the published genome of a related colubrid snake revealed that two of the three specimens contained endogenous snake DNA (up to 8.6% of the reads), and this was evident for tooth, bone, and soft tissue samples. The DNA was highly degraded, observed by very short average sequence lengths (

The Resava Gorge is situated in Eastern Serbia in the region of the Gornja Resava River, extending westward from Mt. Globski Krš to the town of Lisine. In floral research conducted during 1997 and 1998, 297 taxa of vascular flora belonging to 68 families were discovered. The families Poaceae (28), Asteraceae (21), Fabaceae (20) and Lamiaceae (19) were best represented. The presence of 49 floral elements was also noted. The greatest number of plants are sub-Central European (18,86 %), Eurasian (14,14 %), sub-Mediterranean (8,75 %), Central European (6,40 %) and sub- Eurasian (6,40 %). As for life forms, hemi-cryptophytes (49,50 %), phanerophytes (19,53 %) and geophytes (11,11 %) were noted as dominant.

In the XVIIth century, relics and bloody corporeal forms of devotion came under suspicion as Protestants criticised the ‘insane curiosity’ of papists. Visible and extraordinary forms of devotion ran the risk of being treated as vain superstitions or with libertine indifference. Yet new editions and translations of the Imitation of Christ were issued to encourage the readers’ contempt for the material and intellectual world. Drawing from texts belonging to a highly rigorous spiritual milieu – the Life of Agnès de Langeac and René de Voyer d’Argenson’s writings – this article will show how the authors took the effects of curiosity into account by avoiding the dissolving power of the curious gaze thanks to the dissociation between the self, the world and the public.

Legitimate son of a prince, reforming bishop, philanthropist and humanist, Louis de Bourbon-Vendôme left in 1510 a testament in which he shows little interest in veneration of saints, perpetual foundations and charitable bequests. However to assure his own salvation by the grace of his consecration, to constitute as many relics from three parts of his body, head, heart and bones, he asked to be dismembered.