Reliquien, Krieg und Macht: Politische und militärische Nutzung christlicher Reliqiuen in Byzanz und im Westen

01.04.2025 bis 31.03.2026

For centuries, Christians have venerated the mortal remains of holy figures and objects sanctified by their contact as relics, believing in their holiness and miraculous powers. However, until the second half of the twentieth century, most scholars neglected the cult of relics, regarding it as a product of medieval ignorance and superstition. This perspective started changing in the 1960s-1970s, specially with the studies of Peter Brown, who showed the cult of saints – and of relics – as a cultural revolution of Late Antiquity. In the last years, remarkable new approaches and methodologies for the academic study of relics have been developed, such as the study of the sensorial aspects involved in their veneration.
This research proposes an examination and comparison of the use of Christian relics in military contexts by the rulers of Byzantium and the various polities of Western Europe between the 7th and 12th centuries. The study will contrast written literary sources, such as chronicles and hagiographies, with material, epigraphic and iconographic evidence, such as relics and reliquaries (with their art and inscriptions). The main objective is to understand the sociocultural function and meaning behind the use of Christian relics in war and military contexts in the medieval Mediterranean world.
The research has a double theoretical background, combining "war and society studies" and the "theory of agency of things." Accordingly, the project seeks to identify a set of beliefs and social practices of the past and to understand their sociocultural function through a critical examination of different primary sources. Furthermore, relics are conceptualized as “charismatic objects”: material things with agency that, within a certain cosmological frame, can cast a strong aura of power and awe, creating relations of power, narratives of authority, community, and identity. Thus, this study approaches Christian relics as possible elements of symbolic capital, used by medieval rulers in performative rituals and ceremonials for the sacralisation and legitimation of political power.
This project is original and innovative. First, there is no systematic study about the use of relics in military contexts. Second, the research is not limited to written texts or material sources; with an interdisciplinary approach, it examines a wide range of evidence. Third, it incorporates new perspectives such as the theory of the agency of things, the concept of charismatic objects, and performative relics. Finally, the project is relevant because it explores the relationship between material culture, supernatural beliefs, power, religion, and war; a fundamental issue to understand human societies in the past and present.