Studies on the Cult of Relics in Byzantium up to 1204

Constantinople was well known in its heyday for the enormous collection of relics housed in its churches: bones, even whole bodies and intimate possessions of holy men and women. Almost all these objects had been imported from various parts of the Roman Empire between the late 4th to the 10th centuries. They had been acquired because they were believed to have miraculous powers to ward off enemies...